‘Sunday Night Football’ has been a prime-time goliath for NBC Sports.getty images
The decade that began with Comcast taking control over the venerable Peacock brand ended with NBC engineering some of the most unique deals and gaudiest viewership figures in sports.
The gaudiest: In 2011, “Sunday Night Football” became the first pro sports series to win U.S. TV’s prime-time ratings crown. In 2019, the series is on pace to finish the year as TV’s top prime-time show for a record nine consecutive years.
It’s not just the NFL. After Dick Ebersol’s retirement in 2011, the network continued to be the gold standard in producing the Olympics, guaranteeing that NBC will own the TV ratings for two-and-a-half consecutive weeks every two years. In fact, NBC reported a whopping $250 million profit from the Rio Games in 2016.
Leagues like the NFL, NHL and Premier League have seen impressive growth on NBC’s networks. Mark Larzarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News, spearheaded deals that saw NASCAR and prime-time boxing return to NBC. The British Open moved to NBC after a long run at ABC.
$250 million
Reported profit from NBC for airing the 2016 Summer Olympic Games from Rio.
It’s not just broadcast TV. NBC Sports Group owns two national and 10 regional sports channels. It launched a direct-to-consumer service in NBC Sports Gold and is expected to be a big part of the upcoming Peacock network.
Perhaps the most impressive part of NBC Sports’ decade has been the number of leadership changes it has undergone since the decade began. At the time, Ebersol led it, with Lazarus taking over in 2011; in 2016 Lazarus was promoted to oversee NBC broadcasting as well. In 2018, he brought Pete Bevacqua on board as president. Bevacqua, in turn, has promoted David Preschlack, Jenny Storms and Will McIntosh into more prominent roles at the network.
Bevacqua pointed to one reason for NBC’s success under Comcast — the way the company streamlines decision making. Now, if Bevacqua has an idea, he takes it to Lazarus who will in turn take it to NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke and, maybe, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.
“That can happen in 45 minutes,” Bevacqua said recently at an industry conference. “When you think of Brian Roberts and his role at Comcast, one of the luxuries that we’re afforded is that we can make decisions that don’t necessarily need to pay off in the next two to three months or a year. We can make decisions with more of an eye toward the long term. There’s great consistency in knowing Brian Roberts’ role at Comcast and that has been comforting.”
