The Duke-Michigan neutral-site college basketball game is reportedly expected to move to Miami; Peacock is going to reach profitability in Q2; and ESPN president/content Burke Magnus discusses reporting on NFL Network. Plus news on the NFL, Kyle Long, Scott Agness and CBS Sports.
Duke-Michigan game reportedly expected to move to Miami
The Duke-Michigan men’s college basketball game scheduled for Madison Square Garden in December is reportedly being moved to loanDepot Park in Miami, a move that would bypass objections by the Big Ten and Fox Sports to the game’s inclusion in the Blue Devils’ first-of-its-kind rights deal with Prime Video, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.
The Big Ten and Fox objected to the inclusion of the game in the Prime Video deal because of a preexisting agreement with the ACC to alternate control of neutral site games played in “shared territory,” which includes New York City. Last year’s Duke-Michigan game in Washington D.C., another shared market, aired on ACC rightsholder ESPN — meaning that this year’s game contractually would belong to the Big Ten and Fox.
A source cited by Norlander described Fox as “flexing its muscle and standing on principle” in its opposition. Per the report, Duke would have had to find a different opponent if the game remained at Madison Square Garden, but both coaches wanted to proceed with the matchup. The move from an NBA/NHL arena to an MLB stadium has yet to be officially announced.
The Big Ten Conference is in the midst of a seven-year media rights deal with Fox Corporation, Paramount and Comcast reportedly worth $1.15 billion/year. ESPN sublicenses the rights to select ACC games under a sublicensing agreement with Nexstar, and a new deal between the entities running through 2030 begins next year. If the Duke-Michigan game does end up getting moved to Miami, it would be the first time loanDepot Park has ever hosted a basketball game.
Peacock to reach profitability in Q2
Calling it a “big milestone” for the company, NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Matt Strauss said at the Evercore Global TMT Conference Tuesday that Peacock will be profitable for the first time in the second quarter of its fiscal year, crediting in part its live sports slate. Strauss: “[S]ports also is the opposite of binge viewing. It’s about timeliness, it’s about community. You know the TAM, the addressable market of sports, so you can calculate what that value is. And so building out a really big sports portfolio was very important to us back then and still is.”
Peacock has consistently posted negative adjusted EBITDA in its earnings dating back to the platform’s launch in July 2020, and registered a $552 million loss in Q4 2025 (+48.4% YoY) despite adding 3 million paid subscribers. Comcast attributed the fiscal drawback, the largest since Q1 2024, to higher programming costs for Peacock and “elevated sports rights expenses” for its linear networks. The company reported a $432 million loss for Peacock last quarter, more than double the previous year, but it marked a second consecutive quarter of paid subscriber growth.
Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said on the company’s earnings call in April that the second quarter as “reflecting a meaningful inflection point” for the streaming service. In the first year of its NBA rights deal, Peacock simulcast all 28 NBA playoff games on NBC and carried seven more games exclusively. NBCU streaming platforms, including Peacock, averaged 2.3 million viewers for the NBA Western Conference Finals, per Adobe Analytics. According to the company, “[n]early three-quarters of NBA viewers on the platform also watched non-sports content.” Peacock has also been airing most of the early-season “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcasts, along with broadcasting the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
Most of the sports broadcasts exclusive to Peacock are simulcast on NBCSN, which is available through select pay television providers. While Strauss acknowledged that having a sports cable network “might seem a bit counterintuitive” — echoing comments made by NBC Sports president Rick Cordella last year — he pointed to the subscribers and revenue that remain through pay television. “I think that what [leagues are] looking for is they want scale,” Strauss said. “The fact that we have the ability to kind of allow multiple ways for a consumer to access the sports content – broadcast and streaming is a real strength that we bring to the table. And we actually like having sports content on broadcast because we also simulcast it on cable and we simulcast it on streaming.”
