In this week’s column, California Sports Lawyer® CEO and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans explores the emerging battle for control in media and sports, where artificial intelligence and antitrust law are colliding in a modern-day Wild West.
AI is akin to analytics, a great tool, but it must be used in moderation with a policy in place and a plan in action.
You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).
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The Wild West is not just a historical reference. It exists today.
It exists in name, image, and likeness (NIL), coaching contracts, and conference realignment in college sports. It exists in artificial intelligence (AI) across film, television, and media creation. It exists in market adaptations that are triggering antitrust scrutiny through mergers, acquisitions, and vertical integration. The entertainment, media, and sports landscape now favors speed over structure and scale over safeguards.
In an upcoming California Sports Lawyer® Podcast episode with Jonathan Aberman, CEO of Hupside (“human upside”), we discuss the concept of original intelligence — the uniquely human capacity for innovation, judgment, and accountability that differentiates people from machines. As author Geoff Woods writes in The AI-Driven Leader, if humans are the thought leader, AI is the thought partner.
Original intelligence and antitrust law are becoming foundational disciplines in what is effectively a land-grab era of dominance, survival, and relevance. The quintessential issue in business and law is that markets move faster than the law. The law reacts; it does not predict. Nor should it. The law exists to protect vulnerabilities after activity exposes imbalance.
Antitrust law and regulatory review are increasingly the institutional responses when consolidation outruns equilibrium. Warner Bros. Discovery’s likely sale to Paramount Skydance — especially after Netflix declined to compete — will require federal and state approval. In California, the Attorney General has signaled that the transaction is not a foregone conclusion. Whether just California air or not, the message is clear: consolidation to survive and compete invites scrutiny.
We have seen similar dynamics in college sports — through conference realignment, NIL developments, and post-House settlement restructuring. Private contracting alone may not be sufficient to stabilize the evolving college athletics marketplace. Antitrust law may become the primary legal guardrail.
Entertainment has led the way in consolidation — and in AI adoption. Consumers still want humans to play sports, but AI will increasingly shape analytics, management decisions, media production, and distribution. AI is akin to analytics, a great tool, but it must be used in moderation with a policy in place and a plan in action.
In time, valuation may differentiate between human-driven and AI-driven media, results, interactions, production, and programming. As AI scales and becomes less expensive, scarcity may shift toward authentic human engagement. People will pay more for human interaction as AI scales and technology becomes less expensive.
There is growing sentiment that AI companies themselves will become the next wave of consolidation — partnering to scale, then merging to control output and competitiveness. Once again, we return to antitrust law. The Wild West always expands first. The law arrives later. The only question is who controls the territory when it does.
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About Jeremy M. Evans:
Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. An award-winning attorney and industry leader, Evans is based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.
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