Associations representing ABC, CBS, FBC and NBC have filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission arguing that the ongoing shift of major sporting rights from broadcast to streaming service is not in the “public interest” because it is forcing consumers to sign up for expensive streaming services and threatens the economy viability of the local TV stations who use the profits from sports to fund local news.

The filing also laid out a series of policy recommendations that would preserve major sports on broadcast TV. Those include: ending station ownership caps, speeding up the transition to NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0, changing the rules on how retrans fees are negotiated with vMVPDs, and giving local stations more power to preempt network programming so they can air local sports and ensuring that

Changing rules regarding station ownership caps and the ATSC 3.0 transition were also major policy recommendations made by the NAB and other broadcasters.

“[W]hile live sports have never been so critical to local broadcasting, the Public Notice comes at a time when the continued availability of marquee national live professional and collegiate sporting events on local broadcast television faces unprecedented uncertainty,” the associations stressed in their filing. “The Affiliates Associations echo NAB’s observation that Internet streaming of sports content threatens to completely upend the system of local sports distribution that has served America so well. The increasing placement of major sports programming behind paywalls on multiple different streaming platforms, including those owned by the Big 4 Networks themselves, threatens to further fragment audiences while forcing consumers to spend more and more just to watch what used to be and should remain free. Sporting events can’t unify Americans if the cost of watching them turns us into a nation of haves and have-nots. And those sporting events locked up behind paywalls won’t help fund local television service because, quite simply, none of the streaming platforms is required to operate in the public interest and none provide any local service to any local communities.”

Like the NAB, the affiliates also blasted the Consumer Technology Association and others who argued the rise of sports on streaming media has given consumers more choice and that the FCC does not have the authority to dictate where those sports air.

“in 2025, NFL games appeared on 10 different paywalled platforms, and the cost of the subscriptions necessary to watch every NFL game approached $1,500,” the affiliates contented. “These developments threaten to get worse because streaming platforms owned by Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and the like have nearly limitless budgets and face no regulations that would check their growth. Indeed, they are already increasingly outbidding Big 4 Networks for major sports rights and cutting local broadcasting out of the picture entirely.”

“When the Big 4 Networks are forced to outbid streaming platforms for sports rights, those Networks inevitably pass those costs on to their Affiliates in the form of spiraling and unsustainable affiliation fees,” the filing said. “Since these affiliation fees grow more quickly than local station revenue, local Affiliates have no choice but to cut costs and reduce local service. Marquee sporting events must remain on local broadcast television to sustain important, but costly, local news operations, but the more sports rights cost and the higher affiliation fees rise, the less local news and fewer jobs will remain.”

“The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) argue that this is nothing more than the marketplace providing more and better choices to consumers and that the Commission is powerless to step in,” the affiliates complained. “Consumers know better, which is why thousands of individuals have filed comments in this proceeding urging the Commission to take action to help keep national sports programming on local broadcast television. The Commission should reject the arrogant and simplistic `free market’ rhetoric of CCIA and CTA. Despite the claims of CCIA and CTA that all of this `competition’ among streaming platforms will increase choice and lower prices, the reality is that consumers always end up paying more for less, and they’re sick of this same old song and dance.”

The filing did highlight the fact that the decline of pay TV and regional sports networks has allowed local stations to successfully acquire sports rights in recent years. “Even here, however, there are hurdles to local stations acquiring local sports rights,” the affiliate reported. “In particular, Big 4 Network preemption policies can make it impossible for stations to air more than a handful of games of local sports programming on their main channels, forcing them to instead broadcast that programming on multicast channels or commonly owned independent channels.0 These alternate channels are carried less frequently by traditional MVPDs and even less frequently by virtual MVPDs. The combination of Network preemption

policies and vMVPDs’ refusal to negotiate directly with local television stations significantly complicates local stations’ efforts to acquire sports programming on local broadcast stations.”

“The Commission must recognize that additional steps must be taken in order to preserve – and grow – sports on local television stations while at the same time helping ensure stations are financially healthy enough to afford that programming and are positioned to acquire that programming when certain rights become available,” the affiliates stressed in one of their major policy recommendations.

“That requires the Commission to address two pressing issues that the Affiliates Associations’ members face every day," they said. "First, the Commission should ensure that local television stations, including Network Affiliates, have the right to negotiate for local sports programming without third-party interference. In support of this right, the Commission should make clear that local stations’ preemption rights under the Commission’s rules extend to preempting Network programming for local and regional sports content. Existing rules require that broadcasters must have the right to preempt Network programming in favor of programming that a licensee deems, in its mandate to serve the local community, of greater importance to its local community than Network programming. The Commission should clarify unequivocally that this right applies when a local station rejects Network programming in favor of airing local and regional sports programming. This step will allow local broadcasters to compete for local sports rights without the fear that doing so could negatively impact their relationship with their affiliated Networks.”

The full filing is available here.

The 8,600 plus filings received by the FCC in it "Sports Broadcasting Practices and Marketplace Developments" proceeding (Docket 26-45) is available here.

NEW YORK—Nielsen has released revised Super Bowl LX viewership data, with the total rising to 125.6 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+ on Sunday, February 8, according to Big Data + Panel measurement.

Nielsen said that the update was due to the fact that an unnamed "big data provider" did not properly collect data from its devices on February 8, which impacted the Big Data + Panel count.

The telecast on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+ drew a combined average household rating of 39.7.

Nielsen initially reported 124.9 million average viewers. It did not report updates to the peak viewing numbers it initially released.

Updated data was provided after initial ratings were made public on February 10. Additional ratings updates from February 8 are also now available to Nielsen clients.

In 2023, Nielsen also updated its viewing figures for the Super Bowl. Fox revised viewing figures from 113 million to 115.1 million total viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming after it discovered that Nielsen had made encoding errors.

STAMFORD, Conn.—NBC Sports said its Super Bowl coverage Feb. 8 set an all-time media record for peak viewing, with 137.8 million watching in the second quarter as the Seattle Seahawks led the New England Patriots 6-0.

The Seahawks’ 29-13 victory over the Patriots averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, based on the official live-plus-same-day Nielsen Big Data + Panel data. It ranked as the second-most watched show in U.S. history, behind last February’s Super Bowl on Fox.

This year’s Super Bowl was also the most-watched show in the history of NBCUniversal, which celebrates 100 years of NBC in 2026.

“The Super Bowl and the NFL once again delivered a blockbuster audience across the NBC broadcast network, Peacock, and Telemundo, and provided an unprecedented lead-in to our Primetime in Milan coverage,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella saids. “The Super Bowl and the Olympics are the two most powerful events in the world, and we salute our talented production, tech, and announce teams who delivered best-in-class presentations for our viewers, stations and partners.”

In addition, Telemundo delivered the most-watched Super Bowl in the history of U.S. Spanish-language television, averaging 3.3 million viewers. Telemundo’s audience peaked during the halftime show, with an average of 4.8 million viewers—the most-watched Super Bowl halftime in Spanish-language TV history.

The halftime show also set a number of records.

Total social consumption (inclusive of fans, owned platforms, broadcast partners, influencers, etc.) of the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show starring Bad Bunny set a record of 4 billion views after the first 24 hours, up 137% year over year, per Ripple Analytics.

Over 55% of all NFL social views of the halftime show came from international markets.

The three most-viewed NFL social posts in history are now Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show clips. In total, these clips have been viewed for more than 115 years on social media platforms:

• “Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love”—@NFL on Instagram had 179 million views, most viewed clip on NFL Social ever with more than half (54%) of views coming from outside the U.S.
• Bad Bunny Listing Countries Before Spiking Football—@NFL on Instagram had 168 million, the second most-watched clip on NFL social ever with 68% of views coming from outside the U.S.
• Bad Bunny Listing Countries Before Spiking Football—@NFL on TikTok had 100 million views; people have spent a combined 53-plus years watching this clip already; 60% of the viewership is female, 62% comes from outside the United States; 91% of viewers under 35; 36% under 25.

In addition, the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET in the U.S. Full global viewership for the halftime show will be available early next week.

Apple also reported that immediately following the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, Bad Bunny listens on Apple Music were up 7 times. “DtMF,” “BAILE INoLVIDABLE,” and “Tití Me Preguntó” were the most-streamed songs immediately after the show. Other Apple Music notables from the Halftime Show include:

In the hours following his performance, Bad Bunny’s Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Set List playlist became the most-played Set List on Apple Music.

• The day after Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS landed on the album charts in 155 countries, reaching the Top 10 in 128 countries and claiming the #1 spot in 46 countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Germany, France and Spain.
• Following his appearance in the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, Bad Bunny also occupied nearly a quarter of the Daily Top 100 Global chart, with 24 songs in the Top 100, 9 songs in the Top 25, and 6 songs in the Top 10, including “DtMF,” which was the #1 song.
• 6 of the 24 songs re-entered the Daily Top 100 Global chart for the first time since at least February 2025, and his single with Cardi B, “I Like It,” re-entered the chart for the first time since January 2020.

The popularity of the Super Bowl also helped NBC’s coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Following the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation on the field at Levi’s Stadium, Super Bowl play-by-play voice Mike Tirico hosted “Primetime in Milan,” which featured Lindsey Vonn’s downhill run, and gold-medal-winning performances by Breezy Johnson in the downhill and Team USA in the team figure skating event at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Sunday’s “Primetime in Milan” and “Milan Prime” presentations averaged 42 million viewers, marking NBCUniversal’s largest Winter Games audience since Day 2 of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (a span of 53 event days) and an increase of 73% over the corresponding 2022 Beijing Olympics show (24.3 million), which also followed the Super Bowl.

In addition, Sunday was Peacock’s best day ever in terms of both reach and hours streamed, and featured the post-Super Bowl debut of “The Burbs,” which was the highest day-one Peacock original debut ever.

More detailed viewership metrics will be available from Nielsen later this week.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—NBC Sports has laid out the enormous scale of its coverage of Super Bowl LX (Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots) on Sunday, February 8, with a host of stats showing that it will be deploying a NBC Sports’ team of more than 700 people along with 145 cameras, 130 microphones, 75 miles of cable, 22 mobile units, and a massive collection of additional tools and resources.

In all, NBCUniversal will present 90+ hours of Super Bowl-related coverage this week across multiple platforms including NBC, Telemundo, Peacock and Universo.

The game is part of what NBCUniversal is calling its “Legendary February” with its coverage of the Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl and the NBA All Star Weekend.

On Feb. 8, it will offer both Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games converge across NBCUniversal platforms featuring pre-game show, the game, the awarding of the Lombardi Trophy in Santa Clara and multiple gold medal events in Milan and Livigno.

Following is NBC Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LX “by the numbers”:

• 1st Super Bowl play-by-play assignment for Mike Tirico
• 2 SkyCams used by NBC Sports to cover the game (including “High Sky”)
• 2nd Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl matchup presented by NBC Sports (Super Bowl XLIX)
• 3 Super Bowl games as a referee for NBC Sports rules analyst Terry McAulay
• 6th Super Bowl as game analyst for Cris Collinsworth (fifth featuring the New England Patriots)
• 9 Locations of NBC Sports’ hosts, analysts, and commentators around the Bay Area and Levi’s Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday
• 11 Combined Super Bowl victories among NBC Sports Super Bowl LX Pregame Show teammates Tony Dungy (XIII as a player with the Steelers, XLI as head coach of the Colts), Rodney Harrison (XXXVIII and XXXIX with the Patriots), Jason Garrett (XXVII, XXVIII, and XXX as a player with the Cowboys), Devin McCourty (XLIX, LI, and LIII with the Patriots), and guest analyst and former Los Angels Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald (LVI)
• 16.5 Hours of combined Super Bowl LX and Winter Olympics coverage on NBC and Peacock on Sunday, Feb. 8
• 21 Hosts, analysts, and commentators around the Bay Area and Levi’s Stadium for Super Bowl Sunday
• 22 Mobile units on-site at Levi’s Stadium
• 23 Years between assignments as Super Bowl sideline reporter for Melissa Stark
• 75 Miles of camera and microphone cable
• 130 Microphones
• 145 Cameras used for Super Bowl (81, including fixed cameras on pylons, etc.) and pre-game (64) coverage
• 700 + NBC Sports employees on site in the Bay Area
• 396,000 feet of camera and microphone cable
• $10+ million Record cost of a 30-second advertisement during Super Bowl LX

NBC Sports is celebrating what it calls “Legendary February,” hosting three marquee sporting events expected to attract record viewership. The action begins with the opening ceremony from Milan, Italy, when the XXV Winter Olympic Games commence on Feb. 6. Two days later, the network will air the Super Bowl and, a week later, the NBA All-Star Game.

Planning for such a confluence of events isn’t easy, but NBC Sports has plenty of experience in handling crowded programming schedules, particularly when it comes to the Olympics, which it has televised for nearly 30 consecutive years.

Record Number of Hours Expected
The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially “Milano Cortina 2026,” will take place in the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Feb. 6-22, and feature about 2,900 athletes across 16 sports. NBC promises more than 3,000 hours of coverage across all of its platforms (including NBC, USA Network, CNBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app), with nearly 200 hours of coverage on NBC alone.

Darryl Jefferson, senior vice president of engineering and technology for NBC Olympics and Sports, will oversee broadcast operations to ensure the most comprehensive coverage of what the International Olympic Committee said is “the most geographically widespread Winter Olympics in history,” spanning an area of more than 22,000 square kilometers (over 8,500 square miles).

Although this is the first Winter Games with Jefferson at the helm—he succeeds Dave Mazza, who retired in 2023—Jefferson is a longtime veteran of NBC Olympics, joining in 2008 as director of postproduction.

And while the team had nearly two years between the Paris Games and the 2026 event, that was not the case for the last Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, when NBC Olympics had only about a six-month window between the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, held in the fall of 2021, and Beijing.

Geographic Sprawl
The biggest challenge for Milan-Cortina 2026 is the aforementioned geographic sprawl, Jefferson said. For example, the distance from the Olympic hub in Milan to the competition venues is measured in multiple hours, with the skating venue approximately five and a half hours away and the men’s and women’s alpine skiing venues three hours apart.

With most of the country’s municipalities opting to use existing facilities instead of constructing new purpose-built operations for the 16-day event, locations are not always optimal.

“That’s one of the reasons why all of our venues are so geographically spread out,” he said. “They’re well-established and beautiful, but they are further apart than we’ve ever seen before, so we had to build a plan that looked at very geographically disparate venues.

“In so many Olympic cities of the past, you’d go into the Olympic hub and you’d have a number of venues that are clustered together,” he added. “Here, a lot of the venues are far apart, so we had to rethink deployment of people and gear. We’ve come up with a very good plan for doing all of those things, but we honestly had to throw out the old book.”

Nevertheless, it’s not like this is abnormal for a world-class event. “It is spread out, but that’s the Olympics for you,” Jefferson added.

With such a dispersed physical layout, particularly in rural areas, moving personnel and gear to venues is paramount, Jefferson said. The NBC team learned a lot while producing live coverage of sporting events during a pandemic, he said, with much of the coverage originating from the NBC facilities in Stamford, Conn.

“We learned a lot of valuable lessons with the ‘COVID Olympics’ in Tokyo and Beijing in that we still had a good deal of production on site in Tokyo—we had the primetime show and the control rooms in the IBC [International Broadcast Center] in Tokyo and Beijing; all of those things ended up coming home,” Jefferson said. “So a lot of those ‘lessons learned’ were about, ‘What can we do to maintain the high level of production value doing it from Stamford?’ And then, when COVID lifted, we tried to strike the balance of the teams that were on-site for Paris and the might of having a big broadcast facility in Stamford and pushing it to its limits.”

Staying Connected
NBCUniversal hadn’t finalized its format plans for the two weeks of the Games by presstime, however with Sunday Feb. 8 being part of “Legendary February,” the network is presenting the Super Bowl as well as the Games live all day in 4K HDR on NBC and Peacock­—17 hours of 4K HDR coverage in all. This marks the first time the Olympics and Super Bowl are being presented in 4K HDR on NBC and Peacock, according to the network.

Jefferson noted NBCUniversal’s commitment to capturing all the action in the highest available quality for any platform.

“Like in Games past, and particularly like in Paris, we will capture and produce everything everywhere in 1080p/HDR, and we’ll have deliverables for a number of platforms, both linear and Peacock [NBCU’s streaming service] in 4K HDR as well,” he said. “We’re fairly committed to HDR and 4K deliverables.”

These data-hungry formats require ever-more-increasing bandwidth between the Olympic host city and Stamford.

“In Paris, we had four 100-gig circuits and two 10-gig circuits for ancillary data and we will have the same for Milan-Cortina,” Jefferson said. “The difference between the Summer and Winter Games is that the Summer Games have so many more concurrent sports, but from a technology and connectivity perspective, we won’t take a step backwards. The connectivity we’ll use for Milan-Cortina will echo what we used in Paris, which is kind of almost unfathomable, because there’s so many fewer sports.”

And, as in years past, NBC Olympics will work as a mostly SMPTE-2110 IP-based operation, according to Jefferson. “We still have some bits and pieces that are SDI, but we’re getting our primary feed from Olympic Broadcasting Service at the International Broadcast Center in 2110,” he said. “The core technology in the Stamford facility is 2110—that’s our preferred method of exchange, but you still get outliers out there that are SDI in nature, and we appreciate them as well.”

