NBC Sports head not worried about LIV: ‘No tour in golf like the PGA’
NBC Sports head not worried about LIV: ‘No tour in golf like the PGA’: With the promise of huge paydays, LIV Golf, the new Saudi-backed golf circuit, continues to entice big-name players away from the PGA Tour. However, the CEO of a broadcasting company that is a tour partner said he has no concerns.
According to Pete Bevacqua, chairman of NBC Sports, “there’s no tour in golf like the PGA Tour.” They say, “There’s nothing else like it.”
Bevacqua applauded the PGA Tour’s recent decision to increase prize money for golfers and the number of high-profile events on the tour’s schedule in order to compete with LIV.
With the recent changes implemented by [Commissioner] Jay Monahan and the Tour, “we feel pretty positive about the health of the PGA Tour,” he said. We’re optimistic about the future. In addition, he said that NBC is “keeping an eye on everything” to ensure that “the best players in the world continue to play on the best tour in the world.”
NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp. and the parent company of the Golf Channel, renewed its PGA Tour rights in 2020 for another nine years, joining CBS and ESPN. Besides the Olympics and the National Football League, NBC also broadcasts soccer’s Premier League and Notre Dame football. The media conglomerate acquired the rights to air Big Ten Conference games earlier this month, joining Fox and CBS.
Bevacqua gave his opinion on regional sports channels, explained how NBC approached the Big Ten, and explained why tech giants like Apple and Amazon won’t be able to take NBC’s sports rights anytime soon in an interview.
So, what made the Big Ten so appealing to NBC? How much weight did the prospect of Notre Dame joining the conference have in your final decision?
To be perfectly clear, securing the Big Ten was the most important upcoming agreement we were actively pursuing. That was a target of ours. We reasoned that it made sense to take advantage of the reach of what we might accomplish on Saturday evenings on NBC. We had Kevin Warren (Commissioner of the Big Ten) and his staff come to our headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
We did a fantastic job of giving the building a Big Ten feel. We demonstrated to him that NBCU as a whole would support the Big Ten. We put together a video with folks from all over NBCU, not just the NBC Sports department, commenting about their time spent in the Big Ten. Our pitch to Kevin went something like this: “OK, this is our vision: Picture Notre Dame football in the afternoon, followed by Big Ten prime-time football, and then cutting to Saturday Night Live.” Consequently, we placed a premium on making a strong showing in the Big Ten.
According to us, it’s the strongest sports conference in the world. With the inclusion of USC and UCLA, it has become the most widely followed athletic conference in the country.
Our relationship with Notre Dame was one of complete openness throughout the entire process. There was support for this from Notre Dame. Our history with Notre Dame spans over thirty years. We believe the value of our Big Ten cooperation is considerably enhanced by our affiliation with Notre Dame, and the reverse is also true. And it is our hope that this trend will continue.
Do you have any qualms about going up against internet giants like Amazon and Apple, which have vast pockets and can afford to pay a premium for sports rights?
Today’s sports are more intense and competitive than ever before. We’re fortunate to be located on a busy thoroughfare in Peacock, so that’s wonderful news.
Since we have extended our contract for Sunday Night Football. By extending our partnership with the PGA Tour for another decade, we have secured our company’s future for the next two decades. Being re-signed to the Premier League. As of right now, we’re seven years into a contract with the Big Ten. Having an agreement for the Olympic Games till 2032. These extraordinarily potent agreements will keep us protected for the foreseeable future.
I was wondering what your thoughts were on finding a happy medium between broadcasting and streaming sports.
When considering a possible deal, we always ask ourselves, “Would this make more sense on USA, Peacock, NBC, or a hybrid of the three?” Where does our coworker find success with this? The answer to that question is nuanced. You only look at the agreement between the NFL and NBC to see the significance of this phrase. Peacock is where we live-stream all of our games simultaneously.
Starting with the upcoming season, we will be including a whole new, exclusive game every year. However, that proportion is not the same as the Big Ten. NBC airs Big Ten night games, and Peacock has exclusive rights to broadcast a few of contests. That’s not the case with the Premier League, where we have a plethora of original programming and exclusive games on Peacock. The leagues vary. Games vary in number. Consequently, you can’t use a standard formula.
The rights to broadcast the games of the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals were recently sold by NBC. How do you feel about local sports broadcasting?
We will not be leaving the RSN industry anytime soon. The RSN companies we run are successful and growing. The proliferation of sportsbooks in many of the same jurisdictions where our RSNs operate has been a boon to business. We’re looking into what we can do on a business-to-consumer level to keep these companies thriving. The selling of the Washington RSN was unique.
Could you tell me if there are any upcoming rights agreements that might catch your eye?
Our partnership with Nascar is fantastic. The management team has our highest praise for the work they’ve done. And Steve Phelps (Nascar’s president). And on that front, specifically the question of how to proceed with Nascar, we are intent. Plus, our contract with Notre Dame has a few more years to run. We hope to maintain this bond for the next three decades and beyond.
But we don’t hide the fact that the Big 12 and Pac-12 are negotiating a merger, nor do we try to hide the NBA’s involvement in the mix. We will examine what might make sense for us, and if it does, we will absolutely put our best foot forward, just as we would with any other development in the near future that has significant implications for the sports world, such as those transactions.
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