NBC Sports Purchases Significant Share Of 24-Hour Olympic Channel
NBC Sports is taking an equity stake and becoming "a significant shareholder" in World Championship Sports Network (WCSN), according to Mickle & Ourand of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. NBC is joining Leo Hindery's InterMedia Partners as co-Owner of the net, which is a "full-time cable network devoted" to Olympics-style programming available to 2 million homes via over-the-air TV stations. Specifics of NBC’s investment are not available, but WCSN will be “rebranded as Universal Sports” beginning this week. The investment could "spark an arms race of sorts in the Olympic media space, as the [USOC] still harbors plans to launch its own Olympic network, which it hopes to have an announcement about later this summer.” The effort also “represents a significant change in philosophy for NBC, which has traditionally limited its coverage and promotion of the Olympics to the two to three months before and after the Games.” NBC execs are “confident there’s an appetite for 24-hour coverage of Olympic sports.” NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel: “A channel like this offers a broad, continuous platform to showcase these sports and offer them the hours they deserve. We want these athletes to become stars and appeal to fans. That’s what a 24-hour sports channel enables us to do.” Mickle & Ourand report NBC officials plan to “approach cable operators later this summer about carrying the channel.” The net also plans a "more aggressive distribution push behind the network, but Zenkel declined to share the partners’ specific distribution plans.” With NBC and Hindery serving as controlling partners, it is "likely that they will look for wide distribution” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/16 issue).
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