Magnus: NFL Network will cover and report, but not investigate the league
ESPN president/content Burke Magnus told John Ourand of Puck on “The Varsity” podcast published this week that NFL Network will cover and report on the NFL but leave investigations of the league to those “on the ESPN platform.” Magnus said ESPN will use the lessons “gathered through” its two college sports-branded outlets, SEC Network and ACC Network, in determining its approach to NFL Network. With the NFL acquiring a minority stake in ESPN as part of the NFL Network transaction, Magnus said the league has not spoken to ESPN about ceasing its investigative and enterprise journalism. Magnus: “So I think that’s going to be a balance that we’re going to have to communicate to people to understand that it hasn’t compromised in any way, shape or form what we do at ESPN.”
Despite the change in ownership, NFL Network maintained its own presentation of the NFL Draft featuring familiar on-air talent such as Rich Eisen, Charles Davis and Ian Rapoport. Magnus said he believes it is “an easy decision” to have NFL Network continue with its unique coverage given the scope of the draft — which already includes several unique presentations across Disney networks — but suggested that ESPN could offer a single unified broadcast of the third and final day of the event. “We haven’t made that decision yet,” Magnus said, “but to me, that’s potentially low-hanging fruit to put the best of what we both do together for Saturday’s coverage, but more to come on that.”
Although ESPN has not yet determined the role of NFL Network on “Monday Night Football” games, Magnus said he is “sure there’ll be a lot of pregame and postgame elements.” ESPN does not present the “Manningcast” alternate presentation with Peyton and Eli Manning on a weekly basis, and ESPN2 also airs other sports on Monday nights as well. Magnus said the company would “have to look at platform availability” and “concepts that would make sense.”
Magnus visited the NFL Network facility at Hollywood Park for the first time this year and lauded its technology, studios and employees. “I think with a little bit of investment and a little bit of elbow grease, we can really make this network sing in a way that probably it hasn’t in a few years, and that’s no disrespect to the NFL,” Magnus said. “I just think that they recognize, which is why they were interested in a transaction to begin with, that this was not their core competency in terms of running a media enterprise or operating a network like this. So we’re excited to get in there and really take it to another level.”
Plus: NFL, Kyle Long, Scott Agness, CBS Sports
- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will “politely decline” an invitation to testify at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and its impact on the sports broadcast rights marketplace, according to a report by John Ourand of Puck. Goodell had been asked by the committee chairman to take part in the hearing, which is occurring as the U.S. Department of Justice reportedly investigates whether the league’s rights deals with streaming companies are anticompetitive. The NFL will have a slight increase in broadcast inventory next season, but it also sold two game windows that previously aired on ESPN to Netflix as part of a four-year media rights extension.
- Former NFL G and CBS Sports analyst Kyle Long is joining “The NFL Today” next season in addition to former NFL QB Russell Wilson, who announced his retirement from the sport on Wednesday. Long started at CBS Sports in 2020 and returned to the company two years later after playing one more NFL season with the Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout his five seasons on the airwaves, he has appeared on programming such as “The NFL Today+” and “That Other Pregame Show,” and he made some appearances on “The NFL Today” last season as well. Long and Wilson will work with James Brown, Bill Cowher and Nate Burleson as the show returns to a five-person panel.
- Indiana Fever independent beat reporter Scott Agness wrote Tuesday that the organization revoked his credential, citing “the spread of inaccurate and unsubstantiated information.” Agness had posted on social media about the health of G Caitlin Clark and told the organization he stood by the report. In an interview with Annie Costabile of The Athletic, Agness said he did not try and confirm the reporting with the Fever before his post because he believed he was citing a “trusted source” who he knows “is spot-on.”
- CBS Sports and Lega Seria A mutually agreed to extend its media rights contract by one year, it was announced Thursday, now continuing the deal through the 2026-27 season. The company has been broadcasting Serie A matches since 2021 when it initially signed a three-year media rights deal worth $75 million annually and will bring its rights to market following the FIFA World Cup this summer, according to a report by Alex Silverman of Sports Business Journal.
