NBCSN is an American cable and digital cable TV channel owned by NBC Sports Group's NBCUniversal division. It was originally launched on July 1, 1995, as an Outdoor Life Network (OLN), dedicated to programming primarily involving fishing, hunting, outdoor adventure programs, and outdoor sports. At the turn of the 21st century, OLN became better known for its extensive coverage of the Tour de France, but eventually began to include more "major" sports events - resulting in its relaunch as Versus in September 2006.
Comcast, the original owner of Versus, acquired a majority stake in NBC Universal in 2011. As a result, Comcast combined its cable channel operations with NBC channels. In particular, it aligns the operation of sports channels with NBC Sports division NBC Sports. On January 2, 2012, Versus was renamed to NBC Sports Network (with an on-air branding later shortened to NBCSN) to reflect this change. On September 15, 2014, most NBC Sports operations, including NBCSN, were based at a facility in Stamford, Connecticut.
As of February 2015, NBCSN is available for approximately 81,578,000 paid television households (70.1% of households with television) in the United States.
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History
As an Outdoor Life Network
The channel was originally launched as an Outdoor Life Network (or OLN) on July 1, 1995; the name is licensed from Outdoor Life magazine. The programming consists of hunting, fishing, and outdoor adventure performances. In the early days, the channel reached about a million homes and found most of its transport via direct broadcast and digital cable service platforms at the time.
In 1999, OLN gained US $ 3 million in US Air Tour rights to Tour de France. The coverage of the Tour in OLN brought a much larger view to a growing channel, in part due to the increasing popularity of American racer Lance Armstrong. In 2004, where Armstrong will aim to break the record of the sixth consecutive Tour de France, OLN will devote more than 344 hours in July for coverage of the Tour, along with documentaries and other native programs that surround the event. - promoted through a $ 20 million advertising campaign.
Overall, while his coverage of the Tour de France helped OLN expand its transport to more than 60 million homes, critics are concerned that OLN coverage has placed Armstrong too much focus as the main attraction for viewers, and doubts if OLN can defend itself. without the audience that Lance Armstrong's presence has brought to his scope. Some critics have jokingly referred to OLN as "Lance Only Network" for overemphasizing American motorists.
After 2005 Tour (where Armstrong captured his seventh win in the race, and announced his retirement from cycling thereafter), OLN debuted a new line of programming - anchored by the repetition of the popular reality television series Survivor >. The OLN executive believes that bringing the Survivor into its ranks will match the new direction planned for OLN, and can attract viewers from the show fans who have watched it on CBS. Around the same period, OLN also acquired rights to the Dakar Rally, the American Cup, Boston Marathon, and Iditarod. OLN plans to cover multi-day events in a style similar to how it closes Tour , hoping that its coverage can bring "surprise" results for the channel. Due in part to Lance's absence from Tour in 2006, his ratings for live coverage of the first four phases of the race attracted 49% fewer viewers than in previous years.
OLN and NHL
In May 2005, ESPN rejected a $ 60 million bid to renew its broadcasting contract with the National Hockey League into the 2005-06 NHL season, and the league rejected alternative proposals for similar revenue-sharing agreements with NBC. With the NFL also shopping for a new end-of-season package from Thursday and Saturday night games for potential broadcasters, speculation has begun to emerge that Comcast will bid on a new NHL contract as the first step to turn OLN into a major sports channel that can compete with ESPN. Comcast has been involved in NHL broadcasting; at the time, he had majority control of the Philadelphia Flyers, and four regional sports networks Comcast SportsNet.
In August 2005, ESPN refused to match Comcast's offer, and OLN obtained cable television rights to the NHL starting in the 2005-2006 season in a three-year contract worth nearly $ 200 million. The new deal will include 58 regular-season matches on Monday and Tuesday nights, coverage of the NHL All-Star Game, conference finals, and the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final. With the help of the new NHL package, in June 2006, OLN has now reached 75 million subscribers. However, in part because OLN trains are lower than those of ESPN, the NHL ratings that the season has suffered are compared.
