Rumor: IndyCar and NASCAR broadcaster NBCSN to be shutdown

While IndyCar’s three-year media-rights deal with NBC Sports goes through this year, and renewal talks will commence around May, the series is free to talk to other networks to gauge any potential interest and intends to do so, Mark Miles told Sports Business Daily.

Recall that ABC/ESPN actually submitted a higher bid than NBC for the current IndyCar deal. IndyCar chose the network that would bring them the lowest possible TV ratings – NBCSN, and the lower revenue. How did that work out?

If more intelligence prevails this time, it could mean that in 2022 IndyCar will move to 100% ABC/ESPN/ESPN International. However, the NBCSN IndyCar production crew was great, and it would be good to see them move over to the ABC/ESPN platform.

The other big advantage for IndyCar to move to ABC/ESPN is ESPN International. When the series left ABC they lost ESPN International’s global distribution and for the most part, IndyCar went ‘black on TV sets outside of the United States.

January 23, 2021

NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua announced the channel’s shutdown on Friday in an internal memo to staff.

“After 2021, we have decided that the best strategic next step for our Sports Group and the entire Company is to wind down NBCSN completely,” Bevacqua said in the memo.

Bevacqua said in the memo that Stanley Cup playoff games and NASCAR races would be moving to the USA Network this year. USA Network is available in 85.6 million homes, vs 80.1 million for NBCSN.

NASCAR, which has its races from July through November on NBC and NBCSN, has a deal through 2024.

AutoWeek reported NASCAR’s statement on the move, which appears to be positive:

“We are committed to ensuring that NASCAR and IMSA races are carried and distributed smartly to our broad and loyal fan base. NBC is a best-in-class partner and we will work together to ensure continued high-quality delivery of our events now and in the future.”

Looks like NASCAR could move over as early as this summer, but the network has not committed to a broadcasting home for other types of motorsports or auto shows.

IndyCar’s contract, which includes the Indianapolis 500 on NBC, expires at the end of this year. The sanctioning body said in a statement that NBC “has always been a transparent partner, and we were aware of this upcoming strategy shift.”

In additional to the USA Network’s existing programming, with NASCAR and the NHL squeezing into open time slots, it doesn’t sound like there is any room on the USA Network for IndyCar.

This could mean that in 2022 IndyCar will move to 100% ABC/ESPN/ESPN International. However, the NBCSN IndyCar production crew was great, and it would be good to see them move over to the ABC/ESPN platform.

January 22, 2021

This rumor is upgraded to ‘fact’ today. ESPN has won that war.

NBCUniversal will shutter its NBCSN sports network, and move some, but not all, of its top sports properties to the USA network.

NBCUniversal has told its distributors it intends to shut down NBCSN at the end of 2021, according to a person familiar with the matter.

NBCU’s top sports properties include NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA racing, National Hockey League contests and English Premier League football. USA is not going to become an all-sports network, this person cautioned. It remained unclear whether the move would affect NBC Sports employees; the division recently experienced staffing cuts as part of a restructuring at NBCUniversal as it grapples with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

December 23, 2020

NBCSN, the home of the Premier League in the United States and more than 50% of IndyCar races, could be completely gone within the next 12 months, according to a prediction by a top media journalist.

Fans of the Premier League in the United States have for the last several years been accustomed to a default linear TV channel to watch the league. NBCSN has been the home of most Premier League linear telecasts in the U.S. since August 2013. However, last week, highly-respected writer John Ourand of Sports Business Journal echoed much of the chatter in the media industry making the prediction for 2021 that NBCSN will be gone by year’s end.

Ourand predicted:

Late in the year — think November or December — NBC will shut down its sports channel and move NHL and EPL programming to USA Network and Peacock. The move is part of a strategy to grow NBC’s streaming service, while keeping its big entertainment channel relevant in a cord-cutting world. The move creates a glut of smaller programming — like car shows and dog shows — in the media marketplace.

Broadcast television has changed remarkably since Comcast completed its buyout of NBCUniversal in early 2013. Later that year, the Premier League debuted on NBCSN, a channel which was previously owned by Comcast prior to the merger with NBCUniversal and called Versus.

It is logical that NBCUniversal would look to consolidate content and close down NBCSN. For starters, the channel as a stand-alone property doesn’t bring either the viewership numbers nor the carriage fees that Disney’s ESPN sports channels do. Secondly, NBCSN content can be spread easily to Peacock to give NBC a competitive boost in its battle against Disney and Viacom-owned streaming competitors that mix sports, entertainment and news.

Streaming content, which was a supplementary add-on for most cable viewers in 2013, has as 2021 approaches become for many consumers an outright substitute for cable. For many Premier League viewers in the U.S., it might be easier to have access to all league content via Peacock, NBC’s over-the-air channel and USA Network, which is on basic cable in most places, than to have to keep a premium cable tier/sports pack to receive NBCSN. In a world of cord-cutting, while a shutdown of NBCSN would inconvenience some Premier League fans, for many it might provide an opportunity to consolidate viewing platforms and reduce costs.

Ourand made another NBC-related Premier League prediction which has far greater long-term implications for the league’s viewership in the U.S. than the potential shutdown of NBCSN. He predicted:

NBC will start negotiating a new EPL deal early in the summer. Even though other media companies will try to grab those rights, NBC will lock them up for another six-year term. NBC will create more windows on its broadcast channel, plus run games on USA Network and Peacock, while keeping the most matches behind a paywall on Peacock.

For the record, this prediction, unlike the one about NBCSN shutting down, surprised me. I have been operating for the last 12-18 months under the assumption that the flat lining of Premier League ratings on both NBC and NBCSN, the likely shutdown of NBCSN, as well as the gravitating of content to behind a paywall was a sign NBC was trying to recoup losses incurred on the current 6-year rights deal the broadcaster made with the league in 2015. As a result of these factors, I felt that in all likelihood, the Premier League would begin life with another U.S. media partner at the end of this rights cycle, in August 2022. World Soccer Talk