Digital media
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NBCUniversal Launching New Cable Sports Channel
The network, named NBCSN, will launch on Monday
NBCUniversal is adding to its mix of sports offerings Monday by launching a new cable channel, dubbed NBCSN.
The network will carry mostly sports that are also streamed on NBCU’s Peacock service, including National Basketball Association games, Big Ten college football, golf and Premier League soccer. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on the planned channel in July.
Google’s YouTube TV, one of the country’s largest pay-TV providers with roughly 10 million subscribers, has already agreed to carry the channel. NBCU parent Comcast CMCSA 0.97%increase; green up pointing triangle will also carry NBCSN on its Xfinity platform, and NBCU said it anticipates closing more deals before the end of the year.
NBCU is wrapping up a deal to carry Major League Baseball on its NBC broadcast network and Peacock beginning next season, and some of those games will also be on NBCSN, people familiar with the matter said.
The service will also carry sports talk programming that currently runs on Peacock, including “The Dan Patrick Show,” a three-hour daily radio and streaming program.
Launching a new cable network in today’s media environment would seem counterintuitive, with subscribers ditching those channels in favor of streaming services, and some entertainment companies are contemplating cutting channels. Cable ad revenues have declined significantly in recent years.
But hardcore sports fans are typically the most loyal pay-TV customers.
“It’s tough to launch a new linear TV channel for any content outside of sports—but when you are talking about the NBA, Premier League, Big Ten, that’s an impressive list of properties,” said Matt Schnaars, who runs distribution for NBCUniversal.
NBCU is in the process of spinning off most of its cable programming assets into a new company named Versant that will house channels including CNBC, MSNBC and USA Network. The Bravo network is remaining with NBCU.
This is NBCU’s second go-round at an all-sports offering. In 2021, it shut down a channel—also called NBCSN—because its sports inventory had become too small to justify a dedicated network.
Since then, the company has aggressively acquired sports rights to beef up Peacock and NBC, including an 11-year, $27 billion deal for NBA rights.
Schnaars said the new channel gives NBCU another platform to monetize its sports content.
NBCU expects to be able to place NBCSN in slimmed-down, genre-specific bundles that pay-TV distributors now offer.
Write to Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com
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