Breaking News

These are the 20 best travel destinations for summer 2024, according to Google Flight Searches 3 Google Maps updates to make summer travel easier SPACECENT is up the new war zone > United States Space Force > Article Display Tuberculosis — United States, 2023 | MMWR Thousands of US bridges are vulnerable to collapse from a single hit: NTSB Why don’t the Blazers or ROOT Sports offer standalone streaming? Up to 200,000 people estimated to travel to Vermont for total solar eclipse How fast will April’s total solar eclipse travel? The UN Security Council demands a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan Mexico in the emerging world order

LIV Golf, the new Saudi-backed golf circuit, continues to lure big-name players away from the PGA Tour with the promise of massive paydays. But the head of one of the tour’s broadcast partners said he is not worried.

“There’s no tour in golf like the PGA Tour,” NBC Sports president Pete Bevacqua said in an interview. “It’s like no other.”

Last week the PGA Tour said it would expand its calendar of marquee events and pay more golfers next year as it tries to fend off the threat of LIV, a move that drew praise from Bevacqua.

“We feel very positive about the health of the PGA Tour and some of the recent moves by [Commissioner] Jay Monahan and the Tour,” he said. “We feel good about where things are going.” He added that NBC is “taking care of everything” and working “to ensure that the best players in the world continue to play on the best tour in the world.”

In 2020, Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, which owns the Golf Channel, agreed to renew its PGA Tour rights for nine years along with CBS and ESPN. NBC’s sports portfolio also includes the NFL, Premier League soccer, Notre Dame soccer and the Olympics. Earlier this month, the media company teamed up with Fox and CBS to buy the rights to broadcast the Big Ten Conference.

In the interview, Bevacqua also discussed his vision for regional sports networks, how NBC made the Big Ten’s pitch, and Apple Inc . and Amazon.com Inc. like competitors will soon have trouble taking away NBC’s sports rights.

Why was the Big Ten attractive to NBC? How big was your decision about the possibility of Notre Dame joining the conference?

I would unequivocally tell you that trying to secure the Big Ten was at the top of our strategic priority list of major deals. We had that covered. It made sense to use the strength of what we could do on NBC on Saturday nights. We brought [Big Ten Commissioner] Kevin Warren and his team to our headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. We really made the building a Big Ten presence. We showed him how all of NBCU would rally around the Big Ten. We’ve put together a video featuring not only people from our NBC Sports team talking about their Big Ten education and experiences, but NBCU as a whole. We said to Kevin, “Okay, here’s our vision: Imagine Notre Dame Football in the afternoon, going to prime-time Big Ten football and directing Saturday Night Live.” So it was a real priority for us to play aggressively in the Big One. We believe it is the strongest conference in the field of sports. It is the most national conference in sports, especially with the addition of Southern Cal and UCLA.

We were consistently transparent with Notre Dame throughout the process. Notre Dame was all for it. We have a relationship with Notre Dame that spans over three decades. We believe that our Notre Dame association greatly increases the value of our Big Ten association, and we believe that our Big Ten association greatly increases the value of our Notre Dame association. And we want to continue doing so.

Worried about competing against tech companies like Amazon and Apple for sports rights?

Sports are competitive and stronger than ever. The good news for us is that we like where we’re located: we have a streaming avenue at Peacock. After renewing his Sunday Night Football deal. After renewing our agreement with the PGA Tour for the next decade. After renewal with the Premier League. Just signed a seven-year deal with the Big Ten. Having an agreement for the Winter and Summer Olympic Games until 2032. We have vital powerful deals locked in for the next decade.

How do you feel about striking a balance between televising and streaming sports?

We look at each potential transaction as: Where does this make sense for us – in the US, at Peacock, at NBC or some combination? And where does it work for our partner? And that changes. Think about the NFL Sunday Night Football deal. We simulcast our games on Peacock. Starting next year we will be adding an exclusive game every season. But that ratio is different than the Big Ten. We have our Big Ten primetime games on NBC and then we have additional games exclusively on the Peacock. This differs from the Premier League where we have much more exclusive content and games on the Peacock. The leagues are different. The number of games is different. So there’s no cookie-cutter pattern here.

NBC recently sold the channel that broadcasts the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals. What is your view on regional sports networks?

We have no plans to exit the RSN business. Our RSN businesses are healthy and thriving. In many places where there are RSNs, sports betting has taken off and this has helped business. We’re looking at ways to keep these businesses strong and healthy, and what we can do at a direct-to-consumer level. The Washington RSN sale was very timely.

Are there other copyrights you are interested in?

We have a wonderful relationship with Nascar. We think the world of their leadership team and the work they’ve done. And (Nascar president) Steve Phelps. And that’s what we’re focused on, what we can continue to do with Nascar. And we’re still several years away from the Notre Dame deal. We want to keep this relationship strong for three decades. But we’re not shy about the Big 12 and Pac 12 deal on the horizon and the NBA. Like anything else around the bend that’s material to the sports world like those transactions, we’ll look at it and see what makes sense for us, if it makes sense for us to put our best foot forward.

Sign up for the Fortune Features email list so you don’t miss out on our biggest features, exclusive interviews and research.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *