SBJ Media: NBA on NBC leans on the old and new

I’ve lived in North Carolina for over 30 years and had never taken in an Appalachian State football game until this past Saturday. What a great atmosphere at Kidd Brewer Stadium (and I now get everything my old colleague Michael Smith used to tell me about Boone). A right-sized stadium for the school makes it intimate and loud -- and the Mountaineer faithful were all of that for a close win over Oregon State. Big thanks to the folks at App State and Playfly Sports Properties for the invite!

With the NBA back on NBC in two weeks (Oct. 21, with games on linear and Peacock), get ready for “Roundball Rock” to be stuck in your head for a while. “It hasn’t been licensed to me to use on my phone yet, but maybe over time,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joked when asked whether the John Tesh-created theme has already become his wake-up song.

But from the moment people arrived at NBC’s NBA media day on Monday in Stamford, Conn., “Roundball Rock” was essentially on loop. As Sam Flood, NBC Sports’ executive producer and president of production, said onstage, it’s all part of “touches” of nostalgia viewers can expect when the company returns with NBA games after ending its run back in 2002. As NBCUniversal TV and Streaming CMO Jenny Storms noted, 60% of NBA fans are nostalgic for the NBA on NBC.

Freshening things up

The NBC audience will certainly recognize names such as Reggie Miller, Grant Hill and Mike Tirico calling games, but it’s not all about nods to the ’90s and the Michael Jordan glory years (even though His Airness will be part of NBC’s coverage in a role that is still TBD, and Miller made references to Jordan wanting to be back on the network that aired so many of his big games as a player).

It’s been over two decades, and this will essentially be a fresh beginning within the walls of NBC. “It’s not often you can take on a big sport and start from scratch,” said NBC Sports President Rick Cordella.

With NBCU bringing back the NBC Sports Network cable channel on YouTube TV soon, Cordella also noted the company is still figuring out plans for how many games to put on Peacock.

Making things seem fresh also means a heavy investment in graphics, something Frank DiGraci, NBC Sports’ coordinating producer, said the company has spent nearly a year on. Flood, who was with NBC when the NBA was last with the company, said the new studio for coverage makes now and then seem like a comparison between a modern spaceship and Apollo 1.

Wise guys

The new era of the NBA on NBC was certainly reflected on the studio side with three Basketball Hall of Famers in Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Carmelo Anthony, who look like they are going to be a fun watch this season alongside host Maria Taylor. Melo admitted that he’s “learning on the fly” on how to be a studio analyst (Carter and T-Mac have had various roles with ESPN and TNT Sports over the years). The goal in Season 1, as T-Mac put it, is to have the audience wanting more in Season 2. “I want them to be inspired by the information they’re getting from us,” he told SBJ (T-Mac was also not afraid to grab the mic during media sessions and ask some good-humored questions of Miller). Melo added that the crew is not trying to be like others, but rather, carve their own path.

The comfort level seen among Melo, T-Mac, Vince and Maria is definitely something to pay attention to, and that studio could grow into something special if the group sticks together.

Mic check

NBC also touts a great mix of well-known voices and up-and-coming talent calling games, and that includes Noah Eagle. “They haven’t shaved my head yet, so until I get the Tim Tebow-rookie-year haircut, I’m doing OK,” he jokingly said about his peers.

For Tirico, one reason for his enthusiasm around the return of the NBA gets back to storytelling, which was one of the key factors he came to NBC Sports in the first place, something he feels is in the DNA of the company. “It’s an extraordinary entertainment vehicle for fans,” Tirico said of the NBA. “The NBA is kind of wherever [fans] are and is so consumable for the younger generation -- maybe as much as any other sport -- whether it’s the athletes and the way they crossover in fashion and music and pop culture. ... From an entertainment standpoint, it gives you everything you want.”

It’s also going to be a busy winter for Tirico, and his travel plans around the Super Bowl, Milan-Cortina Olympics and NBA All-Star Game are still in flux. He will be on-site to call the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, meaning he won’t be in Italy for the opening ceremony, but will play a part in the Winter Games. “We’ll sleep in March,” he joked.

Odds & ends

• Lenny Kravitz will be to “Sunday Night Basketball” what Carrie Underwood has been to “Sunday Night Football.” The longtime rocker has already recorded the theme song for NBC’s Sunday night programming, which rolls out Feb. 1.
• NBC and Peacock are exceeding advertiser expectations for their upcoming NBA coverage, with almost all of the ad inventory for the season sold out. There are somewhere in the vicinity of 170 sponsors for NBA coverage, with 20% of those being new to NBCU.
• One creative way NBCU has promoted the league recently: an integration within “Love Island Games.” One of the game nights for the reality show was branded the “NBA on NBC and Peacock.”
• The “Basketball Night in America” studio show will be on-site for games this season.
• Expect some NBA-themed activations at 30 Rock in Manhattan soon.

