{"id":58329,"date":"2021-01-23T11:08:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T18:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/?p=58329"},"modified":"2021-01-23T11:08:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T18:08:19","slug":"nbcsn-is-shutting-down-at-years-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/23\/nbcsn-is-shutting-down-at-years-end\/","title":{"rendered":"NBCSN Is Shutting Down At Years End!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The NBC Sports Network is shutting down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network will stop operations by the end of 2021, a person familiar with the plan confirmed to CNBC.<\/strong> NBC will transfer its sports media rights, including the National Hockey League, to USA Network.<\/strong> The person spoke to CNBC on condition of anonymity as the individual isn\u2019t allowed to comment publicly on the matter. Both networks are owned by CNBC parent company NBCUniversal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan to halt operations will allow NBC to attract more reach for its sports content. USA Network is available in 86 million homes<\/strong>, while NBCSN has an estimated 80 million household reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBCUniversal initially hoped NBC Sports Network would be its response to Disney\u2019s ESPN<\/strong> — a cable sports network that could justify high affiliate fees from pay-TV distributors because of its popular sports content. Twenty-first Century Fox developed Fox Sports 1 and CBS introduced CBS Sports Network for similar reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But none of the cable sports networks have ever seriously threatened ESPN, and the media industry\u2019s move toward streaming video has made linear sports networks anachronistic. NBCUniversal is considering shutting down several networks, CNBC reported in October, to consolidate its best assets in fewer networks. Shuttering underperforming cable networks could allow legacy media companies to keep the shrinking cable bundle afloat while maintaining subscription revenue by boosting fees for its existing networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network started in the 1990s as the Outdoor Life Network,<\/strong> then was rebranded to Versus <\/strong>in 2006. Comcast owned the network when it took over NBCUniversal in 2011, and rebranded it as the NBC Sports Network at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NHL playoff games, a selection of NASCAR races, and Premier League content will transfer to USA Network after NBCSN closes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stamford, Connecticut-based network took over NHL rights with a 10-year, $2 billion package <\/strong>in 2011. The agreement runs through the current 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBCSN also has a $4.4 billion rights package<\/strong> with NASCAR that expires in 2024 and coming up on its renewal option with European\u2019s soccer Premier League rights (worth roughly $1 billion). The network moved some of those games to NBC\u2019s streaming service, Peacock, last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the future<\/strong>
Longtime sports media rights advisor Lee Berke <\/strong>said the move is \u201cback to the future\u201d for USA Network airing sports content. The channel was originally a national distribution arm for Madison Square Garden Sports Network<\/strong>, airing sports content including the National Basketball Association until 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that sports is returning to USA isn\u2019t a new concept,\u201d Berke told CNBC in an interview on Friday. \u201cCertainly the distribution is helpful but this move is reflective of a couple of things — the pay TV bundle is shrinking. Subscriber base is shrinking. So, it justifies fewer networks to be on the air and the other part of it is the growth of streaming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berke, the CEO of LHB Sports, a sports consultancy firm, said streaming trends is forcing network to reinvent themselves \u201cas consumer viewing behavior changes. There was a migration of sports from broadcast to cable over the past 20, 30 years when pay TV became bigger and bigger. And now you\u2019re seeing sports migrating to streaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think its a sensible move given the trends that are taking place,\u201d said Berke of NBCSN\u2019s closure. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to stay ahead of the wave. You don\u2019t want to be behind it and miss out. But this makes sense based off where pay TV is heading and base on where streaming is heading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NBC Sports Network is shutting down! The network will stop operations by the end of 2021, a person familiar with the plan confirmed to CNBC. NBC will transfer its … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2342,2231,1443,1441,1442,403,3],"tags":[6920,6923,1207,6921,6922,6919],"class_list":["post-58329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cup-series","category-imsa","category-nascar","category-oreilly-auto-parts-series","category-ncts","category-indy-cars-open-wheel-racing","category-open-wheel-racing","tag-cnbc","tag-nbc-shutting-down","tag-nbc-sports-network","tag-nbc-universal","tag-nbcsn-shuttering","tag-usa-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pyPEW-faN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58331,"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58329\/revisions\/58331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workingonmyredneck.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}