Stamford is playing an ever-increasing role in coverage, Jefferson added.

“All but one venue is being largely produced in Stamford for this Winter Games, which is a sea change,” he said. “Figure skating production will be wholly produced on-site, with the production team facilities on-site. Every other venue is a split production.”

Using Data to Tell a Story
Since winter sports are not as popular in the United States as in other areas of the world, Jefferson said NBC Olympics will use more data to enlighten viewers on the intricacies of sports they usually see only once every four years.

“Using technology to describe through data use and visualization is really cool, because it gives people the awe-inspiring things that we see athletes do,” he said. “So we’re using data in a lot of ways to present things like rotational velocity or height, the types of things to get people to really understand, like, ‘Holy crap, that’s really remarkable!’

“One of our biggest partners is the OBS partner, Omega [the official Olympics timekeeper], but we have a bunch of other partnerships looking at computer vision analysis, relative speed, jump height, this type of thing, to explain better, and some of those things are internal to help our commentators explain,” he continued. “So we get to tell the story a bit better.”

The content-creator community will also play an important role in Olympics coverage, with increased mobile device use, Jefferson added. “In Paris, OBS used a fleet of mobile phones to cover the athlete experience on the boats coming into and up the Seine [during the opening ceremony],” he said. “I think it will be a similar offering this go, in addition to all the broadcast cameras. There’s a multiplier effect with all those mobile devices in and around the fields of play, behind the scenes and so on.”

Jefferson said he’s excited about NBC’s ability to give viewers a better understanding of the history of the host country, whether it’s in San Siro Stadium, where the opening ceremony will be staged, or at a remote sports venue.

“There are two very different Italys being presented—you have a very metropolitan city with the vision of the Duomo [cathedral] in the city center and all that goes with the fashion and the architecture and all that stuff in Milan,” he said. “And then, on the other hand, you have the unbelievably gorgeous Dolomites backing these small, quaint ski towns.

“And that dichotomy will be presented not just at the opening ceremony, but throughout the whole Games,” he added. “So it will be amazing to present those two Italys to the United States.”

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics promises to be momentous both on screen and behind the scenes, in terms of new technologies and the consumer viewing experience. As Team USA heads to Milan with high hopes for its strongest performance in decades, NBC, Peacock and Comcast are readying a host of new technology and viewing experiences that they hope will strengthen, if not reverse, challenges to their business models that have been years in the making.

Addressing those challenges is particularly important for Comcast NBCUniversal, which spent some $7.75 billion for the U.S. rights to the Olympics between 2022 and 2032 and another $3 billion to extend those rights through 2036.

“The Olympics in Paris proved the Olympics are back and remain an unrivaled media property,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said at a press event, where he noted that NBCUniversal had already sold out its ad inventory for the Winter Games. “We expect Milan…to carry on that legacy…[by] mimicking and building on” NBC’s successful strategy for the Paris Olympics, he said.

Stemming the Decline
How well Comcast and NBCUniversal deliver on that promise will have a major impact on both its traditional and newer streaming and digital businesses.

For its part, NBC is hoping to kick-start the celebration of its 100th anniversary this year by reversing recent Winter Olympics viewing declines. Average total audience hit a record low in 2022 of 11.4 million for the Beijing Winter Olympics, down from the average audience of 19.8 million that viewed the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 and only a quarter of the 45.6 million who watched the opening ceremony of the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

The Games will also be crucial for Versant, owner of NBCU’s recently spun-off cable networks. Both USA Network, which will focus on Team USA with “Enhanced 4K” Dolby Vision and Atmos feeds, and CNBC will carry Olympics programming.

Similarly, Peacock, which will stream every event of the Games—around 3,000 hours of Olympics coverage—will look to solidify its stature as a major source of sports programming while the streamer’s owner, Comcast, will use the Games to lure back pay TV subscribers and fend off increased competition from 5G wireless carriers by highlighting the cross-platform capabilities of its video platform and its fast, low-latency broadband network.

“We know that the customers who still have a pay TV service are, by and large, huge sports fans,” Vito Forlenza, vice president of sports and entertainment at Comcast, said. “So, we are really focusing on sports to showcase the technology we have. When you can blend linear TV and streaming together into a seamless experience, you’re offering something that is really hard to replicate on a streaming box or a fixed wireless connection.”

Building on Paris
With NBC offering primetime coverage hosted by high-profile on-air talent, Peacock streaming all the events from 16 sports over 17 days, USA Network focusing on Team USA with 4K visuals and enhanced audio, and massive amounts of additional content available on CNBC, NBCSN and various digital offerings, one of the key issues facing the NBC Sports is finding ways to engage and not overwhelm viewers.

A major part of that consumer experience will be new production technologies. “Our mantra has been to make the best seat in the house even better,” Molly Solomon, executive producer and president, NBC Olympics Production, said. “This is going to be the most technologically advanced Olympics we’ve ever presented.”

That will include more extensive use of data analytics, live drones and mics on many athletes. “We will have mics on the U.S. men’s and women’s hockey players for the first time, and on freestyle, freestyle skiers and snowboarders,” Solomon said. “If you are a fan of snowboarding, you will hear Maddie Mastro give herself a pep talk at the top of the pipe.”

Less obvious will be improvements to the successful comprehensive cross-platform programming and tech strategy that was used during the Paris Olympics to provide viewers with many ways to interact and personalize their viewing experiences on TV, mobile and desktop.

“Customers have told us directly, ‘I love the Olympics, but there is so much of it I get overwhelmed,’” Forlenza explained. “There are customers who want to watch just about anything and some that want to watch specific events. All of them want us to make it as easy for me to get to an event I want to watch as quickly as possible…It doesn’t matter if you are streaming 3,000 hours on Peacock, if they can’t find the minute or two that they really want to watch right now.”

On a high level, that imperative is reflected in a cross-platform programming and tech strategy that worked so well in Paris. As with the Summer Games, all events will be streamed on Peacock and USA’s 4K feeds will focus on Team USA, while the high-profile primetime and late-night programming on NBC will dive into the day’s biggest stories and events.

Alternative Angles
Tying this wide array of programming together will be several new and returning digital tools that will help viewers find content, interact with stories of interest and personalize their experience.

One notable new experience will be “Rinkside Live on Peacock,” where users of the streaming service can access new camera angles for live coverage and behind-the-scenes shots of ice hockey and figure skating via a coach’s cam, a bench cam and other features, said Solomon.

Another notable digital tool is OLI, the AI-powered Olympic Guide that debuted in Paris and has been significantly upgraded for the Milan-Cortina Games. “This AI concierge will make following the games easier and more personalized than ever,” Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said. “It’s like having a friendly Olympics expert on call across 19 NBCUniversal websites and apps.”

The clearest expression of this cross-platform strategy of melding programming and tech to greatly improve viewer engagement will be found on the Comcast Xfinity platform.

As part of that effort, Xfinity will bring back and improve popular interactive features from the Paris Games like AI-powered highlights, as well as newer tools like Fan View, which brings together stats, personalized playlists, live scores, athlete profiles, advanced DVR capabilities and betting odds, and Multiview, which lets viewers watch up to four different feeds at the same time.

“We are able to blur the lines between traditional TV and streaming to the point where it doesn’t matter if your favorite event is on broadcast or streaming on Peacock,” Forlenza said. “We’ll have a full and seamless integration of Peacock into our Olympic experience and wrap it all together with tons of interactivity.”

“The core of our business is coupling video, broadband and mobile,” he concluded. “We will be bringing all of that together to provide an unsurpassed experience that others can’t offer and fixed wireless can’t support.”

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal will present a full day of 4K HDR live coverage on Feb. 8 of the Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on NBC and Peacock.

The 17 hours of coverage starting at 7 a.m. ET marks the first time a Super Bowl and Olympic Games will be presented in 4K HDR on the NBC broadcast network and the Peacock streaming service.

The Feb. 8 begins with live Winter Olympics coverage starting at 7 a.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by Super Bowl pregame coverage at noon ET, game coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET and finishes with Primetime in Milan beginning at approximately 10:45 p.m. ET – providing fans with 17 hours of 4K HDR coverage.

These technological firsts are part of what NBCUniversal is calling “Legendary February”, an unprecedented month of major sporting events on one network, with Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend.

“When you’re about to present the biggest month in U.S. sports media history, you want to make sure you’re giving fans the best experience possible – so that’s exactly what we have planned on NBC and Peacock for Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend,” said Rick Cordella, president, NBC Sports. “Building on NBC Sports’ long-standing commitment to innovation across all platforms, we’ll be celebrating the action on the field, slopes and court with our signature storytelling, state-of-the-art production, and dynamic streaming features that together bring these incredible sporting events to life for audiences at home.”

As part of Legendary February, Peacock will also debut fan-favorite feature Multiview in beta on mobile during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and offer new sharing options for Olympic-related clips and mini-games.

In an industry first, Peacock’s popular Multiview feature will extend to mobile, launching in beta for the Winter Games. The four-box vertical display will showcase the top four events at any given time, as well as an event-specific Multiview for curling, all curated by NBC Sports producers. This builds on Peacock’s expansive experience for Legendary February that was previously announced, including Winter Olympics Highlights playlists in vertical video, the new feature Rinkside Live, mini-games and trivia.

In addition, for the first time, Peacock users will be able to share their favorite Winter Olympics Highlight clips and trivia and Prediction Game results with friends and family directly from mobile via text and social networks. The ability to share their wins creates an opportunity to spark friendly competition and foster connections – all while they are watching the world’s greatest sporting event unfold.

“Peacock is the first streamer to deliver major live sports at this scale, seamlessly presenting many simultaneous events, with millions of people coming to the platform at once, over several days,” said Patrick Miceli, CTO of NBCUniversal Media Group and Global Streaming. “This impressive performance is possible because of Peacock’s industry-leading infrastructure that supports unmatched reliability, especially under peak demand.”

Tech Highlights For Legendary February

NBC Sports also announced that its Super Bowl LX, which will be produced by Rob Hyland and Drew Escoff, an award-winning team who have worked on more than 10 Super Bowls combined, will use more than 80 cameras and 150 microphones, In addition, NBC will use new technologies like Weather Applied Metrics, which quantifies how past, present and future weather conditions impact the game. Fans will also see a new graphics package.

For the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, fans can expect richer storytelling through increased aerial coverage via the more-extensive use of live drones, behind-the-scenes audio from team radio stations – translated live in real-time using AI as needed, and more access to friends and family reactions, including heart rate monitors and corresponding onscreen graphics.

For the first time in over 20 years, NBC will produce NBA All-Star Weekend onsite in Los Angeles, with a focus on getting fans closer to the action than ever before. New camera angles include additional views of the rim, super-slo-mo capabilities on nearly every camera, SkyCam, and Nucleus Pico mini cameras mounted at floor level on the basket stanchion, along with the new Peacock feature Courtside Live.

STAMFORD, Conn.—Sunday’s Los Angeles Rams-Chicago Bears thriller delivered NBC Sports’ most-watched NFL Divisional Playoff audience on record, with an average of 45.4 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms and NFL Digital platforms, based on official Nielsen Big Data + Panel and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

Viewing peaked at 52.6 million in the game’s final minutes between 9:45 and 10 pm ET as the Rams defeated the Bears 20-17 in overtime.

Rams-Bears (45.4 million viewers) is NBC Sports’ most watched NFL Divisional Playoff on record, since Nielsen’s launched the People Meter in 1988 – covering a total of 34 games. NBC’s previous most-watched Divisional Playoff (41.1 million viewers) came in Jan. 1994 as Joe Montana threw three second-half TD passes to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a 28-20 victory over fellow Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon and the Houston Oilers.

Led by Peacock, NBC Sports Digital delivered its largest NFL simulstream audience ever (excluding Super Bowls) with an Average Minute Audience of 5.3 million viewers across Peacock, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app, and NFL Digital properties.

Chicago led all markets with a massive 34.7/66 local rating while the game averaged 16.3/55 in Los Angeles – up 15% from the 14.2/57 for the Rams-Eagles NFC Divisional Playoff last season on NBC.

NEW YORK—With one month until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal has announced that it has officially sold out of its Olympic inventory and that it set a new Winter Games ad-sales record with more advertisers investing in the upcoming Games (Feb. 6-22) than ever before.

Milan Cortina 2026 is part of what the company is calling its "Legendary February" programming that also includes the Super Bowl (Feb. 8) and the NBA All-Star Game.(Feb. 15). The trifecta has generated extraordinary demand from advertisers leading to sell out across all three tentpole moments, the company reported.

"With the resurgence of the Olympic movement, our strongest Sports Upfront in history, the early sellout of Super Bowl LX and the remarkable return of the NBA, NBCUniversal has solidified itself as a sports powerhouse and brands have taken notice,” said Mark Marshall, chairman, Global Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “Our partners have not only seen the power of the NBC Sports portfolio, but also the incredible results our robust sports programming delivers, which is why our company now sits in its strongest position ever for a Winter Games and is kicking off 2026 officially sold out of all our Legendary February programming."

NBCU said that following the massive success of the 2024 Paris Olympics, brands were more eager than ever to commit to the Milan Cortina Games, with more than 100 new advertisers. As a result, the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics produced the highest linear and digital revenue in Winter Games history.

Over 85% of brand partners are investing in Milan Cortina digitally and advertiser adoption of Peacock’s ad innovations has grown 31% from Paris 2024 to Milan Cortina. Additionally, nearly 60 advertisers have invested in unique marketing elements, up 174% from Beijing 2022. More than a dozen brands are investing in sponsorships to offer more live sports viewing to fans, NBCU said, up 75% from Paris 2024.

Peter Lazarus, executive vice president NBC Sports and Olympics, Advertising and Partnerships, added: “The upcoming Winter Games, surrounded by Super Bowl LX and NBA All-Star Weekend, will captivate a highly engaged and passionate audience at scale in a way that no other media company can for advertisers. For the first time in our company's history, we have seen such unprecedented demand that we are officially sold out of our inventory this far in advance of a Games. We are excited to once again deliver to fans a world-class viewing experience while providing brands with the powerful halo effect the Olympics has to offer.”

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STAMFORD, Conn.—NBCUniversal is bringing back OLI, its AI-powered Olympics discoverability tool with enhanced features designed to help fans navigate thousands of hours of its coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics (Feb. 6-22).

First introduced during the 2024 Paris Olympics, OLI is now powered by Google Cloud’s Gemini LLM. The guide is designed to combine the conversational power of generative AI with NBCU’s proprietary, real-time U.S. programming information to help fans discover when, where and how they can watch their favorite events. Coverage on NBC and Peacock, the primary platforms for the Games, begins with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.

OLI will be available across 19 NBCU-owned digital properties, including NBCOlympics.com, NBCSports.com, NBC.com, Today.com, NBCNews.com, regional sports networks, and 11 local stations, with the upgraded experience launching on January 20.

The upgraded version will deliver a more natural and collaborative experience that gives fans deeper context and makes it easier than ever to connect with Olympic moments that matter most to them, NBCU said. The upgraded OLI tool was developed in partnership with design and technology company Huge.

A demo of how OLI will guide fans and simplify the viewer experience so viewers never miss a second of the action is available below:

“Our goal with OLI on NBCUniversal’s digital platforms is to help fans find up-to-the-minute answers to their Olympics questions, and to help them quickly get to the thousands of hours of coverage we have across NBC and Peacock,” said Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer, Entertainment and Sports, NBCUniversal. “With OLI’s new capabilities, we’re transforming it beyond a discovery tool into a true viewing guide. From real-time medal counts and athlete profiles to personalized highlights and calendar reminders, OLI ensures fans can easily connect with the Olympic moments that matter most.”

With personalized recommendations and tailored viewing options based on time of day, time zone and live schedule, OLI will have several new features including live medal count updates by country; athlete profiles with bios and event details; video highlights based on user preferences; calendar invites that can be added directly from OLI; and suggested follow-up queries to discover new sports, athletes and Olympic content. OLI also includes links to help users get right to watching on NBC or Peacock.

As NBC Sports presents “Legendary February,” a month of sports programming including the Milan-Cortina Games, the Super Bowl and the NBA All-Star Game, OLI will share programming details with fans about Super Bowl Sunday and NBA All-Star Weekend in addition to Olympics coverage.

NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2036, which are scheduled for Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (2026); Los Angeles (2028); the French Alps (2030); Brisbane, Australia (2032); Utah (2034); and the as-yet-unawarded 2036 Summer Games.

ATLANTA—Gray Media, Inc. and NBC have announced a multi-year deal that extends and renews station affiliation agreements for all 54 markets nationwide where Gray owns and operates NBC affiliated television stations.

The deal covers stations reaching more than 14 million households – nearly 11% of all U.S. TV Households.

Gray noted that the new agreement includes full carriage of the NBC broadcast network, including “TODAY,” “NBC Nightly News,” “Sunday Night Football,” the NBA, the Olympics and Paralympics, “One Chicago” franchise, “The Voice,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and more.

In the current 2025-26 television season, NBC is the #1 network in all programming in both demos, Gray reported.

NEW YORK—“Pass the turkey.” “Pass the stuffing.” “Pass the cranberry sauce.” All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and friends.

