USA Sports, the newest entrant into the sports rights marketplace, is setting realistic expectations for life as an independent cable entity.
In a podcast published Sunday, USA Sports president Matt Hong told John Ourand of Puck that the company will be “disciplined” in its pursuit of sports rights and focus on properties that it can “generate a return on” — specifically ruling out leagues like the NFL and NBA that “don’t fit our profile in terms of ability to make a return from them.” Hong: “They obviously do for others, but just not for what we’re looking to do and how we’re looking to transform our core business.”
Hong, who had been asked directly if USA would have any interest in an NFL package, was more amenable when presented with the hypothetical of acquiring rights to a highlight show — presumably akin to an “Inside the NFL” — rather than live games. But he was nonetheless measured, acknowledging that such an agreement would make more sense for a live game partner and that any deal would have to make business sense.
As for what kind of properties Versant will pursue, Hong said the company is looking at properties that are “mid-hockey stick” — referring to the growth model — or show the potential for such growth in the future. “A lot of those growth properties happen to be women’s sports,” he said.
It might have gone without saying that Versant was not going to be in the market for rights to the most expensive sports leagues, but Hong’s comments signal that it is unlikely the company will be involved in pursuing even more affordable major league properties like the NHL and MLB, both of which are up for bid in 2028.
USA Sports currently owns a suite of rights that have been largely inherited from its longtime association with NBC Sports, which began when NBC merged with USA’s then-parent company Vivendi Universal in 2004. (The combined NBCUniversal then merged with Comcast five years later.) With Versant set to become legally separate from NBC once its spinoff from Comcast becomes official next month, Hong said that the past several months have been spent figuring out how to split the various rights and talent contracts USA shared with NBC.
In the majority of cases, the rights contracts will be split in two between NBCU and Versant. NASCAR and the Olympics will be exceptions, with the former contract shifting to Versant and the latter remaining with NBCU, though both companies will continue to share the events.
That also holds for most talent contracts, with Hong specifically mentioning NBC and Golf Channel broadcaster Terry Gannon as having separate contracts with NBCU and Versant moving forward. There will be at least one exception to that rule, as Golf Channel host Cara Banks said Sunday that she is leaving to join NBCU full-time.
Hong also reiterated other points he made in recent public appearances, including that USA Sports’ streaming strategy will remain focused on authentication rather than direct-to-subscriber services.
In addition, he again said that the goal for USA Sports — and Versant generally — is to replicate the revenue mix of the company’s golf business, which is currently a 50-50 split between Golf Channel and the companion businesses of GolfNow and Golf Pass. Hong: “It will be about finding synergistic businesses where folks spend their time when they’re not watching that programming on our networks.” But when asked how Versant would extend its non-golf properties into adjacent businesses, Hong was light on specifics.
