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Network Execs Offer Contrasting Visions On Building Sports Audience

Day 2 of the ’15 NeuLion Sports Media & Technology Conference began with a panel discussion that featured two network execs offering two competing visions. Fox Sports National Networks President Jamie Horowitz and NBC Sports Exec Producer Sam Flood provided in-depth takes on their contrasting approaches to building an audience. Flood said that multi-sport shows, for now, are not a part of NBCSN’s strategy. Instead, the net has chosen to go all-in on the properties it owns rights to, such as “Sunday Night Football,” the NHL, the EPL, NASCAR and F1.

Flood said, “We’re not looking to serve everyone in the audience. We’re looking to serve the specific audience that we have. Short-term, you’ve got to be what you are and be in love with the sports you have, and embrace the sports you have. If we’re going to be a buffet restaurant, it’s going to be a lot harder to get the people in there. If people know we’re serving steak, they’re going to come for the steak.”

Horowitz responded with a strong statement: “We’re here to compete. There’s no doubt about it. It’s a perfectly acceptable business and strategy that NBC is pursuing, but it’s not the one that Fox is pursuing. We’re here to compete all hours of the day, seven days a week. We’re not going to concede any ground to ESPN. Not now, not in the future, and I think that’s represented in the decisions we’ve made recently.”

For more on the panel, see tomorrow’s issue of THE DAILY.

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