This year—like most in recent memory—another familiar plea was surely heard around millions of TVs across the country: “Pass the football!”

Nielsen is out today with its ratings for the week of Nov. 24-30, which includes Nov. 27, Thanksgiving Day, and NFL broadcast coverage put up big viewing numbers.

CBS coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game was the most-watched NFL regular-season telecast in league history with 57.23 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Fox’s coverage of the early Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game, simulcast on Tubi, garnered 47.7 million viewers, making it Fox’s most-watched regular-season game ever, it said.

NBC’s Thanksgiving Cincinnati Bengals-Baltimore Ravens game, simulcast on Peacock and Telemundo, saw 28.4 million viewers tune in, making it the most-watched Thanksgiving-night NFL game in league history, Nielsen said.

The following day, an average of 16.33 million viewers streamed the Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles game on Prime Video, making it the most-watched Black Friday Football game to date, Nielsen said.

In all, NFL games secured eight of the top 12 slots across networks and distributors, including Fox, NBC, CBS, Prime Video, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

College sports also proved to be popular, with Fox’s Ohio State-Michigan game telecast averaging 18.42 million viewers, the biggest college football audience this season, it said.

College hoops broke viewing records on Thanksgiving Day as well. Duke-Arkansas on CBS was the most-watched regular-season college basketball game on any network since the 1992-93, season with 6.8 million viewers.

Michigan-North Carolina was the most-watched college basketball game in Fox history, with 6.5 million viewers, it said.

Overall, college football occupied 12 of the top 25 slots across five different networks, including three games with more than 10 million viewers, Nielsen said.

ESPN coverage of the Minnesota Timberwolves-Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game placed No. 24 in the top 25, and the 2025 National Dog Show on NBC and Peacock averaged 12.8 million viewers to take the No. 11 slot.

NEW YORK—The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation has announced that NBC’s centennial milestone will be honored at its Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts luncheon.

LABF’s annual tribute recognizing trailblazers and historic contributions to the broadcasting industry will take place on Friday, November 14, 2025, at Gotham Hall in New York.

In announcing the award, LABF noted that NBC has defined the U.S. television landscape for generations of viewers, becoming a trusted media source for fans to build lasting connections with cultural moments across entertainment, sports and news.

“Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker will accept the award on behalf of the network. “Meet the Press” is the longest-running television program in U.S. history.

“For 100 years, NBC has been a pillar of American broadcasting,” said LABF co-chairs Heidi Raphael, Beasley Media Group chief communications officer, and Jack Goodman, longtime D.C.- based communications attorney. “We are thrilled to recognize NBC’s 100th anniversary celebration during this year’s Giants of Broadcasting event."

In addition the NBC, the 2025 Giants of Broadcasting Honorees to be honored at the event include:

• David Muir, Anchor and Managing Editor, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, and Co-Anchor of ABC’s 20/20
• Lynn Beall, Visionary Strategist and Innovator, Retired Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Media Operations, TEGNA, Inc.
• Rick Dees, Legendary Radio Icon, Entertainer, and Entrepreneur
• John Feore Jr., Esteemed Communications Attorney and Trusted Advisor
• Dick Ferguson, Distinguished Radio Executive and Retired Executive Vice President, Cox Radio Group
• Gary Sandy, Acclaimed Stage, Screen, and Television Icon, beloved for his role as Andy Travis on WKRP in Cincinnati
• Lesley Visser, Trailblazing Hall of Fame Sportscaster and First Woman Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Additionally, CBS News White House Correspondent and former RTDNA Chairman Steven Portnoy will receive the 2025 LABF Excellence in Broadcast Preservation Award in recognition of his tireless efforts to safeguard and celebrate the history of broadcast journalism.

For complete details about the honorees, sponsorship opportunities, tables and individual tickets, please contact Debbie Beagan-Carcich, 2025 Giants of Broadcasting event Producer at debbie@giantsofbroadcasting.org or go to www.tvradiolibrary.org.

WASHINGTON—After months of attacking broadcast networks for “bias” in their news coverage and the way they handle relationships with affiliates, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has sent a letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts saying, “I have asked the FCC’s Media Bureau to examine Comcast’s relationships with its local broadcast TV affiliates—both owned and operated and independent stations—to ensure compliance with FCC regulations as well as the public interest standard.”

As part of that effort, Carr said he had asked the Media Bureau to obtain the company's contracts with NBC and Telemundo affiliates. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal media subsidiary.

Carr framed the letter as part of his ongoing attacks on national programmers for violating “public interest” rules that have allowed networks “to exercise more and more control over the operations of licensed local broadcast stations. This has created a clear tension between the many local broadcast stations across the country that want to serve their local communities and the interest of national programmers.”

This dynamic, Carr contended, has eroded public trust in “national news outlets,” a problem that the FCC has been trying to rectify with controversial investigations into “news bias” at stations owned by CBS, ABC and NBC. This is drawn fire from Democratic FCC commissioner Anna Gomez and other critics as an attempt by the administration of President Donald Trump to regulate news content and crack down on free speech.

“The public’s lack of trust has a direct impact on the public interest, as those national broadcast networks supply many of the shows and content that local broadcast TV stations air,” Carr wrote in the letter to Roberts. “Moreover, NBC and the other national programmers are also focused on distributing national content over direct-to-consumer subscription streaming services, like NBCUniversal’s own Peacock. This has the potential to create increased market power and incentives that do not align with broadcasters’ public interest obligations.”

Added Carr: “I have heard numerous reports that the approach that NBC and other similarly situated networks are taking in recent negotiations is an attempt to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations. Under this approach, networks threaten termination of long-held affiliations, which could result in blackouts and other harms to local consumers of broadcast news and content. These practices suggest that the relationships between programming networks and their affiliates are not operating in the manner envisioned by FCC regulations. Indeed, the Commission has long been concerned about the balance of power between networks and affiliates.”

In the letter, Carr also raised the issue of retransmission-consent negotiations with virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) such as YouTube TV, which networks currently handle. Broadcast stations have repeatedly urged the FCC to change those rules so the stations negotiate those deals.

"While the issues raised in this letter may not be unique to Comcast, I have asked the Media Bureau to begin this review with Comcast given your company’s varied media holdings—broadcast networks (NBC & Telemundo), broadcast TV stations, cable networks, cable systems, and direct-to-consumer subscription streaming services," Carr wrote. “I want to ensure that Comcast’s ability to exert influence over its local broadcast affiliates does not operate to undermine broadcasters’ ability to comply with their public interest obligations.

“To assist my inquiry into these matters, I have directed the Media Bureau to obtain copies of the affiliation agreements that Comcast or NBC/Telemundo have entered into with local broadcast TV stations,” he concluded. “I have asked the Media Bureau to then ensure that these broadcast network/affiliate relationships comply with federal regulations as they relate to the FCC’s rules regarding station operations and control, ownership, affiliation and network program practices.”

The conservative group Center for American Rights has filed another “news distortion” complaint with the Federal Communications Commission. The newest complaint, filed April 21, alleges ABC, NBC and CBS offered “false or misleading information” during their coverage of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which the group alleged “is a failure of their responsibilities under the public interest standard.”

The filing, which the group called an “informal consumer complaint,” came shortly after FCC Chair Brendan Carr escalated his complaints regarding NBC's owner, Comcast with an April 16 social media post blasting Comcast’s cable news channel MSNBC for inaccurate coverage of the controversy surrounding the deportation of the Salvadoran immigrant.

In that post, which racked up more than 1 million views, Carr weighed in on the dispute over the deportation of the El Salvadoran immigrant by writing: “Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man.’ ”

Critics interpreted the post as a threat that the FCC chair, who has already openly criticized Comcast’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, might open an investigation into the broadcast station licenses owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

The Center for American Rights (CAR) had previously filed complaints against stations owned by ABC, CBS and NBC for “news distortion” of their coverage of Donald Trump during the presidential race. Those complaints were dismissed by the FCC and then reinstated by Carr.

In the newest complaint, CAR argued: “Going back decades, this Commission has insisted that a licensee may not ‘distort or suppress the basic factual information upon which any truly fair and free discussion of public issues must necessarily depend.’ … Yet that is precisely the situation regarding the deportation of illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia. NBC, ABC, and CBS have all done a grave disservice to the basic facts of the controversy by consistently referring to him as a ‘Maryland father’ and in some instances even presenting false information, like calling him a ‘legal resident.’ The actual facts—that he is an illegal alien and that an immigration judge has found he is a member of a violent gang—are not reported or are treated as unconfirmed rumors. The story is slanted in a way that distorts, misrepresents, or simply incorrectly reports the basic facts.”

It is not clear from the complaint what sort of penalty CAR wants the FCC to impose on the networks or even what entity should be penalized.

The FCC does license broadcast stations and regulate the broadcast networks, but it does not license the networks. CAR’s other “news distortion” complaints were made against specific FCC-licensed broadcast stations owned by the networks. The newest filing does not mention any specific stations.

In the filing, CAR outlines various conditions that would allow the FCC to remove licenses and lays down legal arguments supporting the idea the regulator could remove a license for “news distortion” and failure to offer news coverage and information that meets the “public interest” standard.

While the complaint focuses on the network news operations, it does not mention the fact that the FCC does not license the networks. Instead, it urges the FCC to act to restore the public’s faith in traditional media and broadcast news by investigating operations that violate the “public interest” standard.

“When the American people no longer trust broadcast news media’s good faith, this Commission needs to exercise more vigorous enforcement of the public-interest standard,” the complaint noted.

“The integrity of news broadcasting is crucial to an informed, responsible electorate and the Commission has stressed the continuing duty of licensees to take adequate measures to insure such integrity,” the complaint concluded. “NBC, ABC and CBS have not acted with journalistic integrity in their reporting on Mr. Abrego Garcia. Quite the opposite, in fact. Their extreme and evident bias on this story is just one more reason [why] ‘[m]ore Americans trust gas station sushi than the legacy national media.’ @BrendanCarrFCC (Feb. 26, 13 2025). That sort of self-evident news distortion, providing ‘false or misleading information concerning the basic facts' of the story, is a failure of their responsibilities under the public-interest standard.”

The NAB has in the past argued that these arguments for denying broadcast station licenses are “unconstitutional” on First Amendment grounds and go far beyond the legitimate powers of the FCC. In addition, former FCC commissioners have accused the FCC of acting as the `White House’s personal censor’ by investigating news organizations providing critical coverage of the administration.

The full CAR complaint is available here.

NEW YORK and BALTIMORE—Sinclair and NBUCniversal said they have struck a major multiyear agreement renewing all 21 of Sinclair’s owned and/or operated NBC affiliates. The stations reach nearly 7 million U.S. TV households.

The deal renews these Sinclair-owned stations: WOAI San Antonio, Texas; KSNV Las Vegas; WJAR Providence, Rhode Island; WNWO Toledo, Ohio; WSTM Syracuse, New York; WCYB Tri-Cities (Tennessee and Virginia); WTWC Tallahassee, Florida; WJAC Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania; WPBN-WTOM Traverse City-Cadillac, Michigan; KCFW-KECI Missoula, Montana; WTOV Wheeling-Steubenville, Ohio; and KTVM and KDBZ-CD, Butte-Bozeman, Montana.

The deal also renewed NBC affiliations on stations Sinclair manages in five markets: Cunningham Broadcasting Group-owned KRNV Reno, Nevada; Deerfield Media’s WPMI Mobile (Alabama)-Pensacola (Florida); Howard Stirk Holdings-owned WPMI Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan; MPS Media’s WNBW Gainsville, Florida; and Roberts Media-owned KMTR, KMCB and KTCW in Eugene, Oregon.

“These agreements reflect the mutual value and shared success between Sinclair and NBC,” said Will Bell, senior vice president, head of distribution and network relations, Sinclair. “It underscores the strength of our partnership and the unique role our stations play in delivering compelling content, trusted journalism, and vital services to local communities. We look forward to continuing to build on this legacy with NBC in the years ahead.”

IRVING, Texas—Nexstar Media Group and NBCUniversal have reached a multiyear agreement to renew the station group’s NBC Television Network affiliations in 33 markets across the U.S.

The deal includes 29 stations owned by Nexstar, three owned by Mission Broadcasting and one owned by White Knight Broadcasting.

Together, the 33 stations reach more than 14 million U.S. television households.

As is typical in these types of deals, financial terms were not disclosed.

CINCINNATI—The E.W. Scripps Co. has announced that it has concluded a new multiyear network affiliation agreement covering all 11 Scripps-owned NBC stations.

The NBC deal follows Scripps’ successful affiliation agreement renewal with CBS last fall, which covered Scripps-owned stations including WTVF Nashville and CBS-affiliated markets in Montana.

The new NBC agreement, effective Jan. 1, 2025, includes WGBA Green Bay, Wisconsin; WTMJ Milwaukee; KRIS Corpus Christi, Texas; KTGF Great Falls, Montana; KTVH Helena, Montana; WLEX Lexington, Kentucky; KOAA Colorado Springs, Colorado; KJRH Tulsa, Oklahoma; KSBY San Luis Obispo, California; WPTV West Palm Beach, Florida; and KSHB Kansas City, Missouri.

“This expanded agreement recognizes our decades-long partnership with NBC as well as the importance of our TV stations in providing trusted local news reporting, emergency weather alerts and community coverage to these markets,” Dean Littleton, Scripps executive vice president, media broadcast operations, said. “Moreover, it illustrates the ongoing strength of the network-affiliate model and the enduring value of our local stations.”

“We look forward to continuing our longstanding relationship with Scripps, bringing their viewers the leading broadcast network and vital entertainment, news and sports content,” NBCUniversal president, affiliate relations Phil Martzolf said. “As we enter 2025 and look forward to exciting programming like the NBA, we will continue to work with our partners to innovate our NBC offerings on behalf of viewers nationwide.”

In between helpings of turkey and other Thanksgiving Day fare, viewers will see companies dishing up hefty portions of ads on sports programming, with the national TV ad spend expected to hit $624 million over the four-day holiday weekend, according to new data from Guideline.

New insights from Guideline show sports programming will account for at least 84% of all broadcast dollars over the holiday weekend with NFL games accounting for 69% of all ad spending and 80% of the spending on sports.

“Thanksgiving weekend highlights the unmatched value of sports in video advertising,” Guideline Head of Product Strategy Alberto Leyes said. “With the NFL driving nearly 70% of national TV, advertisers see this holiday as a prime opportunity for massive reach and engagement despite double-digit growth in unit rates. From record NFL audiences to rising demand for college football, sports remain the go-to choice for connecting with viewers at scale.”

Guideline captures actual agency investment from all holding companies and most large independents, representing spend committed by contributing agency partners for yet-to-run inventory.

Ads during the NFL Thanksgiving Day games on Thursday (Nov. 28) have the highest 30-second unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year.

With the NFL setting a record of 34.1 million viewers for last year’s Thanksgiving games, Guideline reported that sports are once again expected to dominate broadcast ad spending with $570 million in spending from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.

That accounts for 84% of all broadcast dollars and includes streaming service Prime Video’s Black Friday NFL game. Factoring in sports content on cable during those dates, the figure tallies $624 million.

Guideline also reported that the share of spending on sports programming during the Thursday-Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is up from 81% in 2023 and up from 73% in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic.

The NFL Thanksgiving Thursday games (on NBC, Fox, CBS) have the highest 30-seond unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year. NFL Thanksgiving weekend games (NBC, Fox, CBS and Prime Video) cost $576,000 for a 30-second spot, up 11% YoY.

The Guideline data also indicated that college football also sees a boost during the holiday weekend, as 30-second units for college football Saturday games (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) cost $133,000, up 12% year over year.

Fox News Channel easily led broadcast and cable networks in audiences for its primetime election coverage with an average of 9.8 million viewers in the 8-11 p.m. (ET) time slot, while ABC attracted 5.7 million viewers 2-plus and MSNBC pulled in 5.5 million.

NBC earned the fourth largest audience at 5.3 million, followed by CNN at 4.7 million and CBS at 3.5 million.

While the election night coverage was highly anticipated, following the most expensive campaigns in history, early indications are that viewing averaged 36.6 million viewers across the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) and three biggest cable news channels (CNN, FNC and NBC), according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is way down from the 50.7 million who tuned into those outlets four years ago during primetime.

Fox News Media properties (FNC, Fox Business Network, the Fox broadcast network and Fox News Digital) had 13 million viewers 2-plus, according to the division. About 4 million of those were in the adults 25-54 demo used to sell advertising, with FNC getting about 2.9 million of its 9.8 million viewers from the 25-54 age group.

ABC has about 2.2 million in that demo, followed by NBC (2.1 million), CNN (2 million) and CBS (1.2 million).

In its first coverage of a presidential election, NewsNation attracted 257,000 P2+ and about 65,000 in the 25-54 demo.

In the six p.m. to 3 a.m. ET time slot, FNC had an average of 8.2 million P2+ and 2.4 million in the 25-54 demo while CNN had 3.5 million P2+ and 1.5 million in the 25-54 age group and MSNBC has 3.9 million P2+ and 1.1 million viewers aged 25-54.

While this year’s U.S. presidential election has seen plenty of drama already, the events of Nov. 5 could still prove to be explosive. As the race to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. reaches its final hours, viewers around the world will be tuning in to see who gets the keys to the White House for the next four years.

