SBJ Media: Projecting NBC’s post-Comcast future

The first “Toy Story” came out when I was 15 years old, and even the cynical teenager in me at the time was able to appreciate that it was an amazing film. It just made you smile from ear to ear.

Well, I got to experience the same joy again over the weekend, when I took my 10-year-old to see “Toy Story 5.” We both loved it. Over 30 years later, the characters and storylines that I remember from the mid-90s still resonate and tug at the heartstrings. Kudos to Pixar on another job well done.

When the idea of a marriage of Comcast and NBCUniversal started percolating in 2009, the creation of a strong competitor to ESPN was seen as a potential benefit of the deal — perhaps even allowing Versus to go head-to-head with Bristol’s flagship cable network. While Versus and then NBC Sports Network never quite got to that level, Comcast and NBCU became inextricably linked within many areas of sports since GE’s sale of the majority stake was approved in early 2011.

Since that time, Comcast/Xfinity has been present all across NBC Sports’ portfolio. That could be seen around sponsorships for programming like the Olympics, NBA or NASCAR, or bringing Notre Dame football games over to cable TV and then streaming.

Fast forward to Monday, and the relationship — already changed by the sell-off of Versant — looks to be in for another major change, as a split is planned between the telecommunications assets (Comcast/Xfinity) and entertainment side, which will house NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, Sky in the U.K., the theme parks business, film studio, Bravo and TV studios.

While any split is still around a year off (and then some time after that when thinking about IRS tax-free rules on spinoffs), I talked to some analysts on Wall Street and within sports media rights about how they view the future for NBC Sports.

“They’ll need to invest in sports even more than before,” one analyst said of the new entertainment spinoff. “They’ll have incentive to do so. There won’t be any influence — or less influence — from the broadband business. They had a Chinese wall, so in theory, they were operating pretty independently already. But it’s probably good for NBC Sports and sports media world in general.”

What’s the appetite for an NBCU acquisition?

While a move to pick up NBCU media assets would be years off, speculation has already started as to who might be interested in those. MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett poured some cold water on that Monday in a note to investors, but this hasn’t stalled the rumor mill.

“The one person that will decide this is Brian Roberts,” another analyst told SBJ. “That’s really what the call is here — whether or not he wants to let go of the media business. ... That’s where investment bankers and anyone else that you talk to on the deal side loves to start to think about it.”

Some speculation quickly turned to Netflix, which made a strong play for Warner Bros. Discovery before David Ellison and Paramount Skydance came over the top. But buying a broadcast TV network like NBC (with its FCC license) comes with a higher level of scrutiny.

As one analyst told SBJ: “Is Netflix really willing to take all of this on and deal with all of the extra headaches that come with this NBCUniversal portfolio instead of just looking for going down their own path or looking for their own IP in other places?”

All of those questions are just on the linear side and before one gets to the question of streaming. “Peacock is really just a sports streaming platform,” one analyst said. “So the future of Peacock is tied to those sports rights.”

Pay attention to local

The RSN space has long been in flux, and less attention has been paid to NBC’s portfolio than was given to the old Main Street Sports RSNs. That makes sense. Main Street went into bankruptcy, whereas the NBC RSNs — Philadelphia, Bay Area, California and Boston — operate with little to no debt.

But sources have told me even before Monday’s news that those RSNs were ripe for a sale. One complicating factor was team ownership, as teams like the S.F. Giants and Boston Celtics have stakes in those RSNs. There is a similar situation in Philadelphia (via the Flyers), plus the added complication of Comcast being based in Philly.

“Without the MVPD, they’re even less of a company priority,” one analyst said of removing Comcast from the RSN equation. “Maybe they get folded into Peacock somehow more quickly. ... Comcast is tough. They were always a beast [in carriage talks,] even with under the same roof.”

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SBJ’s America 250 series

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• For America 250, the merchandise opportunity may belong to younger fans

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The World Series of Poker’s main event will shuffle up and deal starting Thursday, and with the start comes a new multiyear media pact with ESPN. The WSOP was last on ESPN in 2021 (it originally started there in 1987) and spent last year on CBS Sports Network and PokerGo.

A traditional rights fee isn’t trading hands. As WSOP CEO Ty Stewart puts it, the deal involves “consideration,” the ability to control all the sponsorships and a significant amount of inventory across ESPN channels.

“You would traditionally call that a barter deal, but we’ve already been able to reach over seven figures in sponsorship rights fees this year,” Stewart told SBJ. “It’s also something that we had given to our previous partner to sell things like the felt and the LED. We have invested this summer in a huge new set. We might call it the ‘Poker Sphere.’ It’s over a mile-and-a-half of LED tiles, and it’s certainly the grandest stage that’s ever been for poker. And yeah, we’re using that as part of our sales inventory.”

