Early years 2000s In 2000, NBC declined to renew its broadcast agreement with
Major League Baseball (MLB). In
2002, NBC was additionally outbid by
ESPN and
ABC for the
National Basketball Association (NBA)'s new broadcast contract, ending the league's twelve-year run on NBC. During this era, NBC experimented with broadcasting emerging sports. In 2001, NBC partnered with the
World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to establish the
XFL – a new football league which introduced modified rules and debuted to tremendous, but short-lived fanfare, only lasting one season (NBC shared broadcast rights to the league's games, which were mainly held on Saturday nights, with
UPN). In
2003, NBC obtained the broadcast rights and a minority interest in the
Arena Football League (AFL). NBC televised weekly games on a regional basis, as well as the entire playoffs. The deal lasted four years, after which the league and NBC parted ways. Beginning with the
1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, NBC began its foray into
NASCAR.
NBC, along with
Fox and
TNT, obtained the broadcast rights of the top two series – the
NASCAR Cup Series and
NASCAR Xfinity Series – in a six-year deal, beginning in 2001. NBC televised the second half of the season and alternated coverage of the
Daytona 500 with
Fox. In December 2005, NBC announced that it would not renew its agreement with NASCAR. In 2001, NBC obtained the broadcast rights to horse racing's
Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in a five-year deal. In 2004, NBC reached a broadcast agreement with the
National Hockey League (NHL). The revenue-sharing deal called for the two sides to split advertising revenue after NBC recouped the expenses. Games were supposed to begin airing on NBC during the
2004–05 season, however a league
lockout that resulted in the cancellation of that season delayed the start of the contract until the second half of the
2005–06 NHL season.
NBC televised regular season games at first on Saturday afternoons before moving the telecast to Sundays, Saturday and Sunday afternoon playoff games, and up to five games of the
Stanley Cup. Additionally in 2008, NBC broadcast the
2008 NHL Winter Classic, an outdoor NHL game played on New Year's Day at
Ralph Wilson Stadium, a success in attendance and television ratings. The following year's Winter Classic would become the most-watched regular season game in 34 years. In addition to this regular season success, game seven of the
2009 Stanley Cup Final was watched by an average of eight million viewers, the highest ratings for an NHL game in 36 years. The NFL also returned to NBC in 2006 after an eight-year hiatus, broadcasting the league's new flagship
Sunday Night Football game, along with select postseason games and
Super Bowls XLIII,
XLVI,
XLIX,
LII,
LVI,
LX and
LXIV.
2010s: Comcast/NBCUniversal era In January 2011,
Comcast finalized its
acquisition of a majority share in
NBC Universal. As a result of the merger, the operations of Comcast's existing sports networks, such as
Golf Channel and
NBCSN, were merged into an entity known as the
NBC Sports Group. NBC Sports' senior vice president Mike McCarley additionally became Golf Channel's new head. NBC Sports' golf production unit was merged with Golf Channel, along with NBC's on-air staff, with that unit rebranding under the banner "
Golf Channel on NBC", while Versus was reformatted toward a more mainstream audience, renamed the NBC Sports Network and eventually rebranded as
NBCSN. The merger also helped influence an extension of NBC Sports' contract with the NHL; the 10-year deal – valued at close to $2 billion, unified the cable and broadcast television rights to the league and introduced a new "
Black Friday"
Thanksgiving Showdown game on NBC, along with national coverage for every game in the
Stanley Cup playoffs. On July 3, 2011,
ESPN obtained the exclusive broadcast rights to
The Championships, Wimbledon in a 12-year deal, ending NBC's television relationship with The Championships after 42 years. From 2012 until 2015,