In the U.K., Sky News will bring viewers the results throughout Nov. 5 and into Nov. 6. The broadcaster will have presenters based in Washington, D.C., at both candidates’ events and the key swing states. But in a first for Sky News, its main gallery will be based in the United Kingdom, with the team employing remote production throughout the project.

Planning for the election has been ongoing since 2020, as the fixed cycle of U.S. elections means that broadcasters know what date they’re working toward, something that is unusual in the news business. But planning took a step forward in November 2022 when Republican Donald Trump announced his candidacy for a third run at the White House.

“We’ve been thinking about the story in a news gathering capacity for a long time now,” Emily Purser-Brown, Sky News’ Washington bureau chief, said. “The primaries were a really big deal at the beginning of this year, and from an output and programming perspective, we’ve been in very serious planning for several months.

“There was a moment I think that we and the rest of our colleagues in the media thought we might have a U.S. and a U.K. election running right alongside each other and so some of our planning was around that contingency. I think it’s a relief to all of us in the news business to be able to cover the stories at different times.”

Purser-Brown added that planning election coverage while also keeping up with the story has been a huge challenge over the last few months. “It’s been a wild summer of developments and keeping not just at pace with that, but hopefully in front of it, whilst planning and trying to execute a big project of this nature with many 10s of colleagues in London has been a lot of work.”

Separation of Powers
Sky News is basing its on-air team in D.C. Studio N1 in NBC’s Washington news bureau, home to the Sunday morning public-affairs show “Meet the Press,” America’s longest-running program. Because Sky and NBC have existing fiber infrastructure between D.C. and London, the gallery will be based at Sky’s HQ in Osterley, West London.

“We are very lucky to have the ‘Meet the Press’ studio. It’s an iconic studio and it’s in constant use, and this is one of the challenges,” said Niel Finlay, senior director at Sky News.

“We have very limited time with the studio, so we don’t want to change it too much, especially as it’s quite iconic and we can’t disturb the studio too much because NBC need to use it in the two hours after we have it for rehearsal,” Finlay said. “The current set has a neoclassical and federal style architecture, which refers to the Capitol building and other architecture around it, so we’ll be leaning into their set, but we’ll be trying to make it distinctive by using our graphics with our presenters and our journalism.

“We’ve done some latency checks. We were in their studio at the end of July/beginning of August, for a tech check, and we were really impressed,” he continued. “We’re lucky being top-end broadcasters, we’ve already got that infrastructure in place. It’s just one of the facts, when you run a remote production, there is going to be slight latency in there, but it’s nothing that we aren’t used to dealing with. We’ve got all the cameras coming into the studio, we’ve got sound coming into our gallery, and we’re piping back all the graphics that are feeding the video wall.”

The master gallery in Osterley will be fully crewed with the team working alongside a director in Washington. Finlay said there was some discussion as to whether to run the production completely remotely, but it was decided that there should be someone on the ground to guide the U.S.-based crew.

“Not to blow our trumpet too much about the whole remote production part of it but Sky News and Sky Sports have been leaders in remote production for many years now,” he continues. “Our Millbank facilities in London are remote production robotic cameras, we do have some technical people down there when we need to. But this election is just our next step onwards, where we’re effectively controlling someone else’s studio.”

Access
Sky will have some technical people in the U.S., but the collaboration with NBC means that a lot of the production staff will come from the U.S. broadcaster.

“Editorially, we have got two overnight presenters plus a screen presenter, so we have to have enough production team to be able to cover that as well as all our teams in the field,” added Lucie Charlton, Sky News output editor. “This isn’t just a one- night production, either. We’ve got the days running up to it, and however long it may be before the results are called. So you have to have enough editorial team to cover all those correspondents and presenters.”

Sky News will have correspondents on the ground across the United States, including with both campaigns as well as several of the swing states, particularly the likes of Pennsylvania and Georgia. “One of our core principles is eyewitness journalism. To do that, you need to have boots on the ground,” Charlton said.

To help cover all of the locations where they intend to have reporters, Sky News will rely on LiveU for feedback feeds and on NBC’s infrastructure in certain locations.

“This election night project is really an extension of our day to day relationship with NBC,” Purser-Brown said. “Particularly here in America, we work hand in glove with NBC, it’s a close working partnership from news gathering to picture sourcing, to, in this case, the technology.”

Talking Points
Back in D.C., Sky News intends to make full use of D.C. Studio N1’s location on Capitol Hill with all of its windows looking out on historic landmarks. The studio also includes four window archways, which Sky News will use as graphics screens. One of the screens will also be employed as a way for the presenters to speak to correspondents and guests.

“That helps us add to the set but it’ll also help us to tell the story throughout the night,” Charlton said. “The bit I’m excited about is one of the big archway screens will be used as a map of the United States, and as the night goes on, each state will go red or blue as the result comes in and the audience will be able to see that happening in real-time behind our presenters. The other screens allow us to show live shots and images of the White House and the Capitol building as well.”

Augmented reality powered by Unreal Engine will also come into play during the night—although the team is reluctant to give too many details as it wants to surprise viewers. “We do have an AR White House that our graphics and innovation teams have made, and that includes the grounds of the White House and all those kind of iconic shots that you see on TV,” Charlton explained. “It will allow us to show how close we are getting to the winner of the election and that magic number of 270 electoral votes. All that will help feed into our coverage throughout the night.”

Lewis Goodall is also joining the on-air team for the election and will be in charge of a famous piece of kit—the touch screen used by Steve Kornacki as part of NBC’s broadcast. “Lewis will be talking us through all the data throughout the night. We’ll have state-level and county-level data coming in so we can see exactly who’s voting for whom, in which state and county and and really tell the story on a granular level,” Charlton said. “We’ve had access to a level of data for the U.S. election before, but this type of data and this type of technology, the way the touch screen works, it’s very quick and responsive. It allows us to tell the story really quickly, so it’s quite exciting, and it’s going to be our kind of shining star hopefully of the night.”

Game On
Working alongside its U.S. sister network is a big challenge for Sky News, and one that Finlay said needs to be acknowledged. Not only is the Sky News team dealing with the time difference between the U.S. and U.K., but its also getting to grips with different technology, including a different comms system. “We use Riedel for comms, and it’s always a challenge mixing comms systems. The tech team have gone down an embedded audio route, so we’re going to embed and de-embed audio streams to feed into presenters. We need to have ISO recordings coming back as well. We might want to clip particular moments up so we need all the cameras and ISOs and sound paired together.”

“We’ve obviously been working with NBC for a long time, but on this scale, and using one of their studios, using all their data that’s coming through and using their touchscreen, is just the closest and biggest collaboration that we’ve ever done,” Charlton added. “It’s all very new to us but so far, it’s all been very successful.”

This story originally ran in TV Technology sister brand TVB Europe.

PHILADELPHIA—As Comcast reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results, executives told analysts the company is considering spinning off its cable networks, a move that could produce a significant shift in its corporate strategies and in the U.S. media landscape.

“Like many of our peers in media, we are experiencing the effects of the transition in our video businesses and have been studying the best path forward for these assets,“ Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said of the cable networks, part of its NBCUniversal unit, on the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “To that end, we are now exploring whether creating a new, well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders. We are not ready to talk about any specifics yet, but we’ll be back to you if and when we reach firm conclusions.

“I’m not talking about Peacock or broadcast,” Cavanagh added, though he did say Comcast would be willing to “consider partnerships in streaming despite their complexities.”

Some analysts, though, have already thrown cold water on the idea and have highlighted a wide range of problems such a deal would pose.

Cavanagh didn't address those specifics and stressed that it is early in a process that, he conceded, would raise a lot of complex issues. Executives were going public with the idea so Comcast shareholders would have a better understanding of what they were exploring, he said.

“There are a lot of questions to which we don't have answers so we want to do the work, and we want to do the work with transparency around it so that as rumors fly and the like, we expect that,” he said. “But we want our shareholders to understand what we’re willing to look at. And that's in the context of a broader, ‘We look at a lot of things.’ And I do think in a moment of a lot of transition in the industries we're part of, I think we've got a very strong hand given the strength of the businesses.”

In response to the possibility of the spinoff, LightShed Partners analysts Richard Greenfield, Brandon Ross and Mark Kelley were generally negative about the prospects of a cable spinoff or any deal involving Peacock.

“Given the acceleration in cord-cutting and the secular decline of linear TV advertising, particularly basic-cable networks, it’s no surprise that Comcast/NBCU would be interested in spinning off its cable networks,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, spinning off NBCU’s cable networks is challenging at this stage of their life cycle and merging Peacock with a streaming-industry peer is beyond complicated. In turn, we wonder whether this is really much ado about nothing or if it could actually lead to a far broader strategic conversation where Comcast revisits spinning off/merging all of NBCU ex-Theme Parks.

“We suspect this is much ado about nothing and is simply a sign of just how structurally challenged linear cable networks and subscale, U.S.-only streaming platforms are in 2024 and beyond,” the analysts concluded. “When you see a dismal future, with no path to growth, you sound the alarm and explore strategic alternatives.”

Cable Carriage Deals a Concern
One major problem with a spinoff was the value of those networks in ongoing negotiations with multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) as a separate company without NBC, which Cavanaugh said would not be included in the spinoff.

“While Comcast Cable could certainly sign a long-term distribution deal with NBCU’s cable networks, why would any other distributor want to renew its carriage agreements or at least renew at levels anywhere near current agreements?” they asked. “It is one thing to package USA, Syfy, Bravo, MSNBC and CNBC cable-network distribution with NBC broadcast, which controls ‘Sunday Night Football,’ college football, Olympics and soon NBA. But without NBC, those cable networks would be in an incredibly precarious position.”

“Remember what happened to Diamond Sports after it lost the protection of the Fox Broadcast Network?” the analysts added, referencing the troubled former Sinclair subsidiary that acquired the Fox Sports regional sports network business spun out during Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. “Diamond’s $2 billion of EBITDA evaporated within three years and entered bankruptcy because it lost distribution. And remember, there is a lot of NBCU cable network content on Peacock, so for consumers that love that content, there are still ways to access that content, even if not carried by an MVPD/vMVPD.”

Likewise, they noted that some sort of partnership with Peacock is an appealing idea given the streaming platform has already lost $9 billion and is still losing $400 million a quarter. But a “Peacock merger with another streaming service sounds even more complicated and hard to effectuate,” they said.

Issues that would complicate such a deal include control over the partnership; the difficulties of untangling the close ties between Peacock and NBC in terms of programming and sports rights; the regulatory environment; and existing sports-rights deals that could be voided by a merger.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal Local has added several new weather products to the mobile apps of its NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations that feature customization tools, a streamlined layout and a new design that delivers faster and easier access to local weather data, information and forecasts.

As part of the upgrade, the English- and Spanish-language weather sections are now available across all 35 NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations’ apps for iOS and Android.

“Serving our communities with the most extensive and accurate weather coverage, in English and Spanish is our mission, so we’re proud to unveil this new experience that serves all users how they want, and when they want, to keep them informed and safe,” NBCU Local Executive Vice President of Multiplatform Lora Dennis said. “This redesign was an extensive effort that relied on significant research and data, the expertise of our meteorologists and weather experts around the nation, and most importantly, our users, who provided considerable feedback.”

The app’s new design prioritizes personalization, NBCU Local said, with customization features that let users curate how content modules are organized and presented. It also provides more control over the display of radar features, such as layers and overlays. Advanced settings help users more easily manage weather alerts and notifications, including new options for adding locations or accessing recent ones.

The streamlined layout and intuitive design help users to quickly access the most relevant and essential data and information—such as current conditions and forecasts—and navigate to different features. The enhanced display also uses larger fonts to increase legibility and employs easy-to-understand icons, NBCU Local said.

The new version of the weather product will be automatically installed for users with updates enabled. Users without automatic updates must manually update the app to access the new features.

Once the update is complete, a highlighted “new” setting will appear in the app settings. Users can tap there to view a walkthrough introducing the updated weather experience, highlighting its key features and providing customization guidance.

NBCU Local’s stations serve 30 U.S. markets and Puerto Rico, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami.

STAMFORD, Conn.—The U.S. Men’s Basketball Team’s down to-the-wire 98-87 victory over France produced some ratings gold for NBCUniversal, with an average audience of 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. That made it the most-watched gold medal game since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, based on fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. 

The game peaked at 22.7 million viewers from 5-5:15 p.m. ET as Team USA pulled away for the win. During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the U.S.-Yugoslavia matchup drew 25.8 million.

Final data for the full Olympics hasn’t been released, but beginning with Friday’s Opening Ceremony, NBCUniversal has a posted a 16-day Total Audience Delivery average of 31.3 million viewers across the combined live Paris Prime (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) time periods – up 82% from Tokyo (17.2 million).

Led by Peacock, the Men's Gold Metal game also ranked as the most-streamed event of the Paris Olympics across NBCU digital platforms, with an average minute audience (AMA) of 2.7 million viewers.

Earlier on Saturday, the U.S. Women’s National Team’s 1-0 victory over Brazil in the gold medal soccer match (11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET) averaged approximately 9.0 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, marking the most-watched gold medal soccer game since the 2004 Athens Olympics.

NBCUniversal’s presentation of the final Saturday of Paris Olympics competition on NBC, Peacock, and across key NBCU platforms posted a projected Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 30.7 million viewers, according to fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics – nearly tripling the audience for the comparable Saturday of competition for the Tokyo Olympics (11.7 million across all platforms).

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Live viewership from 2-5 p.m. ET (Paris Prime) is inclusive of NBC, Peacock, USA Network, E!, CNBC, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2, and additional NBCU digital platforms. Primetime viewership includes NBC, Peacock, USA Network, Paris Extra 1 and Paris Extra 2.

STAMFORD, Conn.—NBCUniversal has released data showing that total viewing of the Paris Olympics is up 77% from the Tokyo Olympics after 12 days and that the NBC affiliate in New Orleans had the highest rating of any NBC affiliated local TV station. 

Tulsa was the second highest rated market, followed by West Palm Beach among NBC affiliate stations according to Nielsen. (See rankings below.)

In addition, NBCUniversal’s nightly Paris Olympics show from 8-11 p.m. ET/PT has dominated primetime, topping 13 million viewers each night across NBC and USA Network, according to Nielsen. If the NFL is excluded, NBC said that the show accounts for 12 of the 19 most-watched primetime shows in 2024. 

Beginning with the Opening Ceremony, NBCUniversal has a posted 12-day Total Audience Delivery average of 32.2 million viewers across the combined live Paris Prime (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) time periods – up 77% from Tokyo (18.2 million).

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day official figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Live viewership from 2-5 p.m. ET (Paris Prime) is inclusive of NBC, Peacock, USA Network, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2, and additional NBCU digital platforms. Primetime viewership includes NBC, Peacock, USA Network, Paris Extra 1 and Paris Extra 2.

In terms of local markets, New Orleans leads all markets in local NBC station ratings through the first 11 days of broadcast coverage (“Paris Prime” + primetime windows). Following are the Top 20 markets (7/26-8/5):

1. New Orleans 19.8/25
2. West Palm Beach 19.6/28
3. Tulsa 19.2/25
4. Minneapolis 18.4/33
5. Dayton 17.9/26
6. Kansas City 17.8/30
7. Fort Myers 17.1/26
8. Milwaukee 16.9/27
9. Oklahoma City 16.8/25
10. Louisville 16.7/23
11. St. Louis 16.7/27
12. Indianapolis 16.5/29
13. Richmond 16.4/24
14. Austin 16.1/33
15. Norfolk 16.1/27
16. Buffalo 15.9/24
17. Pittsburgh 15.9/24
18. Baltimore 15.9/27
19. Dallas 15.7/31
20. Denver 15.5/31

 Source: Nielsen 

Contrary to what many believe, virtual studio solutions are not new technology. They have just been neglected. 

CBS tried them at the dizzy heights of the dot-com bubble back in 1999, as did many others. But the combination of expense, complexity, and subpar graphics meant they crashed and burned very quickly. 

As one, the industry quietly turned away and pretended it had never happened.  

But in recent years, we have quietly been helping traditional news broadcasters around the world, from the BBC to NBC experiment with new forms of video production and keep up in the creative arms race that modern media has become.  

Many have found that virtual studio technology offers a significant strategic advantage for modern newsrooms — and can be for yours too. 

Media Consumption Habits Are Driving Change  

Media consumption habits have shifted in the last decade, making the industry more competitive than ever before.  

As audiences are bombarded by the volume and variety of news outlets and media forms available, news broadcasters are rapidly expanding and experimenting with creative elements to keep viewers engaged.

A lower technological barrier to entry and shift of advertising capital towards new advertising platforms (such as social media) has resulted in lower news viewership and budgets — and smaller creative and technical teams for many broadcasters.  

Newsroom directors and their teams must do more with less to produce engaging, accurate content to capture audiences — and are increasingly turning to virtual studio to do that.  

Overcoming the Physical Limits of Traditional Studios 

While the traditional news industry has been reluctant to implement (or even talk about) virtual studio, they have become commonplace in sports broadcasting.  

