NBC Universal reviving NBC Sports Network, starting on YouTube TV

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https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/.../01/NBCSN.aspx

NBCSN is expected to shut down by the end of the year. NBCSN launched in 1995 as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), becoming popular for showing Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories. In 2006, it was rebranded as Versus, becoming NBC Sports Network in 2012. Sports Business Journal says the move is to help bolster the Peacock streaming service. ALSO: NBCSN's big events like NASCAR and NHL will move to USA.

NBC Sports Network is being shut down even though it's still pretty popular

Airing everything from NASCAR to Major League Soccer to The Stanley Cup Final and IndyCar, NBCSN's viewership is bigger than FS1 and ESPN2. So that news today that NBCSN is shutting down by the end of the year, with its content moving to USA and Peacock, is surprising. "Sports fans know the network for its heavy coverage of the N.H.L., English Premier League soccer and NASCAR. For three weeks every other year, it has hosted Olympics coverage nonstop, and in off-years it sustained Olympic sports like track and field and cycling," explains The New York Times' Kevin Draper. "NBCSN is still quite popular and generates plenty of revenue. It was the second most viewed cable sports channel in 2020, behind only ESPN and ahead of FS1 and ESPN2. The channel is available in 76.6 million homes, each of which pays 42 cents per month for it, according to Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. That means NBCSN is on track to earn more than $380 million in revenue this year, even before advertising is taken into account. But the future of television is streaming, and Comcast is determined not to be left behind."

[SledgeBarone]

I don't have cable so this shouldn't bother me, but it seems like NBCSN is highly regarded for the sports/leagues they do concentrate on. From the glimpses I get of English Premier League soccer on the main NBC network, they cover the league better than ESPN or Fox covers any of the other sports they handle. I hope that quality doesn't go away after NBCSN bites the dust.

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NBCSN is shutting down on December 31st, with most sports programming moving to USA

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NBCSN, again? NBCU reportedly eyeing new sports cable network

by Jon Lewis 3 hours ago

Nearly four years after shutting down NBCSN, and months after setting in motion the jettisoning of USA Network, Comcast is reportedly eyeing the launch of a new cable sports network to complement Peacock.

Comcast-owned NBC Universal is in early discussions on the launch of a potential sports cable network that would carry events that are streamed exclusively on Peacock, Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The channel could launch as soon as this fall, ahead of the debut of NBC’s new NBA package.

Per Flint, the intention is not for the channel to compete with Peacock but to complement the streaming service by making its content available to those who are reluctant to leave the cable bundle.

Accordingly, the channel would be only exist on specialty tiers — like the DIRECTV “MySports” bundle launched earlier this year — rather than the basic cable packages that include the likes of ESPN.

The decision to create an entirely new cable network is perhaps a circuitous route to what has become a regular occurrence, the inclusion of direct-to-subscriber streaming services in specialty cable tiers. Peacock itself is already available for no extra fee as part of Charter’s Spectrum TV Select package. ESPN+ is also available to some Charter and DIRECTV subscribers free of charge (and the ESPN direct-to-subscriber app will be as well, though that is fairly redundant given it consists of channels already available through the cable bundle).

Peacock this year is raising its monthly price from $8 to $11/mo ahead of its first season carrying NBA games. The NBA package — which at $2.5 billion/year will cost NBCU more each season than its Sunday Night Football package (at least until the NFL renegotiates, as expected, by the end of this decade) — is perhaps the highest-stakes addition to the streamer’s line-up, given the sheer tonnage of exclusive games (50 per season in the regular season, plus up to 14 in the playoffs).

As previously noted, NBC in 2021 shut down its cable sports channel NBCSN, which originated as the Comcast-owned OLN. NBCSN programming then shifted to USA Network, which Comcast is spinning off into a new company (“Versant”). After that spinoff — which also includes Golf Channel and CNBC, which regularly carry NBC Sports programming — the only cable channel of any kind under the Comcast umbrella will be Bravo.

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Originally Posted by TMC

NBCSN, again? NBCU reportedly eyeing new sports cable network

NBC Sports’ potential cable channel signals buyer’s remorse over NBA deal

Betting $2.45 billion on regular season NBA games driving Peacock subscriptions would be one helluva gamble...

[Dead2009]

So wait, they're gonna make a channel that has Peacock exclusive games but....you still have to sign up to another package to see it??

[Babalu]

Yeah, let's make ten more channels you have to pay for. We'll take the programming off the one you already pay for, and tell you what a great deal it is to pay for all of them. **** you.

[Frank Gannucci]

So what was the point of shutting down NBCSN then?

[opus]

Originally Posted by Frank Gannucci

So what was the point of shutting down NBCSN then?

