Two sports media brands used for many years by NBC Sports are making comebacks, but in a dramatically changing corporate structure, the pair will have relatively little to do with each other.
The Comcast-owned NBC Sports said this week that it will bring back the NBC Sports Network, the linear network it previously operated from 2012 to 2021, with the move confirming a plan discussed extensively this past summer. The cable channel will debut Nov. 17, initially with YouTube TV following a recent carriage agreement, and shortly on Comcast’s own Xfinity.
The network will serve in many respects as a linear counterpart to Peacock, offering much of the same sports programming that the streaming service does, including NBA and WNBA games, Premier League soccer matches, Big Ten and Notre Dame football, college basketball, two golf majors, and content from a soon-to-be-announced rights deal with Major League Baseball.
“The new NBC Sports Network gives pay-TV customers a seamless way to enjoy the wide range of sports in our portfolio,” said NBCUniversal president of platform distribution and partnerships Matt Schnaars.
Across the Aisle
The other legacy sports media brand being resurrected, meanwhile, is USA Sports. A brand originally dating to the 1970s, USA Sports will be the sports moniker for Versant, the company being spun off from Comcast. Versant will control most of the cable networks previously held by Comcast, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC (becoming MS Now on Saturday), and Golf Channel. The spin-off originally unveiled a year ago is set for completion early next year.
USA Sports will have more than 10,000 hours of live sports events per year, including content from NASCAR, the PGA Tour, Premier League, WWE, and the WNBA, among others. This week, the network also signed a rights deal with a rebuilt Pac-12 Conference. That content will air on either USA Network, Golf Channel, or CNBC.
The two announcements occurred within a day of each other this week, leading to some marketplace confusion—particularly since some sports content that had aired on the prior NBCSN transferred over to USA Network after the 2021 NBCSN shutdown.
The new NBCSN and USA Sports, however, will be separate entities and exist under separate parent companies. Despite the separation, though, there will be some crossover and collaboration between the two. NBCUniversal will sell advertising for Versant for the next two annual upfront cycles, while there is also a joint rights agreement for NBCUniversal and Versant with the USGA, and some Olympics-related content controlled by NBC Sports will air on USA Network.