Their adaptability and ease of redesign make virtual studio a powerful tool for news broadcasters — especially those operating under constrained budgets. That flexibility allows newsroom directors to do more with graphics and creative elements, inject more dynamism and visual intrigue into their broadcasts, and turn the studio into a storytelling tool. It also facilitates much faster set up and tear down times, rapid transitions between segments and shows with a fraction of the budget, time, and resources required by physical sets. 

Virtual Studio in Action – Revolutionizing Broadcast Efficiency 

The advantages of a virtual broadcast studio are threefold: easy set-up, more creative, and reduced broadcasting resources. 

For instance, NBC LX built a virtual set into their new studios, allowing them a lot of flexibility and allowing them to use immersive graphics to grab attention and draw people into the story.  

(See how NBC LX uses their virtual set to tell better stories in this video)

Virtual studios can also make live video production more efficient. They allow for faster transitions between sets and environments, meaning producers can quickly repurpose studio spaces for different programs without having to spend the time and resources building multiple hard studios and sets.

Virtual sets and studio elements are programmed using automated workflows, templates and pre-recorded transitions, meaning they can be used and repurposed for multiple different stories with minor editing. These highly automated workflows are particularly useful for smaller production teams, empowering reporters and creatives to deliver more high-quality content with a fraction of the work involved. 

Elevate Your Newsroom with Ross Video Solutions 

Success in the modern newsroom means doing more with less: more content with less budget, more engagement with less staff, and more “bells and whistles” in less time.  

Modern news broadcasters use Ross Video products like XPression, Voyager, and Lucid to automate and streamline immersive virtual studios. Workflow automation tools, like Overdrive and Streamline Pro, stitch these tools together, accelerating the production process and ensuring brand consistency and quality.  

That frees reporters and creatives to deliver more content, creating and embellishing their own stories — sometimes live on air — without adding to their news directors’ long list of worries.  

To learn more about how Ross Video can help your newsrooms stay competitive in the rapidly changing media landscape, reach out to one of our newsroom production experts here.

Keeping Pace in the Election Race

2024 is a big year for newsrooms with a record number of elections taking place around the globe. For advanced insights on how newsrooms can get ahead in addressing their elections needs with cutting-edge graphics, download our guide. 

IOC officials are understandably exuberant over media coverage of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, reporting a record amount of content and viewers worldwide.

For Paris 2024, host broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) is producing over 11,000 hours of content—more than any previous Olympic Games, with the record output across both TV and digital platforms representing a 15.8% increase on the amount of content produced for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

“This includes more athlete-centric coverage and behind- the-scenes material, as well as cinematic lenses with a shallow depth of field to enhance the overall visual experience for the viewer,” the IOC said. “In addition, new dynamic, data-driven graphics are being used to display athletes’ performances in minute detail, while a multitude of camera angles are helping to fully immerse fans in their favorite sports. The immersive coverage being produced by OBS is already attracting record audiences on TV and digital platforms for media rights holders around the world.”

“The audiences benefit from the incredible images going to the world from Olympic Broadcasting Services and our Media Rights-Holders,” said IOC President Thomas Bach on Friday. “We are on track for more than half the world’s population to follow the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

For the host nation, the Opening Ceremony broadcast by France Télévisions attracted a record 23.4 million viewers, representing an 83.3% audience share, according to the IOC.

In the United States, NBC and Peacock registered the most-watched Opening Ceremony for an Olympic Games edition since London 2012, with 28.6 million viewers, while the total minutes consumed by the end of the opening weekend surpassed 1.1 billion across Telemundo, Universo and Peacock streaming and social media platforms, representing a 65% increase compared to the same stage of Tokyo 2020.

Warner Bros. Discovery, which is broadcasting the Games in Europe and on its streaming platforms Max and discovery+, says its total unique streaming viewers for Paris 2024 had already exceeded those from the whole of Tokyo 2020 after just two days of coverage. Across both Max and discovery+, Paris 2024 has also already driven almost one billion streaming minutes, more than seven times higher than at the same point of Tokyo 2020 and already representing 75 per cent of the total minutes from those Games, the IOC reported.

STAMFORD, Conn.—NBCUniversal’s presentation of the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock was the most-watched Opening Ceremony for a Summer Olympics since London 2012 with a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 28.6 million viewers, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. In addition, Telemundo Deportes delivered 666,000 viewers for the Opening Ceremony.

“Last night’s Opening Ceremony, one of the most ambitious and complex in Olympic history, was a spectacle for those in attendance in Paris, delivered a huge audience across our NBCU platforms, and set records for Peacock,” said NBC Sports president Rick Cordella. “Thanks to the tireless effort of our production and engineering teams, and extensive promotion, we are off to a strong start that is in line with the expectations of our NBC stations, and distribution and advertising partners. We are in great position as we look forward to the next two weeks of competition.”

With coverage live in the afternoon followed by a special primetime presentation on July 26, the Opening Ceremony audience of 28.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock was more than 10 million viewers (60%) larger than the Tokyo Opening Ceremony (17.9 million) and an 8% increase over the Rio Opening Ceremony (26.5 million), NBCU reported on Sunday, July 26.

The Opening Ceremony was also the most-streamed ever (more than 2.5 million viewers) and ranks as the No. 1 entertainment event in Peacock history, NBCU reported.

Led by Peacock, Paris Olympics streaming consumption across NBCUniversal platforms exceeded 1 billion minutes through Friday – six times greater than the Tokyo Olympics through the comparable time frame, the company also said.

The strong audience metrics were accompanied by positive data for advertisers, NBCU also stressed. Brands advertising in the Opening Ceremony generated +320% greater search volume than brands in the Tokyo Opening Ceremony according to EDO data.

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day custom fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Official viewership will be available on Monday.

PARIS—As the U.S. media rights holder NBCUniversal prepares to offer the most expansive programming in Olympic history, with 7,000 hours of coverage, including 1,500 hours on linear TV, a new report from S&P says that expectations are high for the Paris Summer Olympics, the first post-pandemic Games, with both organizers and media outlets expecting revenue increases. 

The report argues that Olympic broadcasting revenue growth should accelerate post-pandemic under the International Olympic Committee's current contract with NBCUniversal. Since 2004, global broadcasting revenue from the Summer Olympics has increased 108%. 

The U.S. contract with NBCU drives a majority of broadcast revenue for the IOC, with over a billion dollars coming from the Americas for each Olympics since 2016. Asia and Europe historically come in second or third, with valuations improving when a country in the region hosts an event, the report from S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Kagan found.  

The researchers also wrote that the agreement between the IOC and NBCU averages about $1.3 billion per Olympics from 2022 through 2032, with the domestic rights fee for the 2032 Games reaching nearly $1.6 billion.

According to a recent Consumer Insights survey by Kagan, 28% of US online adults said they typically view the Summer Olympics. This is roughly on par with that of the NBA (27%) and just behind viewing for the MLB (32%).  

NBCU expects ad sales for the Paris Games to set new records, driven in part by its programmatic technology, the report noted. 

In another key finding, the report found that in the US, the domestic rights fees have steadily increased for both the Summer and Winter Games since the late 90s. The growth rate of the domestic rights fee for the Winter Games has outpaced that of the Summer Games since the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan.

The compound annual growth rate for the Winter Games over that period is 14.9% versus 10.5% for the Summer Games. Looking at the most recent Olympics, the US rights fees for each season increased 2.7% under the IOC's current agreement with NBCUniversal, which runs through 2032, S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Kagan found.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal has released its detailed plans for coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics on its various networks and digital platforms, with NBC and Peacock leading the coverage and NBC airing more live coverage than any previous Olympics.

Key highlights of the coverage include more live coverage on the NBC broadcast network than any previous Olympics, three hours of coverage in prime time on NBC and streaming coverage of all sports and events on NBCU’s streaming service Peacock.  

In addition parent company Comcast will be offering simulcast 4K feed of the coverage on the USA Network to Xfinity subscribers and NBCU will be providing a record amount of Spanish-language coverage. 

Other key highlights include:

• NBC and Peacock will present live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, beginning at Noon ET. Telemundo will provide Spanish-language coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Primetime coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.
• Record amounts of live coverage of basketball, gymnastics, swimming and other sports will be available. 
• Primetime in Paris: NBCUniversal is re-imagining its Olympic primetime coverage for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and renaming its signature show, Primetime in Paris, which will deliver enhanced storytelling and bring viewers closer to the Olympics than ever before every single night on NBC and Peacock.
• Peacock will be the U.S. streaming home of the 2024 Paris Olympics, providing fans with the most-comprehensive Olympic destination in U.S. media history. In a Summer Games first, the service will stream every sport and event, including all 329 medal events, and will feature full-event replays; all NBC programming; curated video clips; virtual channels; original programming; and more.
• Peacock’s viewing experience for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will introduce industry-first interactive features that help fans navigate more than 5,000 hours of live coverage throughout the Games, including all 329 medal events. 
• Peacock Live Actions: a new interactive tool that lets fans choose their own viewing journey during live and primetime coverage, and follow the events they are most interested in watching. 
• Peacock Discovery Multiview: With up to 40 live events happening simultaneously, Peacock Discovery Multiview will offer an industry-first, enhanced four-view experience that helps users navigate to the most important events, with real-time on-screen descriptions from NBCU’s Olympic experts informing viewers about what is at stake, such as a medal event, an elimination risk or a first-time Olympian. 
• Olympic Hub: Peacock will provide fans with an intuitive, easy-to-navigate Olympics destination that will allow every kind of fan – both avid and casual – to view the Olympic Games in the way that best fits their interests or timetable, including a spotlight of the biggest live events prominently displayed at the top of the screen when fans enter the Olympics hub, browse by sport and search by athlete features, an interactive schedule, medal standings, catch up with key plays, and more. 
• Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson: Commentary series hosted by comedians Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson, bringing their signature hilarious insights to recap the 2024 Olympics’ best and most unexpected moments throughout the Games.
• Watch with Alex Cooper: Alex Cooper, the multi-hyphenate creator, host, and executive producer of Call Her Daddy, will be at the Paris Olympic Games this summer to host Watch with Alex Cooper, a series of live interactive watch parties streaming on Peacock.
• Gold Zone: The whip-around show will stream for the first time live on Peacock during NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. With hosts Scott Hanson, Andrew Siciliano, Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila, Gold Zone will stream live on Peacock from 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET each day from July 27-Aug. 10. With up to 40 events happening simultaneously during the Paris Olympic Games, Gold Zone will present viewers with the best and most compelling moments happening at any time. Gold Zone’s daily offering will provide viewers with the most comprehensive and all-encompassing live whip-around coverage of any Olympic Games to date.
• Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock: Peacock is harnessing A.I. technology to present “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock,” a first-of-its-kind, personalized experience complementing NBCUniversal’s comprehensive coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. 
• USA Network, E!, CNBC, and GOLF Channel will present live action and programming throughout the Olympics, featuring qualifying and medal rounds.
• USA Network will be the primary home for U.S. team sports and longform content such as swimming heats, track and field, soccer, basketball and 3x3 basketball, beach volleyball, rugby, cycling, volleyball, water polo, and more.
• CNBC will feature boxing, cycling, rugby, skateboarding, and more. On July 27, CNBC will present live coverage of the first gold medal event of the 2024 Paris Olympics with the shooting mixed team air rifle final at 5 a.m. ET. 
• E! will feature coverage of track & field, gymnastics, canoeing, diving, equestrian, artistic swimming, breaking, fencing, water polo, and more. 
• GOLF Channel will show the live golf competitions throughout the Paris Olympics from Le Golf National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. The Team USA men’s team features World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, defending gold medalist Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Tokyo Olympian Collin Morikawa in Paris. The women’s team consists of World No. 1 and Tokyo gold medalist Nelly Korda, World No. 2 Lilia Vu, and World No. 9 Rose Zhang. Men’s coverage tees off on GOLF Channel on Aug. 1 at 3 a.m. ET, with the women beginning on Aug. 7 at 3 a.m. ET.
• Marking 20 years of Olympic coverage on Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the Olympic Games in the U.S., the network will present the most extensive Olympic coverage in Spanish-language media history with more programming hours than ever before across Telemundo, Universo and Peacock. Telemundo and Universo will present more than 315 hours of live competitions and daily recap specials. On most days, the network will offer at least 6 hours of daytime coverage of the Summer Games and up to 12 hours of programming on soccer days. In addition, Telemundo will present a two-hour recap show highlighting the best Olympic stories of the day, every weekday at 12 a.m. ET beginning Friday, July 26 through Sunday, August 11.
• For the first time, the network will offer coverage of the Opening Ceremony live on Telemundo on July 26 starting at 1 p.m. ET. 
• Peacock will livestream all Telemundo and Universo programming, offering the most extensive Spanish-language streaming experience for the Olympics in U.S. media history. In addition to the live events, Peacock will feature full-event replays and exclusive short-form content in Spanish curated for Hispanic audiences around the most relevant events, athletes, and countries competing in Paris. 
• Telemundo will be the Home of Fútbol Olímpico, the soccer destination to watch every match, every team, every goal from both Men’s and Women’s tournaments live en español starting two days before the Opening Ceremony on July 24 through August 11 across Telemundo, Universo and Peacock.
• NBC Sports Digital will stream more than 5,000 hours of the Paris Olympics across its TV Everywhere platforms, via authentication, including NBCOlympics.com (desktop), NBC.com (desktop), the NBC Sports App, the NBC App and all other NBCU Apps (e.g., Telemundo, USA, and Bravo), which are available across mobile, tablet and connected TVs. The comprehensive offering features live competition across all 39 sports and all 329 medal events, plus simulstreaming of all linear coverage and the digital Gold Zone whip-around show.
• NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, and the NBC Sports app will once again feature full-event replays of all event streams, plus extensive video highlights.
• IMAX: The NBC television network will extend its live coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony to IMAX locations nationwide on Friday, July 26 — the first time ever the global event will be presented live in IMAX.
• AMC: The NBC television network will extend its daily live daytime coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics to AMC Theatres as a ticketed event throughout the United States from July 27-August 11.
• NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be more accessible to viewers of all abilities than ever before, providing the opportunity to enjoy the excitement of the Olympic through enhanced closed captioning, expanded audio description, and improved digital content accessibility.
• My New Favorite Olympian: NBCUniversal Local’s NBC-owned stations and NBC Sports Regional Networks present a new season of the award-winning multiplatform podcast My New Favorite Olympian profiling Team USA’s most-inspiring athletes leading up to Paris 2024. The seven-part audio and video series, which began June 12, is led by 12-time Olympic medalist swimmer Natalie Coughlin and Zena Keita, an NBC Sports Bay Area reporter, host and analyst.
• Comcast will offer the highest-possible picture quality on a 24/7 simulcast of USA Network in 4K UHD and an X1 Olympics experience unlike any other. Xfinity’s Olympics destination blends every minute of coverage airing across NBCUniversal’s cable and broadcast networks and streaming on Peacock into one simple experience.
• As previously announced, NBCUniversal and Roku revealed the NBC Olympic Zone on Roku, a new destination on the Roku Home Screen Menu to help users easily access and explore Peacock’s comprehensive coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 this summer.

An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their economic coverage to the stock market (40% of all economic coverage) and inflation (22%) during Q1 2024 while devoting very little time to many other important economic issues like wage growth, national economic growth, economic inequality, unions, national debt, taxes, corporate profits and social security. 

The study, which did not cover cable news, found that broadcast evening news by commercial broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC “offered relatively sparse coverage of the state of the American economy in the first three months of the year — the flagship news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC only registered a combined 88 segments featuring significant discussions of economic policy or macroeconomic conditions over the period from January through March.”

In contrast, viewers of “PBS’ NewsHour were offered a far more detailed perspective of the economy, with that program alone providing 122 qualifying economic news segments during the same period" the researchers said. 

The researchers noted that the NewsHour benefitted from its hour-long format versus its commercial broadcast competitors, which each air 30-minute evening news programs and leave less time for news reporting. But unlike its broadcast competitors, PBS does not air its flagship news program on weekends.

The study also found that “[a]ll four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) covered positive economic news sparingly during the first quarter of the year — job creation was covered in 28 segments, or just 13%; continued wage growth was covered in 12 segments, or 6%; and the nation’s economic growth was covered in just 8, or 4%, of all segments. Corporate profits, which reports have shown were growing faster than the rate of inflation in recent years, were mentioned in just 4 of all 210 qualifying segments, or 2%, and were never mentioned in tandem with inflation.”

The study also chided the networks for sparce coverage of "government spending and, in particular, repeated Republican threats to shut down the federal government" by noting that “a regular viewer of any of the three major [commercial] broadcast outlets (ABC, CBS, and NBC) would be forgiven for not realizing that the federal government was on the verge of partial shutdown twice during the first quarter of the year alone. Coverage of government spending — inclusive of budget proposals, continuing resolutions, and major legislation affecting federal spending — only drew coverage in 15 segments across those three networks in the first quarter of 2024.”

In addition, “none of the corporate broadcast networks discussed the national debt and federal budget deficit during their coverage” and they also failed to note that “the annual federal budget deficit has decreased under President Joe Biden in each of the past two full fiscal years, after spiking under former President Donald Trump in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The full study, with a detailed breakdown of the economic coverage by network, is available here. 