Netflix is expected to bring back the golf docu-series “Full Swing” for a fourth season in 2026. Cameras were on-site and wrapping up filming at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. Box To Box Films, one of the production arms involved in the creation of the show, has Season 4 listed as “in production” on its official website.

SBJ didn’t learn a release date, but prior seasons have been available in February or March. Themes around Season 4 likely will center on the Ryder Cup or the changing of the guard at the PGA Tour with new CEO Brian Rolapp now on board. It’s not clear if cameras followed any LIV golfers, as they did in the first season.

Sources said the plan is for a six-episode season. Seasons 1 and 2 both had eight episodes, while Season 3 had seven.

The audience for “Full Swing” has gradually declined since the show debuted in early 2023.

In Netflix’s first half report for 2025, the streamer said Season 3 had 4.1 million views, with 22.2 million hours viewed despite one fewer episode. The same report in 2024 said Season 2 had 4.8 million views and 28.5 million hours watched. In 2023, the show’s first season accrued 53.1 million hours viewed from when it launched in February through the end of June.

The MLB Wild Card numbers were good for ESPN -- to the tune of its best round yet under the current format. But as percentage, as Japan’s population is smaller than in the U.S., the numbers look even bigger. Game 1 of Dodgers-Reds was the most-watched Wild Card game ever in Japan with 6.4 million viewers. As a comp, Game 3 of Yankees-Sox did 7.4 million in the U.S.

Beyond NFL games staying on pace for a record audience this season, NFL Network is off with a bang on the studio side. The entire Sunday slate was on the rise last month, with “NFL GameDay Morning” up 7%, “NFL GameDay Live” up 13% and “NFL GameDay Final” up 7%. During the week, “NFL Fantasy Live” was up 5% and “The Insiders” was up 14%.

The baseball battle in NYC: SNY and the Mets were at 256,635 liner TV viewers per game this season, which would be ever-so-slightly above the 252,970 for the Yankees on YES Network. Both still well above what the Knicks got on MSG last season (134,266).

FC Barcelona-Paris Saint-Germain this past Wednesday was the most-watched UEFA Champions League group stage/league phase match yet for Paramount+. No numbers to report for that platform, but the UCL is off to its best start yet on Paramount+.

Top executives at Playfly Sports, which sells advertising for 25 NHL teams’ in-market telecasts, tell my colleague Alex Silverman they are bullish on a bounce-back season for local viewership across the league after seeing a “low double-digit decline” last season. That optimism is largely based on an anticipated return to form for at least a couple of the high-profile American teams that underperformed on the ice in 2024-25.

• It was a great scene watching CBS college football analyst Rick Neuheisel react to the final play of UCLA’s win over Penn State, as his son was calling the plays for the Bruins. Big shoutout to CBS Sports game producer Craig Silver and director Matt Plundo, as well as studio producer Tim Weinkauf and director Linda Malino, for making that happen.
• ESPN is formally adding former Nuggets coach Michael Malone as a full-time NBA analyst this season, doing a combination of studio and games. Malone, who is repped by CAA’s Matt Kramer and Spencer Breecker, will see his primary role as an analyst on “NBA Countdown.”
• The NBA took over operation of NBA TV from TNT Sports on Wednesday, with the league planning to start its own original programming on Oct. 13.
• On this week’s SBJ Sports Media Podcast, ESPN’s Steve Levy talks with me about all things hockey ahead of the NHL’s season opener.
• Jimmy Haslam, who owns the Crew, said that MLS has “a long way to go in getting people to watch our product on TV.” He attributed the league’s struggles to cultivate an at-home audience to the quality of play in the 30-team league. He also noted that “our NFL contract pays $420 million a year; our MLS contract pays $4 million a year.”
• SBJ golf writer Josh Carpenter shares his takeaways from the schedule of TGL’s Season 2, which dropped Monday.
• Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy said the team supports MLB’s media rights being centralized, telling SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo that “it’s good for the entire industry.”
• I’ll be checking out Season 3 of the “Mind the Game” podcast when it starts Wednesday. From Fulwell Entertainment’s Uninterrupted and Wondery, the pod features basketball analysis weekly from LeBron James and Steve Nash. It’s also rolling out merch sales this season.