22-07-2025
Professional Bull Riders Move to Block Dr. Phil's Merit Street Media's Bankruptcy
Professional Bull Riders Move to Block Dr. Phil's Merit Street Media's Bankruptcy originally appeared on Daytime Confidential.
Several weeks after the -helmed media network and streamer Merit Street Media filed for bankruptcy, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) organization is filing an objection. Their reason? Via contract arbitration, they want to recoup claims that they are disputing—to the tune of $181 million—according to the Dallas Morning News.
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The biggest bull-riding league worldwide, PBR filed this objection last week. PBR went its separate ways from Merit Street in November 2024, pulling their programming and alleging Merit Street had committed a contract breach and that it had not paid rights fees. The partnership apparently deteriorated as Merit Street's finance problems and relationship with Trinity Broadcast Network got worse; Merit Street is now suing Trinity.
In a statement released on Friday, PBR said:
PBR honored its contract with Dr. Phil's Merit Street Media, delivered on every performance metric, and brought more than one million viewers to the new network. Dr. Phil and his company completely reneged on the deal just five months in. PBR is pursuing all available pathways to recovering the monies owed by Merit Street and Dr. Phil.
The Morning News added that PBR is looking into avenues that could potentially hold McGraw responsible for the money that Merit Street allegedly owes, but his legal team has rejected this so far. Merit Street has not apparently explained why it hasn't paid part of its media agreement with PBR from 2024, but it has argued that PBR didn't live up to its contractual obligations and filed counterclaims (for things such as fraud).
While Merit Street has between $100 and $500 million in assets, according to its bankruptcy filings, it has over 200 creditors. PBR claimed that it was left off the list of the biggest creditors, although Merit Street chief restructuring officer Gary Broadbent did make clear in filings that the PBR lawsuit was a reason for filing for bankruptcy.
Reps for McGraw, Merit Street Media, and Trinity Broadcasting did not get back to the paper right away with a comment.
This story was originally reported by Daytime Confidential on Jul 22, 2025, where it first appeared.
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