To analyze the content of the newscasts, Media Matters said that it searched transcripts in the SnapStream and Kinetiq video databases for all original episodes of ABC's World News Tonight, CBS' Evening News and Weekend News, NBC's Nightly News, and PBS' NewsHour, including any weekend editions, for any of the terms “debt,” “deficit,” “growth,” “inequality,” “inflation,” “jobs,” “tax,” “revenue,” “supply side,” “trickle down,” “GDP,” “GNP,” “income,” “labor,” “union,” “trade,” “tariff,” “Social Security,” “Medicare,” “Medicaid,” “Affordable Care Act,” or “retirement” or any variations of any of the terms “economy,” “spend,” “wage,” “wealth,” “unemployment,” “product,” “employ,” “Obama care,” or “health care” from January 1, 2024, through the first quarter of the year ending March 31, 2024.

NEW YORK & SAN JOSE, Calif.—NBCUniversal and Roku have announced that popular short-form video clips from “Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” are now available on Roku and will appear regularly after airing on NBC. Clips from NBC Sports will be launching in the coming weeks. 

Roku users can find the latest short-form clips from these shows on The Roku Channel and promoted across the Roku platform. Viewers can also access each show’s regularly updated library of clips via specific landing pages, discoverable through the Roku Home Screen and Roku Search.

“Roku is an important partner, bringing our leading entertainment and information to tens of millions of homes and broadening our footprint for our audiences and partners,” said Matt Schnaars, president, Content Distribution, NBCUniversal. “With this launch, together we will be able to deliver even more of the content that people want with can’t-miss short-form clips, all from the top talent and brands within the NBCUniversal family.” 

“When everyone's talking about that surprise guest on Weekend Update or last night's hilarious late-night monologue, Roku users will be able to pull up the clip in no time and press play,” said Gil Fuchsberg, senior vice president, subscriptions, partnerships and corporate development, Roku. “We’re thrilled to expand NBCUniversal’s offering on Roku to include this continuously popular content, for our diverse audience approaching nearly half of U.S. broadband households.” 

Current and newly launched NBCUniversal apps and services on Roku include: Peacock, TV Everywhere apps for NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, SYFY, Telemundo, USA, NBC Sports, NBC News, and CNBC and a host of FAST channels (FAST Channels: NBC News NOW, Dateline 24/7, TODAY All Day, LX, NBC and Telemundo local owned stations, The Rotten Tomatoes Channel, Saved by The Bell, American Crimes, Bravo Vault, E! Keeping Up, GolfPass, Historias de Amor, Lassie, Made in Chelsea, Million Dollar Listing Vault, NBC Sports, Oxygen True Crime Archives, Real Housewives Vault, SkyNews, SNL Vault, The Long Ranger, Top Chef Vault, Murder, She Wrote, Alfred  Hitchcock, Little House On The Prairie, Bad Girls Club, TNBC,  Universal Action, Universal Crime, Universal Monsters, and Universal Westerns.

Comcast announced that its exclusive showing of the NFL Wild Card game between the Miami Dolphins and defending champions Kansas City Chiefs on its Peacock streaming service Saturday night was the largest live streaming event in U.S. history and breaking the record for the largest internet traffic usage on a single day, consuming 30% of internet traffic during the game.

In all, the game reached 27.6 million total viewers, according to Nielsen,  6% more viewers than last year's primetime AFC Wild Card contest, which garnered an average 21.8 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital.

Considering the NFL’s massive popularity, particularly during the playoffs, the numbers are hardly surprising. Comcast’s NBCUniversal division paid the NFL $110 million for the exclusive Peacock showing, which was originally reported back in May when most fans were paying little attention. This wasn't the first "exclusive" for Peacock, which exclusively streamed the regular season NFL matchup between the L.A. Chargers and the Buffalo Bills—but that was on Dec. 23 and wasn't an all important playoff. 

Comcast didn’t report how many subscriptions resulted from Saturday night’s game—which was simulcast live on NBC in Miami and Kansas City—but despite ticking off many viewers who resisted having to sign up for a streaming service to watch an NFL playoff game (and Taylor Swift)—Comcast was crowing about the results. 

“From NBC Sports and Peacock to the Comcast team, our entire company worked seamlessly to plan for this game and executed flawlessly to deliver a streaming experience with the NFL on a scale that’s never been done before. It’s a very proud moment,” said Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, in a statement.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league “couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with Peacock and are thrilled with the results of the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL playoff game. To best serve our fans, we need to ensure games are available to them as their viewing habits change and this includes digital distribution as we continue to help shape the future of the sports and entertainment industry.”

It also came as no surprise that this exclusivity, a first for such a popular game, raised the ire of fans nationwide who took to social media to vent their anger. 

The frustration even reached the halls of Congress where Rep. Patrick Ryan (D-NY) fired off a letter to the NFL. 

"The NFL Playoffs will begin tomorrow, and millions of fans are looking forward to kicking back and watching their favorite teams play,” Ryan told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “It’s a tradition as American as apple pie. For decades, NFL playoffs games have been widely available on national TV networks so that Americans can conveniently watch the playoffs at no additional cost.”

“Yet this year, you’ve decided to rip off fans by exclusively broadcasting tomorrow’s Chiefs vs. Dolphins wildcard game on Peacock. For the first time ever, fans will be forced to choose between signing up for yet another expensive streaming service or missing out on a major playoff game.”

Ryan said the situation was a “disgrace,” and claimed that viewers were being double-charged since they were already paying cable TV providers a fee for NBC. He urged NFL and NBC to broadcast the game on the network and stop such “exclusive” streaming deals, expressing doubt over whether exempting the league from antitrust rules was a good idea. 

“Congress granted the NFL an antitrust exemption in its broadcast deals with the expectation that you wouldn’t use it to screw over fans. That was clearly a mistake,” he wrote.

TYSONS, Va. & NEW YORK—Tegna Inc. and NBC have inked a comprehensive, multi-year deal that renews station affiliation agreements for stations in 20 Tegna markets nationwide, including 10 of the top 25 markets for NBC. 

The 20 markets renewed cover more than 21 million households, nearly 17 percent of U.S. TV households. Tegna is the largest independent owner of NBC affiliates, the companies reported. 

“As the largest NBC affiliate group among independent station groups, we are proud of our longstanding partnership that enables us to serve local communities,” said Dave Lougee, president and CEO, Tegna. “This new multi-year agreement allows our stations to continue providing consumers and advertisers with premium network content such as TODAY, Sunday Night Football and this summer’s Paris Olympic Games alongside our award-winning local news, weather and sports.”

“Tegna continues to be an important partner to NBC, bringing our loved, must-see programming to top markets across the United States,” said Philip Martzolf, president, NBC Affiliate Relations. “This renewal comes at the perfect time as NBC returns to primetime with midseason programming this week, as well as prepares for two of TV’s biggest moments in the election and Summer Olympics later this year.”

The new agreement includes full carriage of the NBC broadcast network, including “TODAY,” “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” “Sunday Night Football,” the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, “The Voice,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and more. In the current 2023-24 television season, NBC is the #1 network and ranks first in all key demos, as well as first in primetime, morning/afternoon news, late night, primetime sports, scripted and alternative program categories.

The agreement includes renewals for these Tegna-owned NBC affiliates: WXIA in Atlanta, Ga.; KPNX/KNAZ in Phoenix, Ariz.; KING in Seattle, Wash.; KARE in Minneapolis, Minn.; KUSA in Denver, Colo.; WKYC in Cleveland, Ohio; KGW in Portland, Ore.; WCNC in Charlotte, N.C.; KSDK in St. Louis, Mo.; WTHR in Indianapolis, Ind.; WTLV in Jacksonville, Fla.; WGRZ in Buffalo, N.Y.; WBIR in Knoxville, Tenn.; WCSH in Portland, Maine; KCEN/KAGS in Waco, Texas; KTVB in Boise, Idaho, along with KTFT in Twin Falls, Idaho; KWES in Odessa-Midland, Texas; KBMT in Beaumont, Texas; and WLBZ in Bangor, Maine.

As the roar of the metaverse hype machine fades to a ho hum, there’s growing evidence that what can be called a “metaversal” approach to production is starting to take hold in the broadcast industry.

Paralleling the headline-grabbing and often flawed efforts to deliver immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences with sports programming, broadcasters have quietly been learning how to leverage volumetric VR and augmented reality (AR) production tools in their workflows. This has allowed them to add compelling graphics dynamism and personalized viewing experiences to internet-streamed 2D renderings of news, sports, and other live broadcasts that are reaching viewers worldwide. 

At the same time, by bringing these solutions into the production mainstream, broadcasters are getting the hands-on experiences in volumetric productions that are essential to producing a new generation of 3D immersive viewing experiences. These efforts are gaining currency with ongoing improvements in extended reality (XR) hardware and software. 

In the Real World
Notably, while many high-profile sports and other VR programming initiatives were done in by poor viewing experiences, some providers, including the NBA—in a recently renewed multiyear deal with Meta; and NBC with its live VR streams during the 2022 Winter Olympics—have stayed the course. With these new productions they’re demonstrating that it’s possible to eliminate pixelation on VR headset screens, stomach-churning delays in responses to shifts in viewers’ fields of vision, and other impediments to user adoption.

Equally important to the improvements in consumer experiences are major advances in headgear, including smaller form factors, tetherless VR head-mounted devices (HMDs) that free users from wired links to computers, and eye movement-tracking sensors that lead to more accurate renderings of what users are looking at. 

Looking forward, while Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality (MR) HMD set for launch in early 2024 with a starting price tag of $3,499 is targeted to the enterprise and the high-end consumer markets, its incorporation of a dazzling array of advances combining AR and VR technologies exemplifies where mass market user experience is headed as prices for such devices fall over the next few years.

The new volumetric production-driven perspective on the broadcast industry’s migration into the metaverse runs counter to the current sense of disarray in the metaverse camp, which may mean new terminology is needed to avoid detracting from the transformative developments now underway. 

Notably, Apple CEO Tim Cook never used the word “metaverse” when he introduced the Vision Pro in June. Indeed, with Meta’s Reality Labs laying people off in droves after racking up a $13.7-billion loss in 2022 and headlines trumpeting the demise of metaverse projects like Microsoft’s AltspaceVR, Walmart’s Universe of Play, and Disney’s Next Generation Storytelling & Consumer Experiences, there’s far less of the metaverse-infused banter that saturated the internet two years ago.

Building a Foundation
But no matter how the next phase of engagement with internet-based technology is labeled, there’s no denying that the broadcast industry, along with many other industries is moving inexorably toward building a foundation to operating in a new era blending real-world experiences with immersive virtualization. The pace of XR adoption across all sectors is reflected in many recent research reports.

For example, MarketsandMarkets predicts the XR market—encompassing devices, software, and applications—will grow from $40.1 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7% to reach $111.5 billion by 2028. 

Researcher Brainy Insights, citing demand for 3D/360-degree content in sports and other entertainment as well as advertising, forecasts even faster growth in the global volumetric video segment of the market with projected expansion at a 29.3% CAGR from $2.1 billion in 2021 to $21.2 billion by 2030.

The broadcast industry’s embrace of volumetric technology in traditional 2D program production is a welcome development for a company like Arcturus Studios, which since its founding seven years ago has amassed a full suite of solutions, including acquisition of the Microsoft creative platform, that are designed to provide end-to-end support for building and streaming immersive 3D user experiences. 

Now there’s an opportunity to apply that technology to address a major pain point impacting broadcasters everywhere, notes Mark Gerberman, vice president of sales at Arcturus. With the amassing of ever more data that can be used to enrich viewing experiences, broadcasters need to make it easier for consumers to absorb and understand all that information. 

“A lot of our focus now is in the virtual production space,” Gerberman says. “Humans by nature see things in 3D, so being able to use volumetric technology to more concisely convey the data producers are pulling off the field is top of mind.” 

The results of such efforts are on view just about everywhere. Across the globe consumers have grown accustomed to seeing 3D data displays generating stats in sync with the narratives of on-air personalities broadcasting from studios that are often embellished with virtual furnishings and backdrops.  

The impact of the volumetric production agenda is noticeable in post production processing, according to Allan McLennan, president of 2G Digital Post, a leading Burbank, Calif.-based post house serving motion picture and TV producers worldwide. “Where we see it is in the sheer size of the files, which are a lot larger than a traditional video capture or film,” McLennan says.

Once news, sports and other live content is produced on location for immediate output, the completed files are sent to post production where they’re processed for on-demand access. “Those files need to be compressed, packaged, secured, and pushed out with a very heavy eye on quality control,” McLennan notes. 

2G Digital is known for its QC expertise, which is essential to meeting producers’ specifications for packaging and local distribution, McLennan adds. “There’s always something that has to be looked at for delivery to the different platforms in the marketplace,” he said. 

While the bigger files benefitting from volumetric enhancements might add a second or two to the post production processes, today’s state-of-the-art hardware can handle the loads. “What it really comes down to is updating new types of software,” McLennan says. “We’re on top of that on an ongoing basis.”

Deloitte Initiatives
With the growing focus on volumetric production in 2D programming, the industry is peeling back layers of the XR onion, normalizing the use of tools that will take them much farther over time, Gerberman notes. Indeed, as he and others in the field can attest, the migration is well underway with a rapidly expanding spate of initiatives at national and local levels of broadcast operations worldwide. 

For example, Allan Cook, managing director at Deloitte Consulting, is deeply involved in such initiatives as head of Deloitte’s Unlimited Reality practice, which has been expanding across multiple industries since its genesis several years ago on the heels of metaverse-oriented projects involving the U.S. Department of Defense. There’s a lot of volumetric production activity underway in the broadcast industry, Cook says.

Cases in point include multi-year Unlimited Reality engagements with the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which, unlike the unit’s other broadcast industry clients, have been willing to publicize what they’re doing with the firm. These applications are based on volumetric 3D production techniques that leverage AI, 3D computing, Web 3.0 technology, and advanced streaming to produce experiences meant for 2D viewing on conventional device screens as well as more immersive 3D viewing experiences if clients want to engage with people through AR and VR eyewear.

One of the features offered with the latest version of the USGA App used in this year’s U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open championships allowed viewers to follow play tournament-wide on interactive streams to their PCs, tablets and smartphones. “With our app you could watch any player at any time on any hole from any direction,” Cook says.

“You could watch a player in 3D hit the ball and see exactly where it landed on the fairway,” he adds. On the green, “you could zoom down to the ball going into the hole in near real time.” In addition to shot tracking, the app allowed viewers to tap into scorecard highlights of all televised shots and to receive customized alerts about players they were following.

Such capabilities demonstrate the drawing power of this technology. With tens of thousands of users worldwide, the app registered as a top-five app in the Apple store during the men’s open, Cook says. The results are resonating with the USGA, which this year for the first time has extended use of the app with varying feature sets across all 15 of its championship tournaments. 

360-degree Socialized Viewing Environment
The other publicized example of what Deloitte is doing occurred with the Sinclair-owned Tennis Channel’s coverage of this year’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, CA. The app— offered on an invitation-only basis to viewers worldwide—delivered a multi-faceted 2D user experience based on 3D volumetric production technology supported in part by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, a leading provider of 3D creation tools for multiplayer video games. 

This was the first project undertaken in fulfillment of Sinclair’s goal to build a 360-degree socialized viewing environment with its live sports and possibly other broadcasts. “We created a number of experiences you wouldn’t be able to get in your home or even at the event,” Cook explains. 

The app made it possible for users’ avatars to play tennis on a digital replica of the Paribas tournament’s center court. “We also allowed you to do a number of 360 tours behind the scenes, so people could see parts of the environment you wouldn’t be able to see as a regular member of the public,” Cook says. Shopping for paraphernalia in virtual merch tents was part of the experience as well, which “proved to be quite popular,” he adds.

While Cook declines to discuss what’s next on Sinclair’s metaverse agenda, he makes clear there’s much more in store. “They’re very interested in looking at expanding beyond the Indian Wells event with other viewing engagements,” he says.

As for Deloitte’s ability to support more immersive, volumetric user experiences, those elements remain in the proof-of-concept stage with multiple clients kicking the tires on the possibilities. For example, Cook says, this “very leading-edge work” includes “two engagements right now on the next generation of AI headsets from a small company in Silicon Valley.” 

For now Deloitte is providing “a great tool to supplement the television experience,” he adds. “I don’t think we’re at a stage quite yet where we’re going to replace TVs.” 

But the great thing about what’s happening now with volumetric productions is that, as Cook puts it, “if you build it out in 3D, it’s relatively easy to pull it onto any device that could display the 3D experience, whether that’s the headsets, which still relatively few people own, or through your mobile phone or tablet device.” This was demonstrated with the USGA app at the U.S. Open, where on-site users could mix what they were watching on the course with immersive viewing of any other point in the tournament through one of the supported AR or mixed reality (MR) headsets. 

Gerberman describes a similar stage of progress toward what he calls the “Holy Grail” of volumetric experiences that are on tap with six-degree-of-freedom (6 DoF) VR engagements with live sports. Whereas 3 DoF offered in VR sports viewing supported by NBC, the NBA, and others allows viewers to follow the action as if they were there from any of several fixed positions on the playing field, 6 DoF allows users to scope what’s happening in all directions as they virtually move around the arena.