It’s like breaking up with someone and then later realizing you made a big mistake.

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Why would NBC launch a new NBC Sports Network?

It actually makes more sense than it would seem.



By Drew Lerner on 10/02/2025

As part of the new long-term distribution agreement that NBC struck with YouTube TV on Thursday, the network announced it would proceed with its plans to launch a new cable channel called NBC Sports Network. Yes, NBC is seemingly relaunching a channel it shuttered just four years ago, or at least relaunching it in name only.

It might seem like an odd decision in 2025. Cable is dying, and viewers are flocking to streaming at an accelerated rate. Why would it make sense for NBC to launch a new network now?

Well, it’s not as crazy as it seems. NBC, perhaps more than any of its peers, has invested heavily in live sports to fuel the growth of its streaming service, Peacock. Between exclusive Big Ten football and basketball games, the English Premier League, an NBA deal that begins later this month, the Olympics, an MLB deal reportedly set to start next year, and more, Peacock has become a key destination for sports fans.

But even with all of that inventory, the streamer still hasn’t crossed the threshold into “must-have” status for all sports fans.

The Big Ten games are typically of lower quality, thus making them justifiable to skip even for ardent fans. NBA fans will be able to catch games on NBC, ABC, ESPN, and Prime Video on nearly every day of the week, except Monday, making Peacock’s inventory an easy sacrifice, even for hardcore basketball viewers. The Olympics only require a one-month subscription. Baseball fans won’t necessarily be dying to watch whichever game is on Peacock, similar to the current MLB packages on Apple TV+ and Roku. And Premier League fans have likely already had Peacock for some time, creating little potential for subscriber growth for that property.

All of that is a long way of saying that NBC has invested billions of dollars into live sports rights as a means of driving Peacock subscriptions, and gambling on regular-season basketball and baseball to recoup that money is a perilous proposition.

Enter: NBC Sports Network.

According to previous reports, the network will be designed to carry some of Peacock’s exclusive live sports programming and distribute it to audiences that are still subscribed to the bundle. Latest estimates suggest 65 million households are still pay TV subscribers. One would have to imagine that if a person is already paying for a full cable or satellite bundle, which includes a plethora of the most important live sports, they’d be less likely to shell out an additional $11 per month (with the recent price hike) for Peacock.

NBC wants a way to capitalize on these 65 million households with its valuable live sports programming, albeit likely not valuable enough for some people to shell out additional money for it a la carte. Initially, reports suggested that NBC was planning to release its new NBC Sports Network into genre-specific bundles, such as DirecTV MySports or Xfinity Sports & News. However, Thursday’s announcement indicated the network would be included within YouTube TV, which is not genre-specific. Perhaps this opens the door for the network to be included in other standard-issue packages, greatly increasing its potential reach.

If so, NBC can start collecting per-subscriber fees from a significant portion of those 65 million pay TV households. Let’s conservatively estimate that NBC can ask for $0.25 per subscriber per month on its new channel. Assuming 65 million subscribers, that would come out to about $200 million per year, approximately the price NBC will reportedly pay for its new MLB package. That’s before NBC even sells a single commercial.

NBC needs to pay for these expensive live sports rights somehow, and tapping into what’s left of the cable bundle is a wise way to do so. Let’s also consider that most people remaining in the bundle are there because of live sports. Adding a channel dedicated to live sports programming will only help keep those still inside the bundle in place.

It’s also important to consider what is happening to the rest of NBC’s cable assets at the end of the year. All of its current cable portfolio, aside from Bravo, is being spun off into Versant. That means all the per-subscriber fees that NBC currently collects from USA Network, Golf Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, SyFy, and others are going away. Launching NBC Sports Network will help supplement some of the cash flow the company will lose when it spins off.

Is it unusual to see NBC launch a cable channel in 2025? Yes. Even more so because it’s going by the same name of a network it shuttered just four years prior. But, make no mistake, NBC is doing this because it will help leverage its wide-ranging live sports portfolio more effectively than it could with Peacock alone.

¡Vive la NBC Sports Network!

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NBC Universal reviving NBC Sports Network, starting on YouTube TV

NBC Sports Network, which shuttered in December 2021, will be revived with a slow rollout that will begin with YouTube TV, followed later by Comcast‘s Xfinity. “While it is in some ways counter-intuitive to launch a cable network in 2025, the strategic goal of the move is to ensure that viewers retain access to NBCU sports programming in a multiplatform environment,” says Deadline’s Dade Hayes. “NBCU recently struck a distribution deal with YouTube and Google, including a presence on YouTube TV, avoiding a potential blackout.”

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NBCSN live sports schedule comes into focus as network launches

Viewers will get a heavy dose of NBA and college basketball.