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Dick Ebersol: A lifetime in television

1967
Becomes a researcher for ABC Sports

1969
Moves up to being a segment producer for ABC Sports

1971
Graduates from Yale University

1974
Is executive assistant to ABC Sports President Roone Arledge

NBC President Herbert Schlosser hires Ebersol to create an original program to run at 11:30 on Saturday nights. Ebersol hires Lorne Michaels and they create “Saturday Night Live.”

1975
Named vice president, late-night weekend programming, at NBC

1977
Is vice president, comedy, variety, and event programming, for NBC

1979
Works as an independent producer

Interviews to be president of ESPN

Dick Ebersol is surrounded by dozens of Emmy awards at his home in Connecticut.
Photo by: PATRICK E. MCCARTHY
1981
Named executive producer of “Saturday Night Live.” Hires Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Belushi and others during his four years at the show’s helm.

1983
Forms No Sleep Productions company, which creates and produces NBC’s “Friday Night Videos”

1985
Executive producer of NBC’s “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” a professional wrestling show

1988
Creates and is executive producer of NBC’s “Later With Bob Costas”

1989
Named president of NBC Sports

NBC held NBA rights from 1990 until 2002.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Signs a four-year, $600 million deal with the NBA that makes NBC the exclusive over-the-air network of the league starting in 1990. The “NBA on NBC” becomes a pillar on the network through the 2001-02 season.

1990
Notre Dame becomes the only college football program with an exclusive national TV contract, signing a five-year deal that gives NBC the right to broadcast the school’s home football games, starting in 1991. NBC has maintained the relationship with the Fighting Irish for 25 years, with an extension signed through 2025. In 2011, Ebersol said, “Notre Dame is one of the premier brands that defines who we at NBC are.”

1993
Ebersol’s first Olympic win comes as NBC’s record-setting bid of $456 million gives it the right to broadcast the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Signs a four-year, $880 million deal for the rights to air the NFL’s AFC games and two Super Bowls, in 1996 and 1998.

1994
The Baseball Network is launched as a joint venture with NBC, ABC and Major League Baseball, in which the league will produce its own telecasts of games and broker them to the two networks.

1995
ABC and NBC announce in June that they will leave The Baseball Network after this season. Ebersol says neither network would bid on MLB’s broadcast rights “through this century.” Ebersol: “We have done everything to be good partners, and we’ve been treated like scum. We’re outta here … and we won’t be back.”

NBC is awarded the combined rights for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney ($705 million) and the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City ($545 million).

Signs a five-year, $400 million deal (running from 1996 through 2000) with Major League Baseball in November

Awarded U.S. broadcast and cable rights to the 2004, 2006 and 2008 Olympic Games. The surprising $2.3 billion deal comes long before the sites of those Games have been selected or official bidding among the networks was even begun.

“Most executives stay in an executive suite and you see them once or twice or three times a year. Dick came to every game. He came to every practice. He sat in on every film session. He was really part of the team. If anything ever came up where anyone had any problem, he was the first guy to stand up. That’s a real thing. When you have the head of the sports network — a top executive — with you when you go see a team, you’re dealing on a level with owners. Dick brought out the owners. … When he would come, he would deal with the owners.”

—  John Madden,
former NFL broadcaster
1996
In February, Ebersol undergoes an angioplasty procedure for coronary artery blockage. Three months later, he signs a new agreement to continue in his NBC position through 2004.

As part of its Olympic preview, Newsweek’s Frank Deford calls Ebersol “the most powerful figure ever in sports TV.”

1997
NBC names Ebersol chairman and CEO of NBC Olympics, a new division that will be in charge of every aspect of the network’s Olympic involvement, including programming, marketing, sales, promotion and production of the Games from 2000 to 2008.

1998
NBC’s 33-year run as an NFL broadcaster comes to an end with Super Bowl XXXII, played on Jan. 25. CBS agrees to pay $4 billion over eight years to take over NBC’s AFC broadcast rights. ABC, meanwhile, retains the broadcast rights for “Monday Night Football” and nabs the entire Sunday night package for ESPN for $9.2 billion over eight years. Ebersol, who coveted “MNF”: “We weren’t ambushed. We were given a number, decided that number was reckless folly and we walked away.”

NBC and Time Warner announce that Ebersol and Turner Sports President Harvey Schiller are moving forward on the creation of a new professional football league, which could consist of 10 to 12 franchises, a 10-week regular season and a championship game around Labor Day.

1999
Signs a five-year deal with Triple Crown Productions to broadcast the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes through 2005. Other than a five-year stretch when the Belmont Stakes were shown on ABC (2006-10), NBC has broadcast every leg of the Triple Crown since 2001.

NASCAR signs a six-year, $2.48 billion contract that splits the U.S. television rights for NASCAR races between Fox, its cable partner FX, NBC and Turner Sports, running from 2001 through 2006. NBC and TBS will cover races held during each season’s second half.

