Rising star Noah Eagle has been named the voice of U.S. Olympic basketball on NBC. Plus: Bruins voice Jack Edwards is retiring after recent struggles; a pair of congressmen have questions about the ESPN-Fox-WBD joint venture; a trio of Chicago sports teams could be leaving NBC Sports Chicago.
Noah Eagle gets Olympic basketball assignment for NBC
NBC Sports announced Wednesday that Noah Eagle will serve as the voice of United States men’s and women’s basketball games during the Summer Olympics, filling a role that was previously occupied by Warriors voice Bob Fitzgerald. The Olympic assignment is the latest marquee role for Eagle, who this year called Nickelodeon’s Super Bowl simulcast and an NFL playoff game for NBC. He called three-on-three basketball in the previous Olympics in 2021.
Eagle, the son of Ian and a rising star in the industry, is the lead voice of NBC’s college football package and also calls college basketball and NFL games for the company. He has also called Clippers and Nets games on a local level.
Bruins voice Edwards retiring after recent struggles
NESN Boston Bruins play-by-play voice Jack Edwards announced Tuesday that he will retire from his position at the end of the current postseason. Edwards, who has been with NESN since 2005 and previously worked as an ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor, said in his announcement that he is no longer able to perform at the level to which he is accustomed.
As chronicled in a Boston Globe article earlier this year, Edwards has struggled in recent months with what he termed a “slowdown” in his speech that has eluded explanation from medical professionals. Edwards: “I meet with the smartest people I’ve ever known about every three months. They’ve done a battery of tests on me and I’ve met with research groups, plural.” He was undergoing regular speech therapy at the time the article was published in February.
Toward the end of the piece, Edwards said that if he or NESN thought he was “hurting the product or costing the fans an enjoyable experience” he would “say goodbye.”
Congressmen ask Disney, Fox, WBD CEOs about joint venture
Representatives Joaquin Castro of Texas and Jerrold Nadler of New York sent a letter Tuesday to the CEOs of Disney, Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery — Bob Iger, Lachlan Murdoch and David Zaslav respectively — raising a list of questions concerning the potential antitrust implications of the companies’ planned joint streaming venture and requesting response by April 30.
Some questions have already been answered in one form or another; for example, the congressmen ask whether the joint venture partners will “continue to bid competitively against one another for sports rights,” which the companies have already answered definitively in the affirmative.
Chicago teams set to move from NBC Sports Chicago to Stadium
The Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox are close to an agreement with Stadium, a sports streaming platform that can be viewed over-the-air on some digital sub-channels, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday. The teams are under contract with NBC Sports Chicago through October, though the report states they may reach a six-month extension that would run through the next NBA and NHL seasons. Under the potential deal, Stadium would “convert into a regional sports network and seek distribution on pay-TV providers.”
The departure of the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox would mark the end of NBC Sports Chicago, further reducing the number of Comcast-owned RSNs.
