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NBC has announced that the cable NBC Sports Network will close the end of this year...
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Interesting. Does this mean that Stacked TV will suddenly have a Stacked Sports option to carry all the Peacock Sports content?
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Another report in the Wall Street Journal said that NBC was also looking at the possible closure of additional cable channels. Others that NBCUniversal owns include Bravo and E!
Still a little odd with NBC Sports Network since one year ago it had about 79 million households in the US receiving the channel.
NBC Sports owns the NHL rights in the US. I wonder what will happen to those.
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The article indicated that the USA network would be picking up some of the leagues that NBC Sports Network was carrying and also Peacock would carry some sports. In fact those services will start to simulcast some hockey and soccer with the NBCSN before the end of the year.
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Prod Guy wrote:
NBC Sports owns the NHL rights in the US. I wonder what will happen to those.
2011 + 10 = 2021. Was the deal renewed? For how long?
Edit: Found this info: We have to wait a bit due to the Pandemic:
Last edited by Radiowiz (January 23, 2021 4:34 pm)
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Not a big fan of NBCSN, But I noticed last night that most of the IndyCar races were being moved to the network, which is fine for me but bad for Rogers because it's on NBC channel 2 in Buffalo, rivalling Sportsnet 360, one of their "extras".
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SpinningWheel wrote:
Not a big fan of NBCSN, But I noticed last night that most of the IndyCar races were being moved to the network, which is fine for me but bad for Rogers because it's on NBC channel 2 in Buffalo, rivalling Sportsnet 360, one of their "extras".
You may see more sports on the NBC main network, even prime time though the week. Sports are cheap to produce, they have already paid for the rights, and often live sport broadcasts get better ratings than many expensive scripted shows. Hollywood is still way behind in production since COVID has been running rampant through California over the past few months.
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There may be another reason for the move.
How the Shutdown of NBCSN Could Be a Lifeline for USA Network
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Between this and the recent news of a couple cable channels being shut down in Canada, I can’t help but think about how many other cable (speciality) channels on both sides of the border could shut down in the coming years as more and more people abandon cable TV.
I’ve long believed there are too many channels on TV and that adding more and more channels was creating an illusion of choice.
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In Canada, licensing dozens of specialty channels was never going to work in the long term. Creating new programming that fits each channel's niche is money you can never make back -- because you've diluted both ratings and revenue potential by having so many channels in the first place.
The short-term fix was for each channel to run popular programming from outside its niche on repeat, which temporarily improves ratings, but kills the demand for the channels and their packages in the long term.
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I think you are going to see more cable channels here and in the US close down or more become only a streaming service. I think the market will determine what survives. Odd though at least for Bell which I have regularly adds new channels to test to see if I want to buy. And they are mostly Canadian and the odd US channel or international, some I have never heard of. However so far, even the US channels don't interest me. Even the 5 US super channels that I used to have all had a lot of the same programming. Mostly sitcoms like Big Bang, Friends, Broke Girls, Will and Grace etc. basically shows I could watch already. And I am not going to pay extra just to see Boston or LA's local newscasts. Can only watch one channel at a time!
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For what it's worth, here are the most popular networks in the US for 2020 courtesy of Variety. Judging by this list there could be more cable channels go dark this year, some very low ratings. Over the air networks are still barely on top but all had significant drops as did many cable channels. However, news channels were gold...
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Another wrinkle in the changes at NBCUniversal.
WWE to Shutter Streaming Service, Move Content to Peacock in New Deal
NBC must have paid a fortune because I'm sure I heard the WWE streaming service was more successful than they ever imagined.
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Radiowiz wrote:
Interesting. Does this mean that Stacked TV will suddenly have a Stacked Sports option to carry all the Peacock Sports content?
That would require Corus to buy into sports programming, which is not something they usually do. Their contract for Peacock shows only covers stuff NBC Universal owns outright.
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Retaw wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
Interesting. Does this mean that Stacked TV will suddenly have a Stacked Sports option to carry all the Peacock Sports content?
That would require Corus to buy into sports programming, which is not something they usually do. Their contract for Peacock shows only covers stuff NBC Universal owns outright.
Then how do Canadians (legally) watch WWE content once this takes effect?
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Retaw wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
Interesting. Does this mean that Stacked TV will suddenly have a Stacked Sports option to carry all the Peacock Sports content?
That would require Corus to buy into sports programming, which is not something they usually do. Their contract for Peacock shows only covers stuff NBC Universal owns outright.
Right. Corus would need to get overall rights for whatever they'd want to stream on Stacked, and that's basically impossible with how Bell and Rogers have vertically stacked every aspect of sports from team ownership to broadcasting to distribution.
At best they could maybe put together a college football package.
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Radiowiz wrote:
Retaw wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
Interesting. Does this mean that Stacked TV will suddenly have a Stacked Sports option to carry all the Peacock Sports content?
That would require Corus to buy into sports programming, which is not something they usually do. Their contract for Peacock shows only covers stuff NBC Universal owns outright.
Then how do Canadians (legally) watch WWE content once this takes effect?
Unless stated otherwise, I wouldn't expect any changes on the Canadian side of things yet. AFAIK, WWE never actually offered the SVOD service in Canada - just a programming deal licensed to Rogers.
Last edited by Retaw (January 26, 2021 11:56 pm)