NBC today announced that it will "offer live digital streams of all its marquee sports events -- including action on its NBC Sports Network cable channel and Golf Channel," according to Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY. The net already has "extensive live streaming of its TV coverage," but it will "greatly expand the on-air TV tonnage it makes available digitally." NBCSports.com will go from "live streaming about 300 hours last year (excluding Olympic coverage) to about 4,000 hours this year -- and go from streaming about 110 events last year to about 1,000 events in 2013." NBC will stream all NHL playoff games, including the "first-ever streams of the Stanley Cup Final." That will be "up from just 12 NHL playoff games being streamed last season." Other properties to be streamed include the EPL, MLS, IndyCar and F1. The net's weekend coverage of golf's U.S. Open also might be streamed for the first time, but that hasn't been finalized." NBC Sports Group Senior VP/Digital Media Rick Cordella said that the TV industry "notion of live video streams eating into or cannibalizing TV ratings is long dead." Hiestand notes NBC's online streaming, which is "free to users who can verify they get paid TV through Cablevision, Comcast, Sudden Link or Verizon FiOS, will initially reach about 35 million of the 100 million total cable/satellite TV subscribers" (USA TODAY, 4/11).
