NBC for NHL; Exec Nixes Affiliate $ for ABC Olympic Bid

NBC Outmaneuvers ESPN for NHL Deal

NBC/Universal, in its first significant sports negotiation since the merger with Comcast, extended its relationship with the NHL through 2021 while paying substantially more money for the package.

NBC paid no rights fee -- but split advertising revenue -- in its previous deal with the NHL, while new cable partner Versus paid about $75 million a year. NBC Sports Group Chairman Dick Ebersol said they are "no more than 90 days away from renaming Versus" -- which launched as "Outdoor Life Network" --with "a strong utilization of NBC in the title."

With the Olympic bidding fast approaching, the deal could provide insight into the working relationship between Ebersol, the longtime Olympics chief, and Comcast, which must give the green light to bid for the 2014/2016 Games – and maybe even a package of four Olympics.

The lead negotiator for the IOC says he hopes a deal can be struck by the time of the IOC Session in July.

Citing unnamed sources, The New York Post said there was "growing friction" between the two parties, but Ebersol told reporters Tuesday that "the Comcast experience is a unique one and a very positive one."

Unlike General Electric, which formerly held a controlling interest in NBC (and still has 49 percent), broadcasting is Comcast’s only business. "You have much more access to them all the time," Ebersol says.

He said conversations with Steve Burke and Brian Roberts, Comcast executives who are keen to avoid losing money on the Olympics, "are extraordinary" and "ongoing."

"They are looking to make sure that every aspect has been evaluated that we’re going to make money," Ebersol said. "I don’t ever believe I’m ever going to be let out of the building unless we can show them we’re going to make money."

The IOC has said it expects the U.S. rights fee to exceed the $2 billion-plus paid for Vancouver and London. NBC lost about $223 million on the Vancouver Olympics.

History a Factor

Trusted relationships played a role in the NHL negotiations.

According to Adweek "despite what was essentially a matching bid from Bristol, the league opted to stay" with NBC and Versus.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman credits NBC and Versus with standing by the NHL after the 2004-05 shutdown" when ESPN ended its 21-year run with the league. Bettman said they are "deserving of tremendous credit for the positioning that we find ourselves in today as a sport and a media property."

Bettman also told reporters that NBC Universal/Comcast could be the "largest media distribution company perhaps in the world" and "we could be the single biggest beneficiary."

But ESPN, which is expected to be the strongest competitor for the Olympic rights, was also showered with superlatives – and by Ebersol himself. He said ESPN "in my opinion is the strongest sports operation not only today in the United States, it’s the strongest sports operation that’s ever existed on earth. But they have a lot of properties. And what Versus did all by itself was give an enormous commitment across all of those Comcast platforms to the National Hockey League."

Now the NHL will have a foothold across NBC Universal/Comcast’s 20 television networks and more than 40 digital platforms.

Whether relationships will play a role in the Olympic bidding remains to be seen.

Neal Pilson, an ex-CBS sports chief who consulted with the IOC during rights negotiations for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, tells Around the Rings that he believes NBC is still the favorite to win the Olympic rights.

"NBC/Comcast would seem to be not only the incumbent, but would seem to be the company for whom the Olympics are the most important property," said Pilson, who is now president of the sports consulting firm Pilson Communications. "ESPN and Fox have been very successful without the Olympics; NBC has been successful in some situations because of the Olympics, so I see NBC/Comcast as the front-runner."

ABC Exec Sets Record Straight on Affiliates

Bill Hoffman, chair of the ABC Affiliates Board, tells Around the Rings that he never said affiliates might help ABC/ESPN pay for its Olympics bid.

Hoffman, vice president and general manager of WSB-TV in Atlanta, refuted a story that was picked up by media outlets across the country after it was reported by a website devoted to "the business of broadcasting."

Hoffman said that while "any single affiliate would love to have the Olympics,"he "didn’t give any shape or form of acknowledgment" to a reporter’s question about the affiliates chipping in.

While recognizing that affiliates had helped subsidize key sporting events in the past, such as Monday Night Football, Hoffman said, "I love the Olympics and would love to have the Olympics on (our station), but I’m not commenting on anything happening strategically with the network."

ABC last broadcast the Olympics in 1988 from Calgary. Along with big ratings, the affiliates would benefit from promotional spots.

"We could bring the viewers to TV that are not everyday viewers of TV," Hoffman said, "and are certainly not everyday viewers of your station."

Pilson said that if ABC affiliates did chip in, "it certainly can be very helpful in terms of the bid process for ABC/ESPN, but I don’t think in the aggregate an affiliate contribution would be material in the sense that it would tip the balance."

Live vs. "Plausibly Live"

ESPN has pledged to show events live, so ABC could wind up with taped coverage in primetime, just as NBC has done with its "plausibly live" programming. That’s not necessarily a problem.

"Based on my 35 years of looking at Olympic economics, they don’t really work if you’re showing figure skating at 12 in the afternoon on a Thursday," Pilson said. "There isn’t a sufficient public available to watch. That doesn’t mean that you don’t show an enormous amount of the Olympic programming live, and I think Comcast and ESPN and ABC will do that -- more than ever before."

Pilson said the "real wild card" is whether the networks will bid aggressively for the 2018 and 2020 Olympics.

"How the networks will value Olympic media rights eight to 10 years down the road, that’s harder to calculate for your economic planners," Pilson said.

With only three years until Sochi, Pilson said, "The IOC has given the networks the advantage of relatively current economic planning, so they can bid with a greater degree of confidence given the short term that we’re talking about here. It’s somewhat precedential."

Written by Karen Rosen.