In 2006, OLN broadcasted a match chosen in the 2006 Arena Football League season. The channel broadcast a weekly regular game for 11 weeks as well as a wild card playoff game. However, the agreement was not renewed and later taken by ESPN, which also acquired minority shares in leasehold ownership.
As Versus
In April 2006, Comcast announced that it would rename the Outdoor Life Network to Versus in the fall of 2006. As the network has shifted from just an "outsider" program, the name "Versus" is meant to represent a common element of the competition in its ranks. The re-launch of OLN as Versus occurred on September 25, 2006.
Among the new programs acquired by Versus are a number of combat sports, starting with a series of boxing programs promoted by Bob Arum's Top Rank group. The channel also began broadcasting Chuck Norris's World Combat League, a kickboxing promotion in which the fight is contested in a unique round circle with no strings. Versus entered into a partnership with World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) to bring mixed martial arts events to the channel, with the first live broadcast on June 3, 2007. Versus aired all WEC events, except for WEC 48, which aired on pay-per- view, with an immediate live battle that aired on Spike TV.
The channel also adds sporting events as part of the rebranding, including men's and women's college basketball, high school basketball, weekly "weekly games" for the National Lacrosse League, dart competitions, Major Indoor Soccer League and USA Sevens, one of nine tournaments (eight) that make up the IRB Sevens World Series, the top annual circuit in the rugby union version.
In addition, Versus also added a pack of college football matches to his ranks, with games from the Western Mountain Conference, Pac-10 (now Pac-12) and the Big 12 conference. A total of 19 college football games scheduled in the channel during 2007.
The coverage guaranteed for the 2007 American Cup, which has been a staple on ESPN and ESPN2 for years. The channel began showing regattas qualifications at the end of 2005, airing the Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers in 2007, and an American Cup match between winner Louis Vuitton and current champion, was won by Alinghi from Switzerland in Valencia, Spain. In 2006, he took on the American broadcasting rights (in conjunction with The Tennis Channel) of the Davis Cup event.
Versus, with NBC Sports and the World Championship Sports Network (now Universal Sports), broadcast coverage of the 2007 World Championships in Athletics from Osaka, Japan, and the 2009 World Championships in Athletics from Berlin, Germany.
On January 28, 2008, Versus and NHL extended their television contracts through the 2010-11 season. In June 2008, the operation was moved from Stamford, Connecticut, to Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On August 7, 2008, the channel announced a 10-year contract with IndyCow Racing League to broadcast at least 13 IndyCar Series events a year in HD, starting in 2009. The channel will also broadcast motorsports series on Lucas Program Oil Motorsports Hour such as USAC, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, and the World Series of Off-Road Racing.
This channel aired the 96th Gray Cup, the Canadian Football League championship in 2008.
The channel began airing matches from United Football League in 2009. The first season championship aired on November 27, 2009. UFL will return to the channel for the second season in 2010.
On 5 April 2010, Versus debuted on The Daily Line, an event consisting of a panel of four people (host Liam McHugh, handicapper Rob DeAngelis, comedian Reese Waters, and Jenn Sterger) discussing, with heavy satire, popular sports related topics of the day. However, the show was canceled due to the low number of viewers on November 4, 2010.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship will broadcast two live events on the channel due to a new contract agreement with UFC's sister, World Extreme Cagefighting. The first edition of UFC on Versus was aired on March 21, 2010 under the title Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones in the Light Weight Division. The second show aired on August 1 with Jon Jones confronting Vladimir Matyushenko. Also as part of an agreement with UFC, some UFC Countdown events will be aired. Countdown shows show the week of pay-per-view events, usually lasting for one hour, and include 2-3 of the biggest battles on the card. In August 2011, UFC announced a new broadcasting deal with rival channel Fox Sports, which will come into effect in November 2011.
Versus also reached an agreement with the NBA to air 10 regular NBA League League matches Saturday night, as well as six playoffs a year. In total, the channel will feature 16 NBA Development League matches, in addition to the NBA's 25-hour special.
