Au Revoir NBC Sports Network

In a rarity in the cable network industry, NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) went dark last night. Rather than sell off the channel to a competitor or rebrand it, the company found it more economically viable to shutter the channel, which once had the goal of competing head to head with ESPN.  

There have been only two other major networks to go dark after looking for a buyer, Pivot (which had over 50 million subs) and Al Jazeera America (which had over 60 million subscribers). Both were taken off the air in 2016.

NBCSN has a long history. The channel first launched on July 1, 1995 as Outdoor Life Network, with a focus on fishing, hunting, outdoor adventure and outdoor sports. Although this was a fairly low-cost strategy, the network just didn’t attract the viewers to support its programming budget and it was cash flow negative for seven years before breaking even in 2002. 

The channel was cash flow positive through 2005, but when it rebranded to Versus on April 24, 2006, focusing on becoming more mainstream, it once again went back into the red and remained there until 2014 (see table).

If anyone could give ESPN a run for its money, NBCSN was certainly a contender, given the parent company had broadcasting rights to the Olympics and other key sports rights. But the outlook turned negative in recent years as cable and satellite operators continued to see subscriber declines, making for few buyers in this sector.  Still, with an average of 78 million subscribers in 2020 paired with the fact that the channel has generated positive cash flow for the past five years, it’s surprising that the channel wasn’t sold to another media conglomerate.

NBC Universal has chosen to move most of the high-profile sports content like the NHL games (which have been on the channel for 15 years), NASCAR and IndyCar races (including the Indianapolis 500) to several other media properties including the broadcast network NBC, cable network USA Network, and its new online video service Peacock.