NBC News wants to play a game that has not always interested the nation’s biggest purveyors of TV news.
As NBC Sports prepares its coverage for this weekend’s Kentucky Derby, NBC News’ digital outlet, NBCNews.com, will feature a hub that offers content from NBC Sports, access to NBC Sports’ free ad-supported streaming channel and sports coverage from a team NBC News has been building to cover sports. Also on hand: sports explainers from Steve Kornacki. The new sports hub will also surface in NBC News’ mobile app.
There is more to come, says Rebecca Blumenstein, president of editorial for NBC News. “We are combining NBC Sports’ deep expertise and exclusive content with the editorial strengths and wide reach of NBC News to establish a destination on NBCNews.com for smart, accessible sports coverage for a broad audience. Sports has a growing influence on American culture, and this collaboration comes as interest in major leagues, events, moments and athletes are greater than ever.”
At TV companies, sports coverage has often been the province of a network’s sports division. While local stations always feature a regular anchor for sports news, there’s rarely a break from David Muir on, say, “World News Tonight” for the scores of the day. Offering that, of course, could dissuade a viewer from wandering over to ESPN – like ABC News, part of Walt Disney — and watching an hour of “Sports Center.”
Nor have cable-news outlets devoted much time to sports coverage in recent years. CNN once made sports a staple of its lineup, with a nightly show anchored by Nick Charles called “Sports Tonight.” In a different era, CNN even launched a sports-news network, CNN/SI. And Fox News Media has tested sports concepts, launching a documentary about the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide in February for its Fox Nation streaming service.
There may be more reasons now to open a new playbook. Sports programming has become increasingly important to the economics of traditional media outlets — particularly NBC. The network already devotes Sunday nights to NFL football games, and will, thanks to the debut of a new rights deal with the NBA, add basketball as many as two nights per week (and a third on the Peacock streaming hub). Indeed, next February, NBC will feature hours of Winter Olympics coverage as well as a Super Bowl.
Other NBC News outlets have tried to follow the ball. At “Today,” co-anchors Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie have described an effort aimed at weaving more sports into the program, reflecting NBC’s ties to the NFL and the NBA. Melvin has also taken part in Olympics coverage and is expected to do so again for next year’s Winter Olympics in Milan.
CNBC has in recent months also put a new focus on sports. The business-news outlet now operates a vertical devoted to the business of sports ,and its offering includes a weekly newsletter, events, data and even documentaries. The venture is a separate one from NBC News, and will likely remain so. CNBC is among the properties slated to be spun off into a new publicly traded company by the end of the year.
NBC News has launched an editorial team devoted to sports. Editor Greg Rosenstein joined from The Athletic, while Rohan Nadkarni came from Sports Illustrated. Andrew Grief, a former sports reporter for the Los Angeles Times, also contributes.
NBC News will next tackle the Preakness Stakes on May 17. “We’re excited to continue to build on this,” says Blumenstein.
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