Stephenson is paying particularly close attention to sports that invest in the fan experienceGETTY IMAGES
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said sports are "critical to everything we're trying to do," as the company wants "live content that's time-sensitive." Appearing on the "Recode Media" podcast, Stephenson said, "If you think about AT&T today, we now have a media business which owns great content and lots of rights to sports and so forth. And then we have what you used to think of as AT&T being a distribution company, wireless and broadband and TV distribution, and sports is really an important variable in each of those." Stephenson: "We're always going to want to have a premium position in sports and news. And so as we think about what type of sports do we want to be invested in, I have a real bias here, and that is I like those sports, and then particularly, those leaders in sports who are trying to figure out, 'How do we drive the best fan experience?'" Stephenson said the NBA does one of the "best jobs of stepping back and saying, 'Put yourself in the seat of the fan. How do we create an experience that is the best experience for the fan and they don't have to sit here and be thinking about what device and so forth.'" Stephenson also said AT&T Stadium will become the "first 5G sports venue" ("Recode Media," RECODE.net, 2/21).
