The United States Olympic TV rights for 2014 & 2016 go up for bid this week with both Disney/ABC/ESPN & Fox being expected to make a big challenge to outbid the NBC Sports Group as the exclusive United States TV provider of the Olympic Games.
The sports media blog, fangsbites.com does a great job of handicapping who the favorites are, so I won't go into detail there as to who the favorites and long shots are.
When Dick Ebersol, the man responsible for NBC's coverage of the Olympics, announced he was leaving NBC Sports, it set off a wave of speculation across sports media blogs and message boards that NBC's run at covering the Olympics was coming to an end. I don't think that's going to happen, in fact, I think NBC will severely overpay and retain the United States TV rights for the Olympic Games.
In my opinion, if NBC Sports lost the Olympic Games it would be a massive black eye to the NBC Sports "brand". Other than the Olympics, what are the other marquee events for NBC Sports? Sunday Night Football, that's it. Yes, NBC has the TV rights to the NHL, but the ratings for the Stanley Cup Finals don't even come close to what ABC is getting for their coverage of the NBA Finals. Notre Dame football is a shell of what it once was in the early 90's when NBC Sports became televising home Notre Dame games. Horse Racing's Triple Crown is only big if a horse is actually in contention to win the Triple Crown and the USGA's US Open and the finals of the French Open are niche sporting events at best. In fact, if Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson aren't in contention, forget about the US Open being a big ratings hit.
Unlike Disney/ABC/ESPN, the sports inventory at NBC isn't that great and that's why I think you'll see the NBC Sports Group "break the bank" and maintain the United States TV rights for the 2014 & 16 Olympic Games, espically after the NBC Sports Group lost out on the new Pac 12 TV package to Fox Sports and Disney/ESPN.
No comments:
Post a Comment