| NBC Sports on USA Network | |
| Channel: | USA Network (2007–present) |
| Country: | United States |
| Key People: | Mark Lazarus |
| Headquarters: | 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York |
| Sister: | NBC Sports |
| Format: | Sports |
Following the dissolving of USA Sports into NBC Sports after the 2007 Masters, USA Network began deemphasizing sports. During this time NBC Sports properties generally only aired on USA in special cases, such as during the Olympics, Stanley Cup Playoffs (until 2021) or the final week of the English Premier League season.
On January 22, 2021, an internal memo sent by NBC Sports president Pete Bevacqua announced that NBCSN would cease operations by the end of the year, and that USA Network would begin "carrying and/or simulcasting certain NBC Sports programming," including the Stanley Cup Playoffs (until 2021), and NASCAR races, before NBCSN's shutdown.[1] [2] The move was cited by industry analysts as a response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sports and television industries, the acceleration of cord-cutting, as well as formidable competition from rival sports networks such as ESPN and Fox Sports 1, noting the company saw an overall revenue drop by 19% to $6.72 billion.[2] [3]
In 2003, General Electric agreed to merge NBC and its sibling companies with Vivendi Universal's North American-based filmed entertainment assets, including Universal Pictures and Universal Television Group in a multibillion-dollar purchase, renaming the merged company NBC Universal. GE retained an 80% ownership stake in the new company, while Vivendi retained a 20% stake. NBC Universal officially took over as owner of USA and its sibling cable channels (except for Newsworld International) in 2004. USA Sports continued to be used as the branding for coverage of the PGA Tour, The Masters, the Ryder Cup, and the US Open tennis tournament.
In early 2006, it was announced that USA was outbid by Golf Channel for its early-round PGA Tour rights, with USA's final season being 2006. NBC Universal traded away the network's Friday Ryder Cup coverage through 2012 to ESPN for the rights to sign Al Michaels for its new Sunday Night Football. However, USA did renew its Masters contract for an additional year. USA would televise the 2007 Masters before being outbid by ESPN for future coverage. Also in 2006, USA carried some coverage of top level hockey by cooperating with NBC's coverage of ice hockey at the Winter Olympics.
Following the dissolving of USA Sports into NBC Sports after the 2007 Masters, USA Network began deemphasizing sports. During this time NBC Sports properties generally only aired on USA in special cases, such as during the Olympics, Stanley Cup Playoffs or the final week of the English Premier League season.
USA Network offered daily coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics through NBC Sports. This would be the USA Network's last Summer Olympics until 2020 because in 2011, Comcast acquired majority control of NBC's parent company NBC Universal from General Electric. This included to rebranding of Versus as NBC Sports Network, which would replace USA Network's summer Olympic coverage.[4]
The Ryder Cup contract, which stipulated cable coverage air on USA, was still controlled by NBC even after it granted ESPN the rights to Friday cable coverage (normally the only day of the event covered on cable). However, in 2010, rain on Friday pushed the singles matches to Monday, necessitating that they air on cable. With NBC having granted only Friday rights to ESPN, the singles matches aired on USA. Four months later, NBC merged with Golf Channel, making Golf Channel NBC's primary cable outlet for golf.
USA Network returned to NBC Sports's Winter Olympics coverage in 2010, which has continued every year since. In 2010, USA aired 41 hours of coverage;[5] in 2014 USA aired 43 hours of coverage;[6] in 2018 USA aired 40.5 hours of coverage.[7]
As part of a 2011 contract renewal, Comcast's properties earned exclusive national rights for all Stanley Cup playoffs through 2021. Because NBC and NBC Sports Network cannot carry all of the games on those two outlets alone in the first two rounds, other Comcast properties would need to be used; USA was initially not used, due to the risk of preempting its popular prime time lineup, and the company instead used CNBC and NHL Network as the overflow channels for the first four years of the contract. In 2015, Comcast announced that USA would carry some games in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, mainly on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, returning the NHL to USA for the first time in 30 years (1985).[8]
USA also aired a limited amount of Premier League matches during this time. In 2014, due to NBCSN's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics, an English Premier League match between Arsenal and Sunderland aired on USA Network. In the 2015–16 season, USA Network aired 40 matches from the English Premier League, most during the 10AM ET window. These matches moved to CNBC for the 2016–17 season.[9] In 2017, during the final day of the Premier League season on May 21, USA aired a match between Watford and Manchester City. In 2018, USA would air the same match for the final day of the season on May 10. In 2019, during the final day of the Premier League season on May 12, USA aired a match between Manchester United and Cardiff City. In 2020, during the final day of the Premier League season on July 26, USA aired a match between Chelsea and Wolverhampton. In 2021, during the final day of the Premier League season on May 23, USA aired a match between Aston Villa and Chelsea.[10] Later in 2021, USA Network aired Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United on September 11 when Manchester United took on Newcastle.
On January 26, 2016, NASCAR announced that the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen from Watkins Glen International would air on USA Network due to NBC and NBCSN's commitments to the Summer Olympics.[11]
USA Network returned to NBC Sports's Summer Olympics coverage in 2021. That year, USA Network had 388.5 hours of coverage. The main sports featured were swimming, track and field, diving, beach volleyball, volleyball, cycling, triathlon, team sports basketball, soccer and water polo.[12]
USA Network aired a limited amount of NBC Sports's Notre Dame college football coverage in 2020. USA would carried the September 19 college football game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and University of South Florida Bulls.[13] It was the first Notre Dame football game broadcast on USA, sister network NBC has owned rights to every Fighting Irish home game since 1991. It was also the first American football game broadcast on the network since World Bowl '92. Notre Dame's double-overtime win against Clemson on November 7, 2020, was moved temporarily to USA Network, due to coverage of Joe Biden's acceptance speech after being declared consensus winner of the 2020 presidential election.[14]
Following the dissolving of NBCSN in January 2022, USA has become the cable home of Atlantic 10 men and women college basketball games, weekend lead-in coverage of the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, British Open and AIG Women's Open,[15] the cable portion of NBC Sports' NASCAR contract,[16] the cable portion of the NBC Sports' NTT IndyCar Series contract, the cable portion of NBC Sports' IMSA contract[17] select AMA Supercross Championship races (split with CNBC),[18] and regular Premier League matches, as well as Premier League Mornings.[19]
For the 2022 Winter Olympics, USA Network became the de facto cable home of the games, replacing the defunct NBCSN. The network featured 400 hours of Olympic programming, broadcasting all Olympic sports.[20]
In April 2022, USA Network became NBC Sports's cable home for United States Football League (USFL) coverage,[21] which it announced it would not continue after the 2023 season.[22] In 2023, NBC Sports produced overnight coverage of Day 1 and Day 2 of the Ryder Cup returned to USA for the first time since 2010.[23]