History of NBC Sports

NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others. Assets currently include among others NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel and Comcast SportsNet.

Early years

NBC Sports' history can be traced back to May 17, 1939, when experimental television station W2XBS in New York City (which would eventually become WNBC-TV) televised an intercollegiate baseball game between Columbia and Princeton.^[1] That year, W2XBS would also televise a boxing match between former heavyweight champion Max Baer and Lou Nova at Madison Square Garden,^[2] a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers from Ebbets Field,^[3] and a professional football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National Football League.^[4] All were firsts for the respective sports.

After the end of World War II, sporting events were staples of the nascent NBC television network. NBC televised the Army–Navy Game in 1945, hailed by sports writers at the time as "The Game of the Century."^[5] In 1946, the Cavalcade of Sports, a primetime sports anthology program known mainly for its boxing matches, debuted on the network. NBC would televise boxing, usually on Friday nights, until it cancelled the program in 1960. In 1947, NBC televised Games 1 and 5 of the World Series in the New York metropolitan area (CBS televised Games 3 and 4, while the DuMont Television Network televised Games 2, 6 and 7).

1950s

Beginning in 1950, NBC Sports became the exclusive broadcaster of the World Series, a status that would last for 26 consecutive years. In 1957, the network began televising the Game of the Week. Except for the 1965 season, NBC would televise Saturday afternoon games for the next three decades. The network expanded its sports lineup to include the NBA, college and professional football, as well as championship events. In 1952, NBC became the broadcast home of the Rose Bowl; a relationship that lasted for 37 years until 1988.

In 1955, the network paid $100,000 to air the NFL Championship. An employee of NBC played a small part in "The Greatest Game Ever Played." During overtime of the 1958 NFL Championship, NBC lost its feed from Yankee Stadium. A technician ran onto the field and stopped play long enough for the feed to be restored. The game was a watershed moment in the history of the NFL, establishing professional football as a nationally popular television property and beginning the upward surge of the league's popularity.

1960s

CBS would take over the exclusive broadcast rights to the NFL, including the Championship Game, in 1964. The following year, NBC obtained the broadcast rights to the upstart American Football League. In 1966, the two leagues agreed to merge. As part of the merger, the two leagues' champions would play a World Championship Game, eventually renamed the Super Bowl. Rather than award the broadcast rights of the game to either CBS or NBC, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle decided to have both networks televise it. NBC commentators Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman called the game, while CBS produced the telecast that aired on both networks. In subsequent years, the Super Bowl would alternate between NBC and CBS. After the merger was completed in 1970, NBC would broadcast games from the American Football Conference, composed of the former AFL teams as well as three teams from the old NFL.

1970s

In 1971, at the behest of commissioner Bowie Kuhn, NBC televised Game 4 of the World Series in prime time. It was the first time that a Series game had been played at night, the game attracted an audience of 61 million people. Starting the next season, all Series games held on a weekday would be played at or after 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time; NBC would also begin broadcasting regular-season games on Monday nights during the summer, when reruns of other shows would otherwise be broadcast. On April 8, 1974, NBC televised a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves in which Hank Aaron of the Braves hit his 715th career home run, breaking the career mark previously held by Babe Ruth.

In 1972, NBC became the broadcast home of the National Hockey League (NBC previously televised the 1966 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which marked the first time that hockey games were televised in color). Among the innovations introduced by NBC was Peter Puck, an animated character in the form of a hockey puck, who explained the rules of hockey to television viewers unfamiliar with the sport. In addition, the network requested that players wear names on the backs of their jerseys for the NBC Hockey Game of the Week. Nameplates would become standard in the NHL.

Beginning in 1969, NBC televised college basketball, including the NCAA Tournament. In 1979, NBC televised the NCAA Championship that pitted future NBA rivals Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Johnson's Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird's Indiana State Sycamores, 75-64. The game earned a 24.1 rating, the highest ever for a college basketball game.

1980s

By this time, NBC was mired in third place in the ratings, however sports remained a valuable television commodity for the network. In addition to the typically massive audience that watched the Super Bowl, NBC's broadcasts of the 1978 and 1980 World Series each earned a 32.8 rating, with the former being watched by an average of 44 million people and the latter by 42 million.^[6] This powerful sports lineup, coupled with a resurgent prime time schedule featuring hit shows like The Cosby Show and Cheers, would put NBC back on top of the ratings by the middle of the decade. In December 1988, CBS obtained the exclusive broadcast rights to Major League Baseball, outbidding NBC and ABC^[7] and ending NBC's tenure as the home of baseball after 43 years.

In 1989, former ABC Sports and Saturday Night Live producer Dick Ebersol became president of NBC Sports. Ebersol's early tenure at NBC Sports was highlighted by a string of sports-property acquisitions and renewals, including the Olympic Games, NFL, NBA and Notre Dame football.

1990s

After CBS had wrestled baseball from NBC, the latter obtained the broadcast rights of the National Basketball Association in a four-year, $600 million deal.^[8] The 1990s would be an era of unprecedented popularity for the NBA, spearheaded by the Chicago Bulls dynasty of Michael Jordan. In 1991, NBC obtained the rights to Notre Dame home games in a $38 million deal, the first time an individual college football team had its own broadcast agreement.^[9]

In 1994, after a four-year hiatus, Major League Baseball returned to NBC as part of a new joint venture with ABC called "The Baseball Network", a broadcasting arrangement in which the league produced its own telecasts and split advertising revenue with NBC and ABC.^[10] The two networks would televise regional games on Friday and Saturday nights, and would alternate coverage of the All-Star Game, the newly created Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series. The 1994 Major League Baseball strike disrupted the plan, which proved unpopular with fans, and it was abandoned after the 1995 season. NBC would continue broadcasting baseball, albeit on a reduced basis. It was during this period, with the broadcast rights of the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, and the Olympics, that the network adopted the mantle of "America’s Sports Leader."

During the 1995-96 television season, for the only time in history, the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Summer Olympics were telecast by the same network. It was following this run in 1996 that The Sporting News named Ebersol the "Most Powerful Person in Sports".^[11] In 1998, CBS would take over the AFC rights from NBC, ending the network's 38-year tenure with the NFL. CBS had previously lost the National Football Conference rights to upstart network Fox, and was by that point struggling in the ratings.

2000s–present

References