There is now an official lobbying group that will advocate to lawmakers on behalf of streaming entities.

Front Office Sports reported Wednesday that the Streaming Innovation Alliance is a group consisting of entities like Max, Peacock, Paramount+, Netflix and Disney’s streaming platforms. It aims to work with various government agencies and elected officials on writing and passing streaming-friendly legislation.

“Video streaming services do not use public rights of way, airwaves, or spectrum, and are not subject to the kinds of regulation and taxation historically reserved for services to offset their use of those public goods,” the alliance said. “Streaming is something new and different, and should be governed by innovative, tailored approaches.”

While there are some big players involved in this alliance, heavy hitters like Apple, Amazon, YouTube and Roku are absent. It’s unclear whether those companies and their respective streaming services will join the alliance.

FOS indicated that while the forming of the alliance isn’t strictly tied to sports, many of the companies and entities involved have live sports on their platforms and that kind of programming can be an essential part of streaming offers.

Stephen A. Smith was very candid about his feelings on working with Max Kellerman on First Take in a recent interview on The Joe Budden Podcast, and Marcellus Wiley had an idea of why things ultimately didn’t work out between the two.

Stephen A. didn’t mince words when talking about how he needed to take the show in a different direction. Plus the working relationship between Smith and Kellerman had run its course.

“It was totally my fault and the reason it was my fault is because I didn’t like working with him,” he said. “It’s just that damn simple. I didn’t like it. I thought the show was stale. I thought that we had flatlined when it came to the public at large. I didn’t want to go from No. 1 to No. 2. when Skip (Bayless) left. I wasn’t having that. That shit wasn’t gonna happen.”

On his Never Shut Up daily show on Wednesday, Wiley said he thought Stephen A. was often outsmarted by Kellerman when trying to tackle issues bigger than just sports.

“He wanted Max first, because he was white. The show wanted Max to speak for white America,” Wiley said. “That would allow Stephen A. to get to speak for Black America. Now, here’s the problem. Stephen A. realized quickly that he was dealing with a whole different animal (in Kellerman), especially on Black issues, especially on societal issues. Because Max Kellerman is not only a historian, but the dude is a bona fide genius.”

Wiley thought that Max was perhaps too intelligent in some ways for Stephen A., and that Smith recognized it as a weakness in some way and had Max leave the show.

“It’s an insecurity for Stephen A. And that’s what happened,” he said. “This all started from a guy who was so intelligent, it brought back some of those insecurities from Stephen A.”

“Stephen A. felt threatened point plank,” he said. “Ain’t no way around it.”

Stephen A. did admit in that interview that he knew Max was a very smart person, but ultimately if he didn’t like working with him and he wasn’t proud of the product they were putting on the airwaves every day, something needed to change.

“I had mad respect for him from the standpoint of white dude, highly intelligent, Ivy League — educated from Columbia. Smart as a whip. Can talk his ass off,” Smith said. “Can talk about anything. I get all that. But you weren’t an athlete, and you weren’t a journalist. And the absence of the two components left people wondering, ‘Why should we listen to you?’”

“Max & I weren’t working in the end. I wanted to win. So I didn’t want that duo,” Smith wrote in a tweet after the interview. “Doesn’t mean he isn’t smart, talented and that he’s not a good guy. I have nothing against him. I wish him well. Just needed a change. That’s all.”

Stephen A. Smith is not hesitant about making his opinions known on First Take and The Stephen A. Smith Show throughout the week. The featured commentator recently took time out of his schedule to record a new episode of a video series with GQ Sports titled “Actually Me,” where guests go undercover on the internet and respond to comments or questions pertaining to them. Throughout the 10-minute segment, Smith logged on to X, Instagram and YouTube among other social media platforms under the pseudonym, “ActuallySAS,” and gave his opinions on commentary from viewers and fans.

On TikTok, a user repurposed an old clip of Smith discussing former Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, who played three years and 31 games in the National Football League after being selected first-overall by the team in 2007. After Russell spoke with Sports Illustrated and insinuated that sleep apnea and lack of support from coaches and players were behind his struggles, Smith appeared on ESPN and likened him to a thief. Throughout his rant, he proceeded to call the No. 1 overall pick a “disgrace” and a “fat slob, no-good, lazy bum of a quarterback,” parlance that one user noted would be looked at differently in today’s society.

“How much has ESPN changed from then till now?,” user “yoshimitchell” asked on TikTok. “This seems so unhinged, LMAO.”

Smith replied by saying that ESPN has not been the entity that has changed; rather, the network has had to adapt to changing societal conditions and standards of what is considered accepted. Being able to give an opinion on television without avoiding incessant levels of scrutiny has augmented in difficulty, according to Smith, especially in an era when commentary is rapidly documented.

“Our level of sensitivity has been heightened to an alarming level; the slightest offense could cost you your career, not just your job,” Smith said. “I can’t go to work every day, be on national television or be on the radio or be on the airwaves of my podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, telling you lies. I’ma let you know where the hell I stand; I don’t give a damn what anybody says.”

Another clip later in the video posted to Reddit demonstrated one of Smith’s rants about marijuana and how athletes being paid millions of dollars should be able to resist use of the psychoactive drug. The question left in the comments section of the video by user “No-Elderberry-3743” asked if Smith plans out his rants or if he improvises what he is going to say live on the air. Smith answered the question by pointing to his preparation as being the reason he can elocute points in different ways wherefore he does not pre-script the way he goes about delivering a take.

“I always do my homework before I speak publicly,” Smith said, “but I don’t definitively know what I’m going to say until it’s time to speak.”