For several weeks now, the status and future of Sports Illustrated has been uncertain at best. However, recent regulatory filings suggest that the brand will persist in publishing articles.
In January, it was revealed that Arena Group failed to make a licensing payment to Authentic Brands Group, a licensing entity that possesses the rights to the Sports Illustrated name and branding. As a result, Arena Group had to lay off 100 employees, painting a bleak picture for one of the most renowned publications in sports media.
However, shortly after this news broke, Authentic issued a statement expressing their intention for the SI brand to continue to “evolve and grow in a manner that serves sports news readers, sports fans, and consumers.”
Now, according to a report by Sportico, Arena Group has stated in a recent SEC filing that it “anticipates entering into a letter agreement with ABG,” with “ABG” referring to Authentic Brands Group.
The filing was made on Friday, and Arena stated that it plans to keep running Sports Illustrated until “ABG provides written notice of its desire to transfer the license to another party.”
Arena also expects ABG to waive the $45 million penalty that was imposed after Arena missed a quarterly payment in 2023.
Sportico reported that additional public disclosures will likely be made in the near future.
It’s intriguing that ABG would be comfortable with allowing Arena to continue operating under the SI name and branding, but it does make some sense. Allowing the brand to go dormant temporarily would be more detrimental than allowing it to continue in a weakened state until ABG finds a new entity to license the name to.
Undoubtedly, we will soon learn more about how all of this will unfold, but it has undeniably been a challenging period for this esteemed sports outlet.
Just months prior to the emergence of the licensing issue, Sports Illustrated faced allegations of utilizing artificial intelligence to generate articles.
According to the Source outkick.com