The need to use volumetric technology to better engage with younger audiences is “one of the things we’re hearing from every sports league,” Gerberman says. “Kids are used to 3D experiences and navigating around 3D worlds,” he notes. “It’s just how kids interact with content. Volumetric technology is ripe for enabling those types of experiences with live sports.”

FORT WORTH/DALLAS, Texas—In the run-up to NBC 5/KXAS’s 75th anniversary celebration on Sept. 27, the station has released a long list of broadcasting and tech firsts that the station has been involved in since its launch on Sept. 27, 1948. 

Those firsts include being the first television station to go on the air in the state of Texas and the entire Southwest. In addition the new station was the first facility in the nation specifically designed for television production and broadcasting, the station reported. 

A detailed history of the station’s 75 years can be found at NBCDFW.com.

The station’s first broadcast featured a visit by President Harry S. Truman, who was campaigning in Fort Worth. Since that first broadcast, the station reported that NBC 5 has played a significant role in the development and evolution of television and local news coverage in North Texas. Notable firsts and milestones include:

• First television station to go on the air in the State of Texas and the Southwest
• First facility in the nation to be specifically designed for television production and broadcasting
• First live local news report in 1948
• First live local sports in 1948
• First local station weather center in the United States in 1949
• First color broadcast in Texas in 1954
• First color tape recorder in Texas in 1959
• First all-color news film in 1966
• First 30-minute local TV news magazine program “Texas ‘70s” in 1970
• First live intercontinental satellite report in 1977
• First Texas station to debut closed-captioning newscast for deaf and hearing-impaired viewers in 1989
• First commercial TV station to offer full online computer access in 1995
• First Southwest station to offer viewers news delivered via email in 1997
• First Texas station to air a live sporting event via High-Definition Television (HDTV) in 1997
• First TV station in Texas to have its own S-Band radar in 2016
• First TV station in Texas to use geographic overlay technology with the news helicopter in 2018

“NBC 5 continues to empower our audience using the highest journalistic ethics and standards,” said Tony Canales, president and GM of NBC 5 and Telemundo 39. “The station remains a broadcasting leader in delivering to our viewers the very best in programming and local, national and international news coverage, highlighted by an unwavering commitment to community service.”

Every Friday this month, NBC 5 News at 4 pm will air stories looking back at different aspects of the station’s history, including the evolution of news, news technology, weather forecasting, investigative journalism, community impact efforts, and a conversation with the first female general talk show host in the Southwest, Bobbie Wygant. These stories can also be found on the station’s streaming platforms. 

KXAS is now co-located in NBCUniversal Local’s state-of-the-art facility in Fort Worth alongside its sister station Telemundo 39/KXTX. As a leading multiplatform news provider for North Texans, KXAS and KXTX make up the largest dual-language television newsroom in DFW market, informing audiences in English and Spanish, the stations said. 

Together, the stations produce more hours of local daily news than any other station on the market. 

Both stations are owned by NBCUniversal. 

Broadcast executive Thomas Sarnoff passed away on June 4, 2023 in Woodland Hills, Calif., at the age of 96. The Television Academy issued the following obituary:

Thomas W. Sarnoff was the scion of a fabled American media family, whose six-decade career left an indelible mark on the NBC Network (now part of NBCUniversal), impacted iconic TV brands and created touring spectaculars while guiding the television industry's premier professional associations.

The youngest son of radio and television pioneer and RCA/NBC media mogul David Sarnoff was born Feb. 23, 1927, in New York City. According to family lore, he was television's "first live star" as a test subject for the RCA/NBC World's Fair demonstration of television in the 1930s.

From 1965-1977 Sarnoff was staff executive vice president, West Coast, and president of NBC Entertainment Corporation, reporting to the president of NBC. During that tenure he negotiated contracts for NBC's famed Burbank facility and production deals with world-renowned NBC talents such as Bob Hope as well as the historic deals with Colonel Tom Parker for Elvis Presley's iconic television specials. He was also responsible for the production and worldwide touring of live, all-family arena shows including Peter Pan and Disney on Parade, the latter in partnership with (then) Walt Disney Productions. "The highlight of my career at NBC," said Sarnoff, "was building a close-knit and very efficient organization on the West Coast that served NBC very well for many years."

Following his career with NBC, Sarnoff created Sarnoff International Enterprises Inc., producing the Yabba Dabba Doo live-arena tour featuring Hanna-Barbera characters. His Sarnoff Entertainment Corporation revived the popular clay-animated character Gumby in association with creator Art Clokey and produced a 1987 half-hour series. He also served as executive producer of three Bonanza television movies and a retrospective.

Sarnoff rose through NBC's executive ranks when he joined the network in 1952 after paying his dues with a stint at ABC (1949-1951) as television took off post-World War II. He also worked at MGM learning film techniques that he would later apply to his work in television and his oversight of film productions for NBC Productions and California National Productions.

Renowned for his participation and active leadership in the television industry and in community affairs, Sarnoff most notably was a champion and leader of both the Television Academy and Television Academy Foundation for five decades. From 1973-1974 he served as chairman of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (before the organization's 1977 split into the Los Angeles-based Television Academy, which oversees the primetime Emmy Awards, and the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which oversees Daytime, News and Sports Emmys). He served on the Television Academy's executive committee for the board of governors and in the 1990s took on the chairmanship of the Television Academy Foundation, for which he was named chair emeritus in perpetuity. Sarnoff also chaired the Television Academy's council of former chairs for a number of years.

Sarnoff is one of the founders of the Foundation's The Interviews: An Oral History of Television initiative, formerly known as the Archive of American Television when it was conceived and greenlit in 1995 during his tenure as Foundation chairman. He continued to be a huge advocate for the entertainment industry's largest oral history program and served on The Interviews committee until his passing. The archive was recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2022 as part of its "A More Perfect Union" initiative to honor the role of the humanities in U.S. history and invest in its preservation. The archive is currently being preserved at the USC Digital Repository. Sarnoff was interviewed by Morrie Gelman in 1999 for The Interviews: An Oral History of Television. Watch his interview here.

In 1997 Sarnoff received the Syd Cassyd Founder's Award from the Television Academy, an award honoring a very select few Television Academy members who have made a significant, positive impact on the Academy through their service over many years of involvement.

In addition, Sarnoff served on the boards of the American Film Institute, Hope Enterprises and Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He was a member of the national board of trustees of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice) as well as its regional board of directors and was honored by the NCCJ's broadcast motion picture recording division with its Humanitarian Award. He also took on the roles of president of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, president of the Research Foundation at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, advisory council member of the radio-TV department of the University of Judaism, and served on the California Commission for the Reform of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

Sarnoff attended Princeton University, prior to his World War II service as a combat engineer and as a signal corps instructor at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. Post-war he transferred to Stanford University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1948 and attended the university's Graduate School of Business Administration. Later in life Sarnoff was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Columbia College.

Sarnoff had a distinguished career; but his children, grandchildren and friends will remember him best for his sense of humor, his deep personal connections and loyalty to his friends, and for his boundless love of his family.

STAMFORD, Conn.—In a notable example of how high profile sports are moving to streaming platforms, the NFL and NBCUniversal have announced that Peacock will become the home to the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL Playoff game.

NBCU’s streaming service Peacock will live stream an NFL Wild Card Playoff in primetime on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024 at 8 p.m. ET immediately following a late afternoon NFL Wild Card Playoff game on NBC and Peacock (4:30 p.m. ET on Sat. Jan. 13).

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the one year deal cost NBCU about $110 million. 

"We are thrilled to partner with the NFL on this industry milestone, bringing to Peacock the first ever exclusively live streamed NFL Playoff game," said Pete Bevacqua, chairman, NBC Sports. "With America's No. 1 primetime show for a record 12 consecutive years, the terrific regular season SNF schedule revealed last week, and today's announcement, we can't wait for the 2023 season to kick off."

The news follows the announcement that this season, Peacock will be the exclusive home of an NFL regular-season game for the first time, as Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills visit Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers in a primetime matchup of AFC playoff teams at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 23. 

The Peacock regular-season game immediately follows a special SNF Saturday afternoon game (Bengals vs. Steelers) at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

The Peacock exclusive Wild Card game and regular season game will be broadcast on NBC stations in the two competing team cities, and available on mobile devices with NFL+. The NFL is the only sports league that presents all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television in local markets.

Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president and COO of NFL Media added that "Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining wide reach for our games continues to be a key priority for the League, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Peacock's streaming platform is the next step in that strategy."

"As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says 'must-have' programming more than live NFL games," said Kelly Campbell, president, Peacock and Direct to Consumer, NBCUniversal. "With the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL Playoff game and our first exclusive regular season game, plus the entire season of Sunday Night Football and Football Night in America, and the Peacock Sunday Night Football Final postgame show, fans can stream the best of the NFL on Peacock all season long."  

With the two Saturday NFL Wild Card games and a Sunday primetime NFL Wild Card game (on NBC and Peacock), NBCUniversal will be the first media company to present three NFL Playoff games in a single weekend (January 2024), the company noted. 

NBC’s Peacock streaming service will host its first exclusive NFL game on Dec. 23 when it broadcasts a primetime matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Buffalo Bills. The Peacock exclusive immediately follows a special SNF Saturday afternoon game between the Cincinnati Bengals and  Pittsburgh Steelers) at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

In addition to the Peacock exclusive, NBC announced that it will present 20 regular-season games, including 18 regular-season Sunday Night Football games, NFL Kickoff 2023, and the annual Thanksgiving night game as well as three postseason games on NBC and Peacock—with two Wild Card Playoff games and one Divisional Playoff game. The games will also be available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app with the full HD-quality video stream available directly from NBC’s broadcasts.

The SNF announce team of Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, and Melissa Stark return for their second season together.

Telemundo Deportes will again provide exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the entire NBC Sunday Night Football package, including playoffs. Games will also be available on live stream via the Telemundo Deportes app.

NBC has also claimed the primetime TV crown with its "Sunday Night Football" topping all primetime television series in the fall of 2022 and said that it is once again pacing to finish as primetime’s #1 TV show in all key metrics for the 12th consecutive year, extending its record for the most consecutive years atop the charts (since 1950), based on official live plus same day data provided by Nielsen.

NEW YORK, N.Y.—With 14 months until the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad begin, NBCUniversal announced that the NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock will be the company’s primary platforms for its coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, with NBC and Peacock both providing record amounts of coverage of the games scheduled for July 26-Aug. 11, 2024. 

Every day, NBC will provide Olympic fans with at least nine hours of daytime coverage of the Summer Games’ most exciting events, including live finals coverage of swimming, gymnastics, track & field, and more. 

With Paris six hours ahead of the United States’ eastern time zone, the daytime takeover will feature that day’s most popular events live on NBC in the morning and afternoon. Paris 2024 will have more programming hours on the NBC broadcast network than any previous Olympics.

Peacock will be the streaming home of the 2024 Paris Olympics, providing fans with the most-comprehensive Olympic destination in U.S. media history, NBCU reported. 

In a Summer Games first, the service will stream every sport and event, including all 329 medal events, and will feature full-event replays; all NBC programming; curated video clips; virtual channels; exclusive original programming; and more.

Given the time difference and following live coverage all day, NBC will deliver an enhanced Olympics primetime show, providing three hours entertainment each night. 

“The Paris Olympics are going to be the most binge-worthy event of 2024. Viewers will devour every moment of the Games for 17 straight nights on NBC in primetime where the stories of the day will be retold with special dramatic flair in front of the gathered American audience,” said Pete Bevacqua, chairman, NBC Sports. “For those wanting to watch the competition as it happens, Peacock will have everything live, creating the greatest single destination in sports media history. From the spectacular landmarks of Paris to the world’s greatest athletes performing in front of full stadiums and arenas for the first time in six years, viewers can expect one of the most extraordinary Olympics ever.”

“Peacock is bringing the rich history of these incredible Games to our viewers like never before, providing unparalleled and unprecedented access to one of the world’s greatest sporting events,” said Kelly Campbell, president, Peacock and Direct to Consumer, NBCUniversal. “Already home to more live sports than any other SVOD service, Peacock is proud to be the streaming home of Team USA and all of their passionate fans.”

Telemundo will provide extensive Spanish-language coverage of the Summer Games throughout the competition day with additional coverage on cable channel Universo. In addition to the most high-profile sports and events, the Telemundo broadcast network will be the home to the men’s and women’s soccer competitions in Spanish, with a special focus on Team USA.

Additional NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo programming details for the Paris Olympics as well as NBCU’s cable coverage of the Games on USA Network, E!, CNBC, GOLF Channel and Universo will be announced at a later date. 

NBCU’s coverage of the Paris Paralympics will take place Aug. 28 – Sept. 8, 2024, with details to be released at a later date.

SAN FRANCISCO—The leading television stations serving the San Francisco Bay Area have begun offering NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, broadcasts, bringing the new digital broadcast technology to the center of the U.S. tech world. 

The launch includes KGO-TV (the ABC-owned ABC affiliate), KPIX-TV (the CBS-owned CBS affiliate), KNTV (the NBCU-owned NBC affiliate), KTVU (the Fox Television Stations-owned Fox affiliate), KDTV-DT (the TelevisaUnivision-owned Univision affiliate), and KRON-TV (the Nexstar-owned MyNet affiliate). 

The Bay Area joins a growing list of more than 70 markets where NextGen TV is already available, including such technology hubs as Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

“Once again, broadcasters have launched ATSC 3.0 while preserving every free over-the-air service and without any disruption to cable and satellite viewers,” said John Hane, president of BitPath. “Stations have far exceeded the FCC’s requirements to protect viewers who rely on older digital TVs, while bringing improved television service to those with new ATSC 3.0 sets. In addition, the advanced digital broadcasting services we’ll be launching on ATSC 3.0 will help keep local broadcasting strong, while providing new, high value services to people, businesses, and public agencies – all without any compromises to television service. And we’ve committed to make our groundbreaking NavPath precise navigation service available for free to all Bay Area first responders. This is a win-win-win for viewers, stations, and the entire Bay Area.”

For the launch, KRON-TV, which is owned by Nexstar, has converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions. KRON-TV will broadcast its own programming, as well as the programming of the other participating stations, in NextGen TV format. All programming of all participating stations will continue to be available in the existing DTV format, which can be received on all modern television sets. BitPath, which is developing new data broadcasting services, led the planning process and coordinated efforts across the six television stations. 

TV Tech has been tracking the launch of NextGen TV market by market since the first stations began deploying ATSC 3.0. Our complete coverage of NextGen TV can be found here; the complete list of the markets where stations have launched 3.0 broadcasts is here. 

 NEW YORK—After months of mixed messages and speculation about NBC and other broadcast networks handing the 10 p.m. hour back to stations, new reporting suggests that NBC has decided to keep programming the 10 p.m. hour at least through the 2023-2024 season. 

“Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, relayed the message during recent agency presentations, stressing that the network will not be getting out of the 10 PM hour” during next year’s season according to a report in Deadline. 

As previously reported in TV Tech NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell confirmed in October that NBC had explored the idea of handing the 10 p.m. prime time slot back to affiliates so it could reinvent the money in streaming content. 

“If we are being prudent operators, which we try to be in allocating a bunch of resources to one part of the business, you have to look at the allocation of resources to others,” Shell said in an interview with CNBC. “I don't think we're ready to make a decision on 10 o'clock or anything else but we are looking to reallocate resources.”

Shell stressed however that “given the numbers, whatever the numbers are right now, we have a lot of great shows at 10 o'clock. We make a lot of money at 10 o'clock....There's no question…as linear declines. You're gonna have to make some trade offs and we'll be looking at that [and] our investors will want us to look at that.”

Executives at some station groups, such as Hearst Television, have said they expect the networks to eventually hand back the 10 p.m. hour, which would open up opportunities for them to program the time slot.  

In response, CBS said it was firmly committed to the time slot. 

In the meantime Deadline is reporting that NBC is looking for more procedural dramas to fill the time slot. 

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal has announced that Peacock Premium Plus subscribers will soon have 24/7 access to watch local NBC affiliate stations on their Peacock homepage in all 210 NBC affiliate markets. 

The live stream channel will launch on November 30 with NBC’s full lineup of local news, sports and weather, market-by-market, as well as such network favorites as “Today”, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and NBC prime. 

This live stream offering complements the existing on-demand content available from NBC, as well as Peacock’s robust entertainment, news, and sports programming.   

“With Peacock’s local affiliate livestream, our subscribers are getting the unique combination of the ad-free on-demand content they love with the local news and NBC programming that is already part of their daily life,” said Kelly Campbell, president, Peacock and direct-to-consumer, NBCUniversal. “NBC affiliates have long been an integral part of local communities, and we look forward to being another point of connection and engagement for those communities across the country.”   

“Our Affiliates have always been terrific partners as our industry evolves to meet our consumers’ expectations and viewing habits,” said Philip Martzolf, president, NBC Affiliate Relations. “This is an exciting new offering that expands our best-in-class broadcast and local programming to new audiences.”   

“Our NBC Affiliate stations are trusted destinations for our viewers to be entertained and informed,” added Eric Meyrowitz, executive vice president, Hearst Television and Chair, NBC Affiliates Board. “This partnership elevates our commitment to our audiences by giving them another place to receive our local and NBC broadcast programming alongside Peacock’s original and unique content.”  