But perhaps the more interesting part of the new deal is that Omaha Productions is handling the new production of the event. Stewart has known Omaha co-founder and President Jamie Horowitz since Horowitz’s ESPN days running programming, which included doing deals around WSOP. Stewart also pointed to Omaha Head of Content Dan Gati and the poker experience he brings to the table.

“They have a bunch of folks with poker experience, so that made it easy,” Stewart said of Omaha. “But what we really like about Omaha is their storytelling and the great work that they’ve done with Netflix and ‘Starting 5’ and ‘Quarterback.’ But if we look at how we want to reinvent poker on television, it is sort of going back to the future. Twenty years ago, it was only post-produced, edited programs for poker, and then there became like a glut of livestreams. Now we want to be able to combine that and present live poker as event television.”

With Omaha also comes the star power of Peyton and Eli Manning and others, along with their Rolodex. So can we expect to see some of that star power make an appearance at this year’s WSOP? Said Stewart: “I don’t want to give anything away, but we’re looking at some guest analysts, particularly for the final table.”

The time around the July 4 holiday and baseball have long been linked, as it’s the sport of summer. But MLB has never put a serious stake in the ground that the holiday belongs to baseball.

Well, NBC is helping the league change that narrative with “Star-Spangled Sunday” this weekend, with 15 MLB games finding a home with one media company for the first time. Two games will air on NBC broadcast TV, with the rest on Peacock (produced by the home teams’ local broadcasters).

It’s a smart move to lean into the holiday weekend. The NFL has long had Thanksgiving, the NBA has Christmas Day (even with the NFL encroaching there) and college football has held its traditional start around Labor Day weekend. While MLB’s audience numbers won’t be nearly the same as those other sports, it’s good for baseball to have a day it can claim as its own and one spot where fans can enjoy a full day of America’s pastime.

I talk a lot on the SBJ Sports Media podcast about where the FIFA Men’s World Cup rights could be going in the future, since this is the last tourney in Fox’s deal. Beyond top-line benefits, what makes this property interesting? At the top of that list of answers has to be youth.

Nielsen reported the median age for a soccer fan in the U.S. is 33, around four years younger than fan bases for the top U.S. sports leagues. Around 76% are millennials or Gen-Z, and 32% of fans in those demos earn $100,000+ a year. Some 68% of existing fans report a rising interest in soccer over the last three years, and 64% of fans expect that interest to keep rising.

Also: Telemundo noted that, while U.S. Hispanics represent 20% of the population, the Spanish-language network (and Peacock) has captured 49% of the combined World Cup audience through the first 48 matches. That’s a healthy way to reach a growing demo on the Spanish-language side of this rights deal.

• On the latest episode of the SBJ Sports Media Podcast, I dig into the NBA Draft’s presentation, NASCAR’s debut in San Diego, the rise of NCAA Baseball and Linda Cohn’s legacy on “SportsCenter.” Then, Fox Sports lead soccer analyst Stu Holden talks about the group stage of the FIFA World Cup.
• SBJ’s Richard Deitsch reports how a number of tech and other improvements led to ESPN’s best-ever presentation of the Stanley Cup Final.
• The “FIFA World Cup Pregame” show averaged 2.4 million viewers across Fox, FS1 and Tubi through the group stage, up 117% from the show four years ago (1.11 million viewers). That average is just under what ESPN/ESPNU averaged for “College GameDay” this past season (2.7 million), but it’s above the 1.8 million that “Big Noon Kickoff” averaged on Fox during the college football regular season.
• Prime Video wrapped its NASCAR Cup Series slate with the inaugural Anduril 250 from Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, averaging 2.29 million viewers over its six races, which is up 6% from Prime Video’s first year in 2025 (even with three races impacted by weather delays).
• Concacaf and Fox Sports renewed an English-language media-rights deal that will now go through 2029. It will see the biannual Gold Cup stay on Fox Sports (2027 and 2029). Also, for the first time, the Nations League will come to Fox Sports for the 2026-27 and 2028-29 cycles.
• SBJ’s Emma Grace Patrick and I look at the different ways various media platforms are tapping into content to take advantage of World Cup fervor.
• SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo writes about SNY’s Kidcaster content, which puts kids ages 9-12 into the booth for a half-inning to cover the game with Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. Not only has it been a fun promotion, but it’s also served as a launchpad for careers in broadcasting.
• ESPN will continue to prioritize its DTC app and ESPN Unlimited subscription plan during Wimbledon, writes SBJ’s Rob Schaefer.