In its second major extension of the day, NBC Sports has held onto the second leg of the Triple Crown.
NBC Sports Group announced Monday that it will continue televising The Preakness Stakes under a multi-year extension with the Maryland Jockey Club. Though NBC did not announce the length of the deal in a Monday press release, Sports Business Journal and the Baltimore Sun reported that it will last for seven years.
The extension was almost a formality, given NBC already reached extensions to air the Kentucky Derby (through 2025) and Belmont Stakes (through 2022) — and it is hard to imagine a rival network having interest the Preakness alone.
By the end of the deal, NBC will have aired the Preakness for 21 consecutive years. Except for a five-year period from 2006-10, when ABC aired The Belmont Stakes, the network will have carried every Triple Crown race from 2001 to 2022.
(Mon. news from NBC Sports Group Press Box, Sports Business Journal, Baltimore Sun)