Major League Soccer (MLS) games were shown on NBC and the NBC Sports Network. This included the broadcast of two regular season games, two playoff games, and two national team matches on NBC and 38 regular season games, three playoff games, and two national team matches on NBC Sports Network. Since the 2013–14 season NBC Sports has also held the rights to televise
Premier League soccer in English (primarily on NBCSN) and Spanish (on
Telemundo and
Universo), through a $250 million deal, replacing
ESPN and
Fox Soccer as the league's U.S. broadcasters. NBC Sports held broadcast rights to the
Formula One (formerly held by
Speed and
Fox Sports) from 2013 until 2017. The majority of its coverage (including much of the season, along with qualifying and practice sessions) aired on NBCSN, while NBC aired the Monaco Grand Prix,
Canadian Grand Prix and the final two races of the season, which in the first year of the deal included the
United States Grand Prix. All races were also streamed online and through the NBC Sports Live Extra
mobile app. They lost the broadcast rights to
ESPN beginning from the 2018 season. On March 18, 2013, nearly all of the operations for NBC Sports and NBCSN began to be based out of a purpose-built facility in
Stamford, Connecticut. The move was made mainly to take advantage of
tax credits given by the state of
Connecticut, which NBC has taken advantage of previously with the
tabloid talk shows of its
NBCUniversal Television Distribution. Only
Football Night in America remained in New York City, at
NBC Studios, until September 7, 2014, when production of that program also moved to Stamford. NASCAR returned to NBC Sports properties in 2015 under a ten-year deal, with NBC once again airing the second half of the
NASCAR Cup Series and
NASCAR Xfinity Series seasons. While no specific financial details were disclosed, NBC reportedly paid 50% more than
ESPN and TNT (who took over the portion of the season previously held by NBC) combined under the previous deal. In May 2015, NBCUniversal announced the formation of NBC Deportes (later renamed
Telemundo Deportes), which serves as a
Spanish language branch of NBC Sports for
Telemundo and
NBC Universo. On June 7, 2015, amid its loss of rights to the
USGA's championships to
Fox (including the
U.S. Open), NBC Sports and
The R&A agreed to a twelve-year deal to televise
The Open Championship,
Senior Open Championship, and
Women's British Open on NBC and Golf Channel, beginning in 2017. Existing rightsholder ESPN opted out of its final year of its agreement for the tournaments, with the Open subsequently debuting a year early in 2016.
Universal Sports ceased operations in November 2015. NBCUniversal acquired the rights to the content that was previously held by Universal Sports Network. Much of the programming moved to either
Universal HD, NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. From 2016 until 2018, NBC Sports held the rights to
Premiership Rugby, the top division of English
rugby union, through a three-year deal. The contract included up to 24 regularly scheduled games on NBCSN per-season, and up to 50 streaming. Its first live match was on March 12, 2016, when
London Irish hosted
Saracens F.C. at
Red Bull Arena in
Harrison, New Jersey. In June 2016, NBC Sports launched
NBC Sports Gold, a suite of sport-specific over-the-top subscription services that would included expanded and overflow coverage of its properties. On July 15, 2017, NBCUniversal relaunched Universal HD as
Olympic Channel, a network that would carry
Olympic sports programming as a complement to its long-standing agreement to cover the Games. In early 2018, it was announced that NBC Sports would renew its contract with the
IndyCar Series (continuing a relationship with NBCSN which began in 2009 as Versus), through 2021, and acquire the broadcast television rights previously held by
ABC. NBC televises eight races per-season since 2019, including the series flagship
Indianapolis 500, with the remaining races airing on NBCSN as before. An IndyCar package is also offered through NBC Sports Gold. Shortly after, NBC announced a six-year agreement with the
International Motor Sports Association beginning in 2019, including the
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with the majority of coverage on NBCSN.
