PBR breaks away from Dr. Phil’s media company amid dispute

The Professional Bull Riders will terminate its media rights contract with Dr. Phil’s Merit Street Media, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

An important message to our fans: pic.twitter.com/J6dTxPx4M9

— PBR (@PBR) November 13, 2024

Per the announcement, “PBR has parted ways with Dr. Phil’s Merit Street Media because they breached our contract by failing to pay rights fees owed, giving us no choice and very little time to find a new home for PBR.”

According to a report by Michael McCann in Sportico, Merit Street Media had been involved in “a confidential mediation or arbitration proceeding with PBR,” prior to PBR publicly announcing its exit from the deal.

McCann suggests that Merit’s statement implies the company thinks it has a legitimate reason to withhold its media rights payment. “Contractual terms that sometimes generate legal disputes in rights fees agreements are those regarding whether both sides lived up to sponsorship, promotion and signage obligations,” McCann writes.

These sorts of disagreements tend to be dealt with outside of court in order to avoid publicizing the underlying dispute. That process was seemingly ongoing, though given PBR’s decision to pull out of the agreement publicly, it seems they had had enough of dealing with Dr. Phil’s new media company.

Merit Street launched in April and is home to shows such as Dr. Phil and Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. According to the Sportico report, PBR accounted for 31% of Merit’s total viewing — meaning losing the property could prove fatal for the company that just conducted layoffs in August.

PBR fans will still have a plethora of viewing options outside of Merit Street. Events will be available on PBR’s YouTube channel for free, along with PBR’s mobile and smart TV apps.

The circuit, of course, also still has its media rights deal with CBS that continues through 2030. Those events will continue to air on CBS and Paramount+ as normal.

[Sportico]