The NBCSN Olympics schedule will go round-the-clock for nearly one full week. In other news, surprise talks between Disney and 21st Century Fox, a change that could make it easier for ESPN to lose the NFL, and changes to NASCAR’s TV schedule.
NBCSN Olympics Schedule Includes 156 Straight Hours
NBCSN will televise 156 consecutive hours of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics coverage February 18-25, NBC Sports announced Monday, part of a 368-hour schedule that includes ten full 24-hour days and live primetime coverage on almost every night. The network’s coverage will begin at 11 PM ET February 7. By comparison, corporate siblings CNBC and USA Network will each carry fewer than 50 hours each and Olympic regular MSNBC will apparently sit the Games out. [NBC Sports PR 11.6]
Disney Held Talks to Acquire Fox Assets
The Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox have held discussions in recent weeks about the former acquiring most of the latter’s assets, CNBC reported Monday. The talks, which are not currently active, excluded Fox Sports and the FOX broadcast network. Disney is said to be concerned that combining Fox Sports and ESPN would attract antitrust scrutiny. Should the talks eventually bear fruit, Disney would acquire the 21st Century Fox movie studio and cable networks FX and National Geographic. [CNBC 11.6]
Barrier Lifted to Hypothetical ESPN-NFL Split
In its most recent carriage agreements with cable distributors, ESPN is no longer required to carry NFL games in order to maintain its cable-leading subscriber fees, Those Guys Have All the Fun author Jim Miller reported in The Hollywood Reporter last week. ESPN’s previous contracts mandated automatic reductions in subscriber fees if the network stopped airing the NFL. Now, ESPN could conceivably decline to renew its $1.9 billion/year NFL contract — a move Miller said “some” ESPN executives have started to consider — and then negotiate to keep as much of its fee as possible. [Hollywood Reporter 10.30]
Handful of NASCAR Races Switch Channels For ’18
Next year’s NASCAR Cup Series races from Michigan (June) and Watkins Glen, N.Y., will air on broadcast television for the first time since 2006, while the spring Texas race moves to cable for the first time ever, under the 2018 NASCAR television schedule released Monday. FOX and FS1 will swap Michigan and Texas. NBC gets Watkins Glen. In other changes, the Brickyard 400 and Bristol Night Race return to NBCSN after one year on NBC, while the Kansas playoff race moves back to NBC after one year on NBCSN. [NASCAR.com 10.6]
