NBC’s future hinges on the NBA.
That’s the takeaway from Awful Announcing contributor Daniel Kaplan, who attended the network’s Upfront presentation on Monday. NBC Sports made no secret of how crucial the NBA and its streaming service, Peacock, will be to the network’s long-term vision. The announcement also included Michael Jordan coming on board as a “special” contributor.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal reportedly will shell out $2.5 billion annually for its NBA rights package. And that’s before even factoring in the high-profile talent joining the fold, including Jordan, Jamal Crawford, Reggie Miller, Carmelo Anthony, Mike Tirico, and Noah Eagle.
With all these big names in tow, NBC’s dive into sports is ambitious, if not risky.
The network is betting big on sports, locking down three prime-time nights this fall for the NFL, NBA, and Big Ten college football. Great, right? What’s great for some may not be so great for others. The proverbial elephant in the room is that NBC’s focus on sports leaves little, if any, room for the network’s usual entertainment programming.
As The Wall Street Journal reported last summer, NBC’s entertainment division is bracing for significant budget cuts. With the NBA taking over primetime slots, NBC’s entertainment content must take a backseat, and Peacock’s original programming budget is expected to shrink.
Executives inside NBCUniversal differ over the wisdom of the deal, with some saying spending so much on the NBA is a bad idea and others saying it will supercharge NBC’s streaming business. The long-term value of NBA rights will hinge partly on how many subscribers Peacock is able to sign up.
Pricing is also a factor: NBC would likely raise prices for Peacock once it has the NBA, a person familiar with the planning said, to boost revenue as sports costs grow.
NBC entertainment executives are bracing for significant budget cuts. NBC won’t need as much prime-time entertainment content, with the NBA taking that real estate a few days a week, and Peacock’s original content budget will likely be reduced significantly, entertainment executives said.
Other potential areas to mine for savings include Peacock’s content deals for movies and TV shows with the Universal studio.
Joe Flint, Amol Sharma and Isabella Simonetti of the WSJ reported at the time that the potential deal was stirring tension between the divisions led by Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group and the driving force behind the NBA push (who will now head NBC’s spinoff, Versant), and Donna Langley, who oversees NBCUniversal’s film and TV entertainment as chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and chief content officer.
In short, the reporting at the time suggested that NBCUniversal is relying on the NBA to help turn Peacock around after the streaming service reported a $639 million loss in its then-most recent quarter (around June 2024), with the company focused on making it profitable in the future.
This entire gamble on the NBA could either be the game-changer that transforms Peacock into a streaming powerhouse or the high-stakes misfire that forces the company to rethink its whole strategy.