MLB Helps NBC Grow As Third Player In ESPN-Fox Sports Rights War
ESPN and Fox’s ongoing battle (revolving in part around the Big Ten) has taken up countless sports media headlines in recent years. And while the two entities continue to duke it out, a third major entity has also quietly redeclared its sports intentions.
NBC, always a power player in sports, had seemingly taken a back seat to its louder counterparts at (ESPN parent company) Disney and Fox. Yet, its latest addition — taking over Sunday Night Baseball and first round MLB playoff action — is the latest example of how it’s very much in the same stratosphere as the other two U.S. sports right giants.
It wasn’t long ago where that NBC seemed to lag behind ESPN and Fox.
Though NBC retained valuable properties like NFL Sunday Night Football broadcasts, the Olympics and Notre Dame football (along with other rights like the English Premier League), they’d also lost the NHL to ESPN and what was then Turner Sports (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery).
NBC shuttered its sports cable channel, NBC Sports Network, and looked to be taking a back seat to others in favor of nailing premium events.
But in the last few years, NBC carved out a portion of the Big Ten media package, nabbed a third of the NBA’s new TV rights deal, and now, tacked on MLB rights as well. NBC has so much sports inventory now that it warranted bringing back NBCSN.
The MLB deal is of particular importance because it effectively gives the network (and by extension, NBCSN and Peacock) domain over Sunday nights year-round.
NFL games will own Sunday nights from September to early January every year, before transitioning the evening to NBA games in that showcase window. When the regular season wraps up there, the window moves to MLB games, before handing back off to football come September.
Owning Sunday nights during football season is impressive, but expected given the stature of the NFL. Doing so year-round is an achievement borne from how much of a staple NBC has made Sunday Night Football between the quality of production, shoulder programming and the games themselves (so much so that the SNF package itself is worth almost as much as much as CBS’s afternoon slate, despite fewer games).
Of course, NBC also has to show that it can do it with these other sports. The network is certainly on the right track, however.
Early returns on the NBA season’s TV audience shows increases across the board, and one could imply (as I did recently) that NBC growing reach via broadcast TV is at least part of the reason why.
Interestingly, as NBC grows its cache of sports rights, it has also avoided compromising its emphasis on premium events; which one could argue is its key differentiator vs. ESPN and Fox. That’s not a knock on the latter two networks either. But more a reality of both owning such large collections of sports rights.
ESPN, in particular, has premium events. But is going to sell consumers on its new standalone streaming service with volume and renewed ubiquity in the sports rights space. That point was also hammered home in this week’s MLB announcement, which along with the NBC side of things, also confirmed long-rumored Netflix carve-outs and ESPN taking over MLB.TV.
So while NBC has entrenched itself in key windows and properties, ESPN’s approach funnels sports fans in via any number of entry points: Both major and minor college sporting events, MLB and NHL out-of-market games, national NFL, NHL and NBA contests, plus a multitude of lesser sports as well.
Theoretically, those ideas can work in tandem, and consumers can find value subscribing to both. But in an environment where streaming prices are rising and many consumers are no longer tuning in via traditional TV packages, it may force some choices. We’ll soon see which one ends up winning out.
