The news that Comcast will spinoff the majority of NBCUniversal’s cable channels came sooner than many anticipated.
And after Wednesday morning’s official announcement, sports fans are left wondering about what’s going to happen to NBC’s extensive suite of live sports properties on cable. These would include Premier League soccer and NASCAR on USA, PGA, LPGA, and DP World Tour events on Golf Channel, track and field on CNBC, and various events on E! during the Olympics every two years.
At the Sports Business Journal Media Innovators conference, NBC Sports president Rick Cordella offered some assurances to the leagues they are partnered with.
“From a sports perspective, the partners that we have on cable assets like Golf Channel and USA, we’re going to fulfill every obligation, every promise we made to them across NBC, which we call RemainCo, and across SpinCo which is the cable assets. We’re going to fulfill every single promise we have,” Cordella told Abe Madkour of SBJ.
For fans that means it’s unlikely much will change, at least for now. There’s speculation about whether NBC’s branding will be as prevalent (or exist at all) with the SpinCo entities. For instance, MSNBC and CNBC will reportedly be separated from the NBC News operation that remains at the mother ship, and may undergo a rebranding.
Of course, with the SpinCo’s primary goal being profitability, it’s not out of the question that cost-cutting could result in broadcast standards being lowered. There have already been industry-wide shifts towards remote productions and other cost-cutting measures that decrease the quality of a broadcast. The PGA Tour recently finished a brand new production center in Ponte Vedra, Florida so it can do more remote broadcasts. It’s not difficult to imagine these trends could accelerate at the new SpinCo.
It will also be interesting to see how properties that air on both NBC’s broadcast stations and cable channels are handled.
Comcast’s spinoff could portend even more change in the cable industry.
“It’s probably just a microcosm of our larger industry, what’s happening,” Cordella suggested.
In all likelihood the spinoff — assuming it leads to a sale or new acquisitions — will lead to even more fragmentation in live sports. That’s not want fans want to hear, but it seems to be the reality we’re headed towards.
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.