Starting in August 2010, Versus aired nine races from NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour every Wednesday at 7 pm. These races come from various locations, including Stafford Motor Speedway, Tri-County Speedway, and Thompson Motor Speedway.
Merger with NBC Sports
In February 2011, Comcast acquired a majority stake in NBC Universal, and merged its content operations into the company. As part of the acquisition, Versus and Comcast sports channels began to be integrated into the NBC Sports division. Coinciding with the merger, President Jamie Davis was replaced by Comcast Sports Group president Jon Litner. Litner began watching the channel, in addition to his other work following Comcast's takeover.
In March 2011, Versus expanded its college football coverage by becoming a cable partner for NBC coverage of Notre Dame football, showing a rerun of Notre Dame games, and the first live broadcast of the team's annual spring game. His coverage begins with the marathon of three classic Fighting Irish games on March 17, St. Patrick, to serve as the beginning of his coverage of the spring game.
For the 2011 season, Versus also re-aired the National Lacrosse League with a nine-game package, starting with the All-Star Game 2011 and culminating with the Champions Cup final. Versus will drop the NLL for the 2012 league season; US broadcasting rights are actually taken by CBS Sports Network.
Reload as NBC Sports Network/NBCSN
In April 2011, NBC Sports and Versus announced that they had achieved a ten-year extension to their television contract with the National Hockey League worth nearly $ 2 billion during the contract period. As part of the announcement, Dick Ebersol, former chairman of NBC Sports, said that Versus will be renamed "within 90 days" to reflect the synergies resulting from the merger. However, the announcement of the new name did not come until August 1, 2011, when Comcast announced that Versus would be relaunched as the NBC Sports Network on January 1, 2012. The re-launch coincides with NBC's coverage of the NHL Winter Classic, which took place on the same day.
In an interview with TV Guide, programming president Jon Miller detailed that the NBC Sports Network would be "very different" from Versus in many ways. The goal is for NBC Sports Network to be a credible "full service sports network", with a new line of sports news and talk shows, and live event coverage. Programming like Whacked Out Sports and The T.Ocho Show was canceled from the lineup, because Miller thinks that low-drow programming will damage the channel's credibility. This channel initiated the initiative to start producing new native programs during the transitional period as well. NBC is also making efforts to expand its current broadcasting relationship and acquire new rights for additional sporting events to be broadcast on the channel. In the months leading up to the relaunch, NBC struck a deal with Major League Soccer, dropped the UFL, and added college hockey coverage.
On June 6, 2011, it was revealed that NBC Sports will extend its rights to the Olympics by 2020, beating competitive bids by Fox Sports and ESPN in a $ 4.38 billion contract. The network began participating in NBC's overall coverage starting from the 2012 Summer Olympics. Her coverage of the gold medal match between the United States and Japan in women's football set a new audience record for the network, with 4.35 million viewers.
Almost immediately after the rebrand, the short moniker "NBCSN" started being used in the TV list to refer to the network. In July 2013, the network announced its intention to use this abbreviation formally. On August 18, 2013, commentators and graphs began referring to the network as "NBCSN". The change was made to help streamline its branding in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics, at which time most name changes were completed.
On September 22, 2013, NBCSN broadcast an episode of Under Wild Skies - a hunting program aired as a time-buy by the National Rifle Association - where NRA host and lobbyist Tony Makris was found to have killed an African elephant en route to Botswana. Networks are criticized by the media for displaying such material; while NBC responded by dragging the episode for its "unflattering" content and claiming it would be "more aggressive" with the upcoming episode content of the program, Under Wild Skies withdrawing from the network completely. after Makris made a comment on the NRA-generated webcast comparing the criticism of the show to Hitler.
