NBC is continuing its investment into college basketball.
After the network announced last week that it would be the home to more than 150 college basketball games this season across NBC, USA Network, and Peacock, the New York Post‘s Ryan Glasspiegel reports that play-by-play announcer John Fanta will contribute to the network’s coverage.
Fanta currently calls college basketball games for Fox Sports, a role he will reportedly continue in addition to his new NBC gig. He also contributes to the digital college basketball outlet The Field of 68. A 2017 graduate of Seton Hall University’s journalism school, Fanta will call both Big Ten and Big East games for NBC.
It’s not the first time that Fox has allowed on of its talents to do double-duty in college hoops. The network has similarly let college basketball analyst Robbie Hummel, who works for Fox and the Big Ten Network, to also call Big Ten games on NBC and Peacock.
NBC has gone from zero to 100 on basketball coverage recently. The network will begin airing a package of NBA games on NBC and Peacock next season alongside its current complement 0f Big Ten, Big East, and Atlantic 10 college basketball.
College basketball is quickly becoming anchor programming for Peacock, with over 120 games scheduled exclusively for the streaming service this year.
Fanta is certainly raising his national profile by adding another network to his resume. And with his extensive experience covering the Big East specifically, he will surely be an asset to NBC’s college hoops coverage.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.