2020s Following the launch of NBCUniversal's streaming service
Peacock, NBC Sports began to migrate some of its overflow content (including the Premier League and other NBC Sports Gold services) to the service. On June 29, 2020, Fox sold the last seven years of its contract to air USGA tournaments to NBC, regaining rights to the U.S. Open for the first time since 2015. In January 2021, it was reported that NBCUniversal planned to shut down NBCSN by the end of the year; an internal memo cited increased competition from streaming services and the other mainstream sports networks as reasoning. The channel was officially shut down on December 31, 2021; its remaining programming rights were moved to other NBCUniversal platforms, particularly USA Network and Peacock. On April 6, 2022, NBC Sports announced a deal to carry a package of Sunday afternoon MLB games on Peacock branded as
MLB Sunday Leadoff beginning in the
2022 season. NBC Sports declined to renew its deal after the
2023 season, with the package moving to
Roku instead. On July 1, 2022, NBC Sports announced that Olympic Channel would shut down as a linear channel on September 30, 2022. On August 18, 2022, NBC Sports announced a seven-year deal to carry
Big Ten Conference college athletics across its platforms beginning in the 2023–24 academic season. This contract will most notably include a new package of primetime Big Ten college football games on NBC beginning in the 2023 season, as well as a package of college basketball and Olympic sports coverage on Peacock. Beginning with the 2023 NFL season, Peacock exclusively streams at least one regular season game per season. Most notably, Peacock exclusively streamed the
Miami Dolphins–Kansas City Chiefs wild card playoff game during the 2023 season. The game drove 2.8 million sign-ups to Peacock and averaged 23 million viewers. In June 2023, NBC Sports launched a
free ad-supported streaming channel. The channel was rebranded to
NBC Sports NOW in January 2024. On June 11, 2024,
TNT Sports officially announced a 10-year deal with the
French Open, ending a broadcasting arrangement with NBC Sports dating back to 1983. Two days later,
IndyCar and
Fox agreed to a deal to broadcast the
IndyCar Series, ending its 15-year partnership with NBC Sports. On June 27, 2024, NBC Sports and the
Big East Conference announced a six-year deal to begin in the 2025–26 academic year. NBC Sports will carry more than 60 men's and women's basketball regular season and tournament games. Peacock begins its coverage in the 2024–25 academic year with 25 regular season games and five early round and quarterfinal conference tournament games in men's basketball. On July 23, 2024, Comcast confirmed during a conference call with investors that the
NBA would return to NBC Sports in the 2025–26 season under an 11-year agreement; an official announcement was released by the NBA and NBC Sports the following day. NBC and Peacock will carry 100 regular season games throughout the season, including Monday night games on Peacock, regional Tuesday night games, and a package of Sunday night games following the conclusion of NFL season. NBC will also carry a doubleheader on
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, coverage of
All-Star Weekend, and a slate of playoff games (including six conference finals over the length of the agreement). Rights to the
NBA Finals will remain exclusive to
ABC. The agreement also includes broadcasting rights to the
Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). NBC Sports' WNBA package includes more than 50 regular-season and first-round playoff games, seven WNBA semi-finals, and three
WNBA Finals. WNBA games will air on NBC, USA Network, and Peacock. On November 13, 2025, NBCUniversal announced that they would relaunch NBCSN starting November 17. The relaunched network was initially available through
YouTube TV before eventually launching the platform through
Xfinity. The revived NBCSN is expected to carry most live events that are streamed on Peacock, including NBA Monday night games, Premier League matches, college football and basketball, WNBA, and golf among others. The relaunch of NBCSN came after Comcast decided to spin off most of its cable networks to
Versant, with USA Network in particular reviving the
USA Sports division. Both NBCUniversal and Versant also made an agreement that NBC Sports-produced coverage of the
2026 Winter Olympics would continue to appear on CNBC and USA Network. On November 19, 2025, NBC Sports announced a new three-year deal to broadcast MLB games, with a deal consisting of
Sunday Night Baseball,
Opening Day and
Labor Day primetime games,
MLB Sunday Leadoff,
MLB draft,
All-Star Futures Game, and
Wild Card Series games. Additionally, the network plans to broadcast all games exclusively on July 5, dubbed
Roadblock. For 2027 and 2028, NBC will also showcase one of MLB's most popular special event games, as well as
Game 2,430, the most consequential regular season game on the season's final day. Games will be streamed on Peacock and televised across NBC and NBCSN. ==Olympics==