NBCUniversal shuts down the NBCSN Sports Network at the end of 2021

Fans of NBC’s big sports franchises like NHL And the Premier League will have to follow them to a new home.

NBC World I’ll shut her down NBCSN A sports network, and transferring some of its most important sporting features to the USA network in a maneuver that executives believe will boost the economics of the cable public entertainment outlet at a time when the new streaming video hubs attract larger audiences. The company has informed its distributors that it intends to close NBCSN at the end of 2021, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Includes most important NBCU athletic characteristics NASCAR Races and competitions of the National Hockey League and English Football. This person warned that the USA would not become a network for all sports, but it might work like WarnerMedia’s TNT, which has built an enduring franchise of its rights to broadcast NBA games, for that media company. It remained unclear if the move would affect NBC Sports employees. The department recently saw staff cuts as part of the restructuring at NBCUniversal as it grapples with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Frances Burwick, Chairman of Entertainment Networks at NBCU, said in a statement: “The USA has been in the top five brands in cable entertainment for more than twenty years by constantly expanding our list and finding ways to impress our viewers by listing. The immersive stories and famous personalities “were presented after this move became known. “We remain committed to the original entertainment programming, and we believe that high-profile live sports will complement the USA’s outstanding written and unwritten list and WWE roster, enabling us to engage our enthusiastic and crossed audiences deeper and with greater urgency.”

The United States has always had a sporting bloodline. In its early days, when it was launched by entrepreneur Kai Koblowitz and later jointly owned by MCA and Viacom, the network had rights deals at various times with Major League Baseball, NHL, and NBA, and its evening schedule was often dominated by sports programming. The United States has held boxing matches on Tuesday nights for more than a decade. But in 2004, most of its sports operations were incorporated into NBC Sports, when NBC bought Vivendi Universal.

In the new era, sport may be more important to maintain the health of a traditional public entertainment outlet like the USA. Cable networks have struggled as audiences shifted to streaming video hubs for the types of high-quality text strings that have long been a staple of cables. Although they focus more on their broadcast hubs, large media outlets like NBCUniversal, Disney, etc. need to maintain the large, live audiences that advertisers, cable and satellite distributors crave. Sports programs and news continue to attract these audiences.

More is coming…