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Of all of the hoopla and star power that was unleased during the old school Upfronts earlier this month few were as inspiring and as well received as the appearance of John Tesh live and in person to perform his ROUNDBALL ROCK which will be resurrected along with the network’s return to NBA basketball which will occupy two nights of prime time beginning this fall. It was not only an homage to nostalgia but a signal that NBC is leaning more heavily on sports than ever before to power the network and its still-struggling streaming entity Peacock, which is usually relevant and statistically reportable only when it airs significant live sports.
So it shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise when this report from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’s ever-diligent Joe Flint and Jared Diamond turned up on pretty much every social media platform I–and I’ll further surmise you– have access to:
Comcast’s NBCUniversal has made an offer to Major League Baseball to take over the package of regular-season and postseason games that ESPN is walking away from, offering much less than its rival currently pays, according to people familiar with the matter.
ESPN in February exercised a clause to opt out of the final three years of its $550 million-a-year contract after the 2025 season. The move ended a 35-year partnership with MLB and put the rights into play for others.
If the bid is successful, NBC would air games on Sunday night, the slot ESPN has occupied since 1990. Games would also appear on NBC’s sister streaming service, Peacock. NBC is also interested in ESPN’s rights to the first round of the postseason and the annual Home Run Derby.
The NBC offer was made earlier this month, but MLB and NBC had been talking for several weeks prior to that, one of the people involved said. League commissioner Rob Manfred has also discussed a potential deal with Brian Roberts, chief executive of NBC parent Comcast, people familiar with the matter said.\
Most baseball fans know that flirtation goes back longer than that. Peacock actually carried a Sunday morning slate of games for two seasons in 2022-23, typically with an 11:35 am start time which underachieved even modest expectations. But there were several handicaps to it–the start time did allow for the game to begin uncontested by other games, but the full slate of local games began just as the later innings were commencing, inevitably resulting in tune-out. And because it was a test the games tended to involve lesser-quality Eastern Time Zone teams, and even the most addicted baseball lovers among us can only be so interested in yet another Pittsburgh Pirates tilt (especially if Paul Skenes isn’t pitching).
That said, the production was high-quality and it featured some outstanding younger announcers who gave full props and mass respect to the even deeper history that NBC has with baseball. The theme music, a la this iteration of Roundball Rock, was resurrected from the Saturday afternoon package of the mid-80s, perhaps the last gasp of a tradition that began decades earlier before cable or even the growth of local independent stations provided ample alternatives. In its heyday THE GAME OF THE WEEK was appointment viewing and often the only chance fans in a one-team market could see teams from the other league. And if you’re slightly older than the folks who rocked to Tesh at the upfronts, you probably have at least some recollection of at least tapping your feet to some of the other themes NBC Sports used to open their broadcasts. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s Jason Foster certainly recalled them and paid loving tribute to them in a 2015 article that provides YouTube links to those tunes and a few others that might bring back some warm fuzzies. And that’s a point not lost on the likes of LARRY BROWN SPORTS’ Grey Papke:
MLB might prefer NBC no matter what, as it gives them a highly-visible partner that has invested in sports on a large scale. It would also be a nod to the sport’s past, as NBC was one of the league’s top broadcast partners from 1947 to 1989 and has been the home of 37 different World Series.
There are other more current needs and opportunties driving this offer that support its viability. Flint and Diamond pointed out a couple of others:
NBC also has rights to air National Football League and, starting later this year, National Basketball Association games on Sundays. It would air some baseball games on the broadcast network and others on Peacock when NBC is carrying other sports.
Separately, Versant, the company comprising NBCUniversal cable channels including USA Network, is interested in potentially acquiring a baseball package. Versant isn’t part of NBC’s discussions with MLB.
And NEWSCAST STUDIO’s Michael P. Hill noted this morning yet another factor of relevance:
For its part, the MLB has also been rethinking its media deals and may consolidate them after the 2028 season after its current slate of contracts expire. This model would involve teams letting MLB sell local rights to their games as part of a streaming offering. In exchange, teams would receive a revenue share.
MLB currently has taken stewardship of five teams’ coverage once in the hands of the entity now known as FanDuel Sports Network–the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cleveland Guardians, the San Diego Padres, the Minnesota Twins and, such as they are, the Colorado Rockies. NBC still operates regional sports networks and carries three teams from significantly larger markets–the Philadelphia Phillies, the San Francisco Giants and the nomadic Athletics currently touched down in Sacramento, such as they are. Bringing those teams into the fold could provide enough of a portfolio of potential games that could be carved out of local packages that could fill an opportunistic void for, say, a Monday Night Baseball resurrection that could help fill the void on, say, USA which the departure of WWE left them. And bringing on the talents of NBC to serve as a full-fledged partner for those local games will only help the quality and appeal of those broadcasts. Anyone who has watched side-by-side a Twins game and a Giants game can tell the difference, so sayeth moi who regularly has the quad-split view from MLB.com open on his laptop every day and night.
All in all, it seems like a more robust offering of MLB games and windows that plays right into Comcast’s sports-centric strategy could be a win-win proposition. If NBC can go back to the future with basketball the potential for baseball to follow suit makes a ton of sense. I will concede that you might not be as wedded to the old-school themes that are connected with NBC’s history as I am, so maybe a new approach to that would be warranted. Tesh is not only back in NBC’s camp, he is now squarely in the demo that will be watching baseball. Have at it, boo.
Courage…