2000
Signs a three-year deal for the exclusive U.S. TV rights to Wimbledon. Ebersol says, “[NBC President] Bob Wright, [NBC Sports President] Ken Schanzer and I had three goals: acquire the Triple Crown and NASCAR, and renew Wimbledon. This completes it.”

Ebersol and WWF’s Vince McMahon announce the formation of the XFL.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
NBC and the WWF announced a partnership to jointly own and run the XFL, a new spring pro football league that will begin play in February 2001. The agreement calls for each party to own 50 percent of the league and its eight teams. NBC will broadcast regional and national XFL games on Saturday nights from February through April as well as the XFL championship game. Ebersol says network execs “fully expect” to be in the black by the beginning of the league’s third season. Ebersol: “It is an economic model that works fantastic for both parties.”

NBC’s baseball involvement ends when Fox signs a six-year, $2.5 billion deal for MLB’s over-the-air rights.

2001
The XFL debuts on Feb. 3, with NBC averaging a 9.5 rating for the first week. As the season progresses, the numbers dwindle. The national rating for the XFL’s Week 7 broadcast on NBC is a 1.6, the lowest prime-time night among the big three networks in Nielsen Media Research history. The network averages just a 3.0 for the 12-week season and loses around $35 million. The league eventually shuts down after one season.

2003
GE/NBC acquires the U.S. media rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games with a total package of $2.2 billion. The network agrees to pay $820 million for the 2010 Winter Games and $1.18 billion for the 2012 Summer Games. Also as part of the deal, GE agrees to become a TOP sponsor, pledging close to $200 million from 2005-12.

Ebersol signs a nine-year contract to continue as NBC Sports & Olympics chair through 2012, coinciding with the network’s Olympics rights deal.

2004
Named chairman, NBCUniversal Sports & Olympics when NBC merges with Universal.

Acquires the television rights to the NHL. The two-year deal requires no upfront rights fees, with revenue from NHL broadcasts to be shared equally after the network covers production costs. The deal eventually is renewed twice with the same terms, extending through the 2010-11 season.

On Nov. 28, a charter plane carrying Ebersol and his sons Charlie and Teddy crashes and bursts into flames during takeoff from Montrose Regional Airport in Colorado. Charlie is thrown from the wreckage but pulls his father from the debris. Teddy, age 14, dies.

2005
In March, Ebersol returns to work for the first time since the tragedy.

In April, the NFL signs a six-year, $600 million annual deal with NBC for its Sunday night package.

NBC announces that it will not renew its NASCAR contract after the 2006 season, largely because of its acquisition of the “Sunday Night Football” telecast from ESPN.

With his wife, Susan Saint James, in 2006
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
2009
Honored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Sports Emmy Award

2010
Inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame

Comcast, which has agreed to merge with NBCUniversal, names Ebersol chair of NBC Sports Group.

2011
Comcast’s merger with NBCUniversal is completed on Jan. 29. In an email to staff, Ebersol writes that the merger “is bringing together the broad reach and rich heritage of NBC Sports, the ability to serve sports fans 24/7 and allow them to follow their hometown teams with the extensive assets of Comcast, and the sub fees that we broadcast dinosaurs have coveted for so long. The marriage of our two companies has the opportunity to be a profoundly meaningful relationship. I use the word ‘opportunity’ because this union will only become what we make of it.”

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” finishes the season with an average of 21.8 million viewers and becomes the first sports series ever to be the most watched prime-time show over the course of an entire TV season.

Ebersol’s executive leadership team of the newly formed Comcast/NBC Sports Group is revealed. Included in the announcement is former Turner Entertainment Group President Mark Lazarus, who is named president of NBC Sports Cable Group, reporting to Ebersol.

“He was the beating heart and soul of NBC for the whole time that I was there. Most people just want to have whatever bigger opportunity there is. Dick could have run NBC. There’s no question. He always was very comfortable with himself and comfortable that he wanted to be doing what he loved. He didn’t want to do anything that he didn’t love. For the years that he was at NBC Sports, it was just what he loved. …

“He was the great adviser. [Former General Electric Chairman and CEO] Jack Welch would call him. [Former NBCUniversal Chairman] Bob Wright would call him. He was the guy that knew all the working pieces. He was a brilliant guy, but he never wanted. There were a lot of pushes from above him and below him to do more.”

—  David Zaslav,
president and CEO
of Discovery Communications
In April, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman calls the league’s 10-year, $2 billion deal with NBC the “most significant” in league history. Ebersol: “Our run of not paying [the NHL] anything for a number of years is over with this deal.”

Ebersol resigns on May 19 after not being able to come to an agreement on a new contract. Lazarus is named the new head of NBC Sports.

Two-and-a-half weeks after Ebersol’s sudden resignation, NBC wins the U.S. TV rights to the Olympic Games for 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020, worth more than $4 billion. NBC has carried every Summer Olympics since 1988 and every Winter Games since 2002.

2014
Receives the Paul White Award, the highest award presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association

2015
Recognized by SportsBusiness Journal/Daily for its Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring his extensive contribution to the business of sports.

— Compiled by SportsBusiness Journal research

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