As early as today, Premium Plus subscribers will begin to see their NBC local affiliate channel live stream appear on Peacock as part of the soft launch, with all stations officially launching on November 30. 

Premium Plus customers will automatically see their geotargeted, local channel appear on platform in the channels page, which can be accessed through the main navigation, mirroring a broadcast experience all in one place, with the Peacock Premium offering remaining unchanged. 

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal Content Distribution and Verizon have announced a first-of-its-kind augmented reality experience on Verizon set top boxes for NBC’s hit series “La Brea” that will allow viewers to interact with the La Brea sinkhole to reveal classic objects from the television series, including the iconic Wilshire Boulevard Street sign and a baby rhino. 

Fans ultimately will be rewarded with an exclusive deleted scene from the series.

“Innovative experiences and breakthrough technologies like AR are critical to driving deeper fan engagement on partner platforms,” said Matt Schnaars, president, NBCUniversal Content Distribution. “We’re grateful for our partnership with Verizon and our work creating immersive experiences for fans to interact with our premiere entertainment programming.”

Customers can access the "La Brea" experience on their Verizon set top box by tuning into channel 941 using their remote control or via the channel guide. From there, users can scan a QR code from their mobile device to launch the experience.

The "La Brea" experience was brought to life through Trigger XR, an award-winning XR developer studio and creative agency.

NBCUniversal Content Distribution and Verizon previously partnered on Olympic Tentpole Apps for the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Games. The bespoke content destinations featured Olympic videos on demand, discovery and navigation features, personalization by sport, and up-to-date standings by sport.

"Verizon and NBC are changing the way fans consume entertainment with never-before-seen types of AR experiences," said Erin McPherson, Verizon chief content officer. "We're thrilled to bring next gen storytelling to Fios viewers and excited to push the boundaries for our consumers."

NEW YORK—In an interview with CNBC, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell reported that its streaming service Peacock now has 30 million accounts that were using the service monthly and 15 million paid subs, up from the 13 million the company reported in the second quarter.  

Shell also confirmed reports that NBC had explored the idea of handing the 10 p.m. prime time slot back to affiliates.  

During the interview, Shell was asked about reports that NBC might stop programming the 10 p.m. prime time hour to save money that could be invested in streaming. 

“If we are being prudent operators, which we try to be in allocating a bunch of resources to one part of the business, you have to look at the allocation of resources to others,” Shell replied. “I don't think we're ready to make a decision on 10 o'clock or anything else but we are looking to reallocate resources.”

Shell added that “given the numbers, whatever the numbers are right now, we have a lot of great shows at 10 o'clock. We make a lot of money at 10 o'clock....There's no question…as linear declines. You're gonna have to make some trade offs and we'll be looking at that [and] our investors will want us to look at that.” 

He also said that Peacock was growing revenues, with a paid ARPU (average revenue per subscriber) that was approaching $10 a month and that during the upfronts they had secured $1 billion in ad commitments. “In the third quarter, we have reached the point where we [are at an annual run rate of about] $2 billion in annual revenues on Peacock. So I don’t know a lot of businesses that you’ve covered that in two years have reached a point of $2 billion.”

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal is moving more of its content to its streaming platform Peacock and has announced that on September 19 Peacock will become the streaming home of NBC and Bravo shows. That will give Peacock’s premium customers next-day access to current seasons of NBC and Bravo shows the day after they air on the networks.  

"We are excited to provide Peacock customers with a comprehensive destination for streaming the incredible programming airing on NBC and Bravo all year long,” said Kelly Campbell, president, peacock and direct-to-consumer, NBCUniversal. “From Sunday Night Football and Jurassic World: Dominion to Saturday Night Live and The Office, Peacock is the streaming home for NBCUniversal and beyond, providing customers a massive premium content offering across TV, Film, Sports, and News, with less than five minutes of ads per hour for just $5 per month.” 

As a result of the move, Peacock will be the go-to streaming destination for new episodes of NBC series including franchises “Law & Order” and “One Chicago”, the network’s iconic late-night line-up including “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, and “Saturday Night Live”, returning hits such as “La Brea”, “New Amsterdam”, and “Young Rock”, competition favorites including “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent”, and highly anticipated new series such as “Quantum Leap” and “Lopez vs. Lopez” when they premiere this fall.  

Peacock premium customers already enjoy next-day access to such Bravo series as “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and will have access to upcoming shows like “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” this fall.

Peacock has also launched a special Fall promotional offer. Throughout the month of September, new customers will be able to sign up for Peacock’s premium tier for just $1.99 per month, or $19.99 for an entire year, and enjoy access to their favorite NBC and Bravo series, as well as Peacock’s massive offering of movies, TV shows, live sports, news, and more, the streamer said.  

ROSEMONT, Ill.—In the most lucrative media rights deal in college sports history, the Big Ten Conference has announced new distribution agreements with CBS, Fox, NBC and NBCUniversal's Peacock. 

The seven year deal running from the fall of 2023 to 2030 is worth $7 billion according to the Associated Press, citing anonymous sources. 

The deal notably leaves out ESPN, which had aired Big Ten sports for decades. 

The deal also comes at a time when University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) have announced they will be leaving the Pac 12 and their traditional west coast rivalries to join the Big Ten Conference in August 2024. 

Under the new deal, the Big Ten Network (BTN) and FS1 will continue to have rights to games. 

In announcing the deal, the conference said “these landmark media rights agreements are the most comprehensive in all of college sports,” allowing the conference to “dominate Saturdays, beginning in the fall of 2023 on the largest broadcast platforms from morning to night, with Fox at Noon ET, CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET and NBC in Prime Time. With the addition of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) in August 2024, the conference, its student-athletes and member institutions will reach the broadest audience in the country, coast-to-coast, including the top three media markets in the country in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.”

The media rights agreements will begin July 1, 2023, and run through the 2029-30 season. 

The Big Ten Conference said that the new media agreements grant the following rights to their partners:

• BTN will maintain its strong position as the home for Big Ten fans, as the network will continue to televise a full slate of football, basketball and Olympic sport competition throughout the entire year.
• CBS's initial season in 2023 will include seven football games and both regular season and postseason men's basketball action, along with the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament final appearing on CBS for the first time. The Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament semifinals and final will continue the tradition of airing on CBS, which they have done for 25 years. Every CBS Big Ten football and basketball broadcast will also be streamed on Paramount+, Paramount Global's direct-to-consumer streaming service.
• Starting in 2024, CBS will televise up to 15 regular-season football games per season, including an annual Black Friday game in the afternoon. CBS is America's most-watched network for the past 14 years and the highest-rated college football network. 
• Fox has renewed its agreement to televise football and men's basketball games each season, with the opportunity to carry additional sports throughout the year. The Big Ten Conference's partnership with Fox reached its high point during the 2021-22 year, as Fox captured the #1 time slot in college football for the first time with its Big Noon Saturday platform that featured 10-14 games involving a Big Ten team, and a men's basketball season that ended with the top three most watched games in the history of FS1 all featuring Big Ten programs. 
• NBC will produce 14-to-16 games on broadcast television each season as it introduces college football fans to Big Ten Saturday Night. Each Big Ten game on NBC broadcast will also be simul-streamed on Peacock, NBCUniversal's direct-to-consumer streaming service. NBC Sports has established the most dominant primetime franchise in television history, as its Sunday Night Football has been primetime's No. 1 show for an unprecedented 11 consecutive years – a streak that is currently active.
• Peacock, NBCUniversal's direct-to-consumer streaming service will deliver exclusive Big Ten football and basketball games each season, as eight regular-season football games will appear on the platform along with as many as 47 regular-season men's basketball games (32 conference and 15 non-conference) and 30 regular-season women's basketball games (20 conference and 10 non-conference).

In addition, CBS, Fox and NBC will combine efforts to televise the seven Big Ten Football Championship Games during the term of the deal according to this schedule:  

• CBS: 2024, 2028
• Fox: 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029
• NBC: 2026

In yet another attempt to revive a new professional football league during the NFL’s off-season, a new version of the USFL debuted this weekend, with the April 16 marquee matchup between the New Jersey Generals and the Birmingham Stallions garnering a combined 2.90 million viewers between its simultaneous broadcasts on FOX and NBC. In comparison, the NBA Playoff matchup between the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors on ABC logged 2.95 million, making it the number one show for Saturday night. 

The game marked the first time a professional sport competition had been broadcast on two competitive networks since Super Bowl I broadcast on NBC and CBS on Jan. 15, 1967. For the inaugural game, NBC Sports provided pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage which aired on both networks, utilizing its on-air, production, and technical personnel. FOX Sports, which used the same NFL theme music for its USFL coverage produced the game coverage, using its broadcasters, production, and technical staff. 

The league introduced several technologies to the game, including a “First Down Measurement Tool”  which provided a closer view of the distance between the last play and first down. Also new was a "helmet-cam”  view, which is exactly as described. Also drawing attention were drone camera angle views, which were used between—and occasionally—during the plays.

The league is financed by FOX Sports, which owns the league and has reportedly committed $150 million–$200 million over three years to its operations, with plans to attract an additional $250 million from investors.

Bad weather hampered additional games on Sunday, causing delays, and the Tampa Bay Bandits and Pittsburgh Maulers matchup, also scheduled for Sunday was moved to Monday night, April 18.

LOS ANGELES—NBC Sports’ coverage of  Super Bowl LVI averaged a total audience delivery of 112.3 million viewers on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital platforms and Yahoo Sports mobile properties, reaching a total of 167 million viewers, in what NBCU is calling the most watched show in five years. 

About 101.1 million TV viewers watched the Super Bowl across NBC and Telemundo. Led by Peacock, Super Bowl LVI was the most-streamed NFL game ever, with an average minute audience of 11.2 Million viewers across all digital platforms. Telemundo also delivered the largest Spanish-language NFL game audience ever, NBCU reported. 

“The Super Bowl once again delivered a massive audience, which included NBC and the unmatched power of broadcast television as well as first-ever presentations on Peacock and Telemundo, and led into our most-watched Olympics coverage in four years,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

Super Bowl LVI viewership on NBC peaked at 104.4 million from 7:45-8:00 p.m. ET.

The game (6:35-10:09 p.m. ET) averaged 99.2 million viewers on NBC – topping by 4% last year’s game (95.2 million for Chiefs-Buccaneers).

The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show on NBC, starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, along with special guest 50 Cent, averaged 103.4 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET – topping last year’s halftime show by 7% (96.7 million from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET).

Telemundo on Sunday became the first-ever Spanish-language broadcast network to air the Super Bowl and averaged 1.9 million viewers – by far the most-watched NFL game in U.S. Spanish-language history. 

Data from other measurement companies also showed large audiences.  

iSpot.TV, a measurement company being used as an alternative to Nielsen by NBCUniversal, reported that an average minute audience of 121 million viewers tuned in to watch on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, in homes and public venues across America.

About 56% of U.S. Households tuned into the telecast on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, reaching a total audience of 149.9 million people who watched all or some of the broadcast, iSpot.TV said. 

The total linear average minute viewership was 98.1 million, including 2.9 million average minute viewers on Telemundo, which contributed to a total in-home reach of 134.5 million people on NBCU networks.

The average streaming minute audience was 10.5 million viewers and 15.5 million total viewers, which includes sensor-level streaming viewership data from CTV, mobile and tablet consumption provided in partnership with Conviva.

The iSpot.TV report found that 70.1% of those streaming the Super Bowl came from “cord cutters” or households without bundled pay TV service.

The total Out-of-Home (OOH) average audience for the Super Bowl was 12.5 million, as measured via iSpot’s partnership with Tunity Analytics.

Separately, Samba TV released U.S. linear television and streaming viewership data from Sunday night’s Super Bowl that showed this year’s championship game scored significant viewership increases from 2021, with 36 million U.S. households, representing more than 1 in 4 US homes, watching the Super Bowl this year. 

That was a significant audience uptick for the NFL, with Super Bowl LVI drawing in viewership from 12% more households than last year’s game, Samba TV reported. 

The Samba TV data also showed that the halftime show was a big audience draw this year smashing 2021’s viewership numbers. About 29 million U.S. households, an increase of 19% year-over-year, viewed the halftime performances. 

International data was not yet available but in Canada, Numeris reported that the Los Angeles Rams' hometown victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI was the most-watched broadcast in Canada since last year's Super Bowl, attracting an average audience of 8.1 million viewers on CTV, TSN, and RDS, according to preliminary data from Numeris.

Overall, 16.9 million unique Canadian viewers, or 45% of Canada's population, tuned in to watch the NFL's championship game, meaning nearly 1 in 2 Canadians watched some or all of the broadcast. Audiences peaked at 11.4 million viewers at 8:21 p.m. ET during the celebratory Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, headlined by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar, with a special guest appearance by 50 Cent.

It was also Canada's most-watched broadcast of the 2021/22 broadcast season. The game ranked as the #1 program of the day, and CTV was the most-watched network in Canada on Sunday. 

Bell Media's CTV, TSN, and RDS are the official broadcasters of the NFL in Canada.

Bell Media also reported that extensive Super Bowl content drove engagement across TSN's social media platforms, garnering 5.5 million views, with 3 million of those views coming on TikTok.

BRISTOL, U.K.—For the NBC primetime celebrity game show “That’s My Jam” television and live event director Glenn Weiss and his long-time Steadicam operator Toré Livia from Jitacam decided on three AGITO modular remote dolly systems from Motion Impossible. 

Using two AGITO Sports with two cameras each, and one AGITO Trax, the production was able to meet one of the prime production requirements of following Covid safety protocols by not having a lot of camera people near the audience.

The hour-long music and comedy variety game show from Universal Television Alternative Studios and hosted by Jimmy Fallon, features teams of celebrities. In each episode, two teams of two celebrities compete in a series of music, dance, and trivia-based games and musical performances for a charity of their choice.

“The one thing Glenn told me before our initial discussion was that Universal was very specific about not having a lot of camera people near the audience due to Covid safety protocols,” said Livia, the VP of west coast operations in Los Angeles for Jitacam, who was responsible for the setup of the three AGITO systems as well as serving as Steadicam operator for the show. “There would need to be a 6-foot space between any camera operators, plus those working on the show and those in the audience.”

Livia had previously worked with Weiss, as well as having worked with all of the show’s producers and all of the talent on the show during his career.

“I’ve worked with Glenn on most shows that he has directed for almost 20 years,” Liva said. “I’m one of his main Steadicam operators, and Glenn is helping me move towards directing. He also knows that I’m on top of the latest production equipment and that I am a part of Jitacam.”

“Glenn came to me and we set up a Zoom call to go over the camera plot of the show and to see if I might have any ideas he didn’t think about, especially with Universal’s 6-foot Covid safety requirements,” Liva continued. “In the past, I had suggested the AGITO to Glenn for his shows, which he loved using. So, I suggested putting two cameras on one AGITO Sports house right, and the same house left, plus a single camera AGITO Trax behind the audience that would show the scale of the set with the audience in the foreground. The best part...all of the AGITO and camera operators would be sitting nowhere near the audience, with the AGITO pilots running wirelessly, and the camera operators hard-wired due to all the RF in the soundstage.”

All five Sony HDC-4300 cameras were mounted on SHOTOVER G1 gyro-stabilized gimbals, with long ENG-style lenses for the smallest profile as to not block the audience view of the stage.

“For the two double-camera AGITOs, we used the tower as the main pedestal and at the top had a plate made as wide as the wheelbase so that both cameras could be mounted on top of that,” said Livia. “The double cameras on the AGITO towers were always at the same height Having one high and one low wouldn’t have worked because if we did that, the lower camera would have been blocked by the audience sitting in the chairs, so both cameras needed to be higher up.”

With an AGITO maximum tower height of 6-feet, another 8-inch riser for the plate, plus the height of the G1, all four cameras were right at or above the talent’s eyeline – all except for Blake Shelton, who stands 6-feet, 5-inches tall. Neither of the two AGITO Sports dollies would move during production–just provide coverage of the game, but were easily repositioned between games, during what would be a commercial break. The AGITO Trax behind the audience was in constant motion for over-the-shoulder audience shots.

In addition to the three AGITOs with five cameras, there was one manned center pedestal camera – the only person near the audience but at least 6-feet away and a remote-controlled Mat Towercam from Jitacam set next to it, which basically took the spot of a second center pedestal camera. Plus, there was a handheld camera on a tripod house left, with another house right. Additional miniature cameras were placed within the set of specific games the celebrities played. 

“One of the nice things is that we got two days of setup and more rehearsal time than you would normally get on most shows,” said Livia. “That gave us the ability to massage the exact positions of the two AGITOs near the stage to exactly where they would need to be for each game.” 

“Glenn was extremely happy,” said Livia. “He killed two birds with one stone: He got the coverage he wanted and didn’t have to use multiple pedestal cameras, whose operators would have come within 6-feet of an audience member. It was perfect with no complications.”

“When a production uses an AGITO, it’s because it gives them the flexibility to get the creative shots they desire,” said Rob Drewett, CEO and Co-Founder of Motion Impossible. “But when `That’s My Jam' uses three AGITOs with five cameras, we know that we’ve done a great job in creating the best remote dolly system possible to meet a wide range of production requirements.”