WSOF was formed in 2012, after signing a broadcasting deal with NBC Sports Network. This is the third MMA promotion organized by NBC Sports, after broadcasting World Extreme Cagefighting and Ultimate Fighting Championships events when the channel was previously known as Versus. NBC Sports has become one of the bidders for the right to broadcast the upcoming UFC event, but lost to Fox. However, some reporters consider the WSOF deal with NBC Sports to be a big enough coup for debut promotion, given NBC Sports interest in UFC. Following the announcement of the broadcast deal, WSOF President Ray Sefo stated that the promotion wants to host 8-10 events per year, while holding a one-year contract with NBC Sports. However, the next day, an NBC spokesperson revealed that the deal only included the WSOF inaugural event, with an option for more, if NBC held a positive evaluation. On February 4, 2013, it was reported by several news outlets that NBC Sports signed a 3-year agreement with WSOF.
On December 16, 2012, the NBC Sports Network, along with CNBC, aired part of the Sunday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots. This is because the coverage of the game on NBC was disrupted by President Barack Obama's press conference after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shoot. NBCSN will continue to serve as an overflowing coverage for Sunday Night Football and other NFL games covered by NBC if the ongoing game is interrupted by NBC News special coverage.
On July 23, 2013, NBC announced that NASCAR racing coverage will return to NBC starting in 2015 under a new contract lasting until 2024. The deal includes broadcasting rights into the second half of the Sprint Cup and the National Season Series; most will be broadcast on NBCSN.
On August 17, 2014, NBCSN broadcasted rain-delayed coverage of USGA's 2014 United States Amateur Challenge, making it the first golfing event aired on television.
Genuine programming
Original programs served by the network include NBC SportsTalk , and the weekly CNBC Sports Biz , which debuted in the fall of 2011 (the last ending when Darren Rovell moved to ESPN as a business correspondent sport them). Bob Costas hosted Costas Tonight, which consisted of monthly interview episodes, and a quarterly special town hall - first aired from Indianapolis on February 2, 2012, as part of the overall NBC coverage of the Super Bowl XLVI.
The network also added more documentary series, including 36 , Caught In Search (weekly series produced jointly with Major League Baseball), and Sports Illustrated >, a monthly series produced in conjunction with a magazine of the same name.
On August 13, 2012, NBCSN aired a new morning show, The 'Lights , which consisted of a 20-minute loop of sports highlight without personality on camera, repeated from 7:00 to 9:00:00 ET.
In 2014, NBCSN aired a new auto-themed reality series Mecum Dealmakers . It was updated for the second season in 2015.
In April 2016, NBCSN gained the rights to broadcast Dan Patrick-hosted Sports Jeopardy! . The premier run followed the 2016 Summer Olympics coverage, and joined NBCSN's Wednesday night schedule later in October.
Maps NBCSN
Dispute previous carriage
In early September 2009, DirecTV withdrew Versus from its ranks, being unable to reach the terms of the rate hike demanded by Comcast. In a public statement (including messages featured on Versus's previous channel), DirecTV scolds Comcast for its "unjust and embarrassing demands", and considers the company "merely piggish" in its request to a higher level, as Versus explains "paid programming and infomercial channels with occasional sporting events." On March 15, 2010, an agreement was reached between both parties and Versus returned to the DirecTV ranks. The channel is returned to its original package on service, Choice Xtra. This network has drastically reduced its block of paid programs to just three hours in the late evening under NBC management (between 3 am and 6 am Eastern time), and that the remaining paid programs themselves are now often the target of pre-emption with direct sport from Asia or Australia and no air at all during the Olympic coverage.
High definition
The high-definition 1080i feed from the network was launched in January 2007. Initially, its HD feed was shared with the Golf Channel network sisters in settings that are marketed as Versus/Golf HD ; Golf Channel Programming is broadcast during the daytime hours, and Versus programming is broadcast in the early afternoon and primetime hours with several schedule variations during the Tour de France coverage. Shared channels are replaced by each HD feed for both channels in December 2008.
In May 2013, standard network definition feeds are converted into widescreen presentations with letterboxing to duplicate the look that is seen on high-definition feeds according to their competitors' presentations from their SD channels.
References
External links
- Official website
- NBCSN on Twitter
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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