Reader Poll: Which major sporting event should switch broadcast partners?

Outside the Super Bowl, most of the largest sporting events have an exclusive long-term media-rights partner. For many, it’s been such a long-term relationship that it’s hard to imagine what those events would be like on another network or streaming partner.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see CBS’s 45th year handling the presentation and production of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four (which, for the past 16 years, has been done in partnership with TNT Sports). On the women’s side, ESPN will air its 31st consecutive Final Four. The final rounds of The Masters will once again return to CBS, a streak that has been intact since 1956.

Last month, NBC aired its seventh straight Winter Olympics, a streak that dates back to 1998. You have to rewind to 1984 to find a Summer Olympics that NBC didn’t broadcast. This summer, we’ll see Fox air its third consecutive Men’s World Cup, with ESPN ending its run in 2014 (the Women’s World Cup is moving to Netflix). Meanwhile, ABC/ESPN will air its 24th straight NBA Finals, going back to NBC’s reign, which ended in 2002.

This all got us to thinking, which major events are you most happy with from a broadcast standpoint, and which events do you believe would benefit from a new media rights partner?

Below is a list of eight major events that have had the same broadcast partner for over a decade. We’re asking you one simple question for each:

On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you with this event being exclusively aired by this broadcaster? (1 means you are very unhappy with the broadcast partner and desperate for a change. 10 means you are perfectly happy with the broadcaster and would like the event to stay put.)

You’ll have until midnight on Friday to vote. We’ll publish the results next week, along with some reasons why our readers would like to see events move off or remain on a certain broadcaster.

Here is a link to the poll, which is also embedded below. As always, we appreciate your participation!