The AP's Ryan Nakashima noted the "growth of Internet video and opportunities under NBC’s new owner, Comcast Corp., should help cut losses significantly and perhaps make the Olympics profitable after the London Games.” There also is "an intangible promotional benefit to NBC," which will pay $4.38B for U.S. TV rights to the Olympics from '14-20. Even "at a loss, the Olympics generate huge audiences,” allowing NBC to "promote new shows to those viewers as it tries to dig out of fourth place" among U.S. broadcast networks. Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne said NBC’s deal is an “Olympic win at the right price” (AP, 6/12).
HABS AND HAB-NOTS: In Montreal, Mike Boone cited a source as saying that Bell Media’s Team 990 radio is set to acquire Canadiens radio rights, and a deal that would see the team leave CJAD-AM is “signed, sealed and delivered.” The Canadiens-Team 990 partnership “won’t be announced until after” the Stanley Cup Final “at the earliest.” Boone noted Team 990 is “bolstered by its corporate parentage.” Bell Media also controls TSN and French-language TV network RDS. The source indicated that “what clinched the soon-to-be announced” radio deal was TSN’s “regional Canadiens package, launched this season” (Montreal GAZETTE, 6/11).
C-USA ON SUNDAYS? In Orlando, Matt Murschel reports Fox Sports “has no plans to make a move” to air college football on Sundays if the NFL misses part of the '11 season because of the lockout, and even if network officials "wanted to, they could be limited contractually.” The "only place where there might be some leeway is with Conference USA." The league’s new deal with Fox "includes a provision allowing the network to move games to Sundays up to three weeks before the contest.” C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky last month said, “It’s basically an option if the NFL doesn’t end up playing on Sundays and our schools agree to the changes” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 6/13).
WATCHING THE GAMES: Major League Gaming set a new league record with 22.5 million video streams of its live online coverage of its Columbus Pro Circuit competition June 3-5, according to internal metrics. The online consumption for the professional competitive video game property involved viewers from 164 different countries and 2.2 million hours of total consumed video. The 22.5 million video streams is also nearly double the 11.4 million the NFL recently announced were consumed on NFL.com during its draft in April. On site, the MLG Columbus Pro Circuit event drew more than 16,000 fans and 1,300 competitors, also making it the largest Pro Circuit event in the league's nine-year history (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
DIGITAL DOUBTS: BBC Trust Chair Lord Chris Patten "has signalled that the future of digital TV channels BBC Three and BBC Four is in doubt, as the corporation proposes to cut 20% of spending over the next five years.” Patten said that the BBC “could also lose one of its main sporting events, as without the ‘financial firepower,’ bidding for any sports rights would be ‘extremely difficult’ and losing some sports rights looks likely.” He said the BBC was “bound to face some tough decisions in the area of sport” (BRANDREPUBLIC.com, 6/13).
