National Sports Journalism Center

Dear Comcast Cable Overlords:

I know you’re only days past officially acknowledging your deal to buy a 51-percent controlling stake in NBC Universal (though us media nerds had heard about the deal weeks before).

I also know you won’t be taking possession for a while – anywhere from 12 to 18 months if the federal regulators take their time, as expected. Which means the TV and online media landscape you face could be way different than the digitally fractured reality we’re plodding through right now.

Still, I was hoping to suggest a few early strategies for the sports end of the cool new toy you are about to take over — before you get so distracted with trying to fix Jay Leno’s show and NBC’s rapidly sinking primetime ratings to pay any attention (repairing Heroes alone could take a couple more years).
 
First, keep the NBC broadcast network and stations – I know, because you made your bones in cable, everybody thought your first action in taking over the Peacock Network would be to dump the most troublesome part of its TV business like a pair of old shoes: free, over the air broadcasting.

Even though you promised key legislators in a statement your company “remains committed to continuing to provide free, over-the-air television,” we media types are a cynical bunch. We’re figuring that promise has a shelf life exactly equal to the amount of time it takes to get approval for the deal from those same legislators. It may even help you get approval by reducing the media footprint of your gargantuan new company.

But here’s the thing: the NBC broadcast network provides an amazing home for all the company’s sports resources, from the highly-rated Sunday Night Football to the U.S. Open, the Grand Slam tennis finals and blockbuster coverage of summer and winter Olympics.

These are the last appointment television events – stuff to make young men step away from the online Call of Duty tournaments and women pause the Glee episodes on Hulu (which you better not start charging for – more on that later).

Next, build a cool alternative to ESPN – You’ve already got 10 regional sports networks, the Versus sports channel, the G4 gaming channel, The Golf Channel and the NFL Red Zone Channel. Time to make them all work the way NBC spreads its sports brands all over cable for the Olympics. But this time, it’s permanent.

You’ll have to find a name that unites all the channels and slap it on Versus. As USA Today noted last week, that name sounds more like a religious channel (I was thinking more along the lines of Roman history). Could NSC work – short for NBC Sports Cable? Focus on providing sports fans with an escape, and you just might have something there.

You already have the blueprint in NBC’s Olympics coverage and the way NBC News stars fill cable channels such as CNBC and MSNBC. Imagine Bob Costas returning to the amazing interview show he had on HBO, only this time on NSC. Or persuading Keith Olbermann to pitch in on a sports headline show with a pack of talented newcomers.

I know advertisers love the Golf Channel, but that’s going to have to become a block of golf-centered programming on NSC2 and NBC honchos develop a plan to fill NSC with something besides Versus’ current diet of pro hockey and the Tour de France. When you think of it, the possibilities are breathtaking, from a workout show with the Biggest Loser crew to an auto racing series for Leno when the 10 p.m. gig flames out.

Third, give Dick Ebersol whatever he wants – Yeah, the current emperor of NBC Sports is an arrogant, aggressive executive known for nearly blowing up Saturday Night Live during his tenure as executive producer and suggesting Deborah Norville replace Jane Pauley on the Today show in a widely criticized move when he ran that show.

But he’s also helmed the network’s super-successful Olympics broadcasts, overseeing a multitude of events on multiple channels – something he’d have to do every day as NSC’s top honcho.
 
Fourth, don’t mess with ESPN or the NFL Network – Once you start building a sports empire, you’re going to be tempted to mess with the competition by giving your biggest rivals bad channel placements or unfavorable deal terms on cable systems reaching one-quarter of all cable TV homes.

Don’t. In this new media ecology, one rule is emerging quickly: The Customer is king. Alienating sports fans by jerking around the channels they love most is just a backward way of handing market share to DirecTV.

Finally, supercharge your mobile and online technology – I know some media experts grouse about NBC’s online strategy. But I’m always thought they were most aggressive about getting new content online and developing new permutations of conventional programming in cyberspace.

It’s time for one company to develop a gateway that can take sports content to Comcast customers no matter where they are – accessing NSC through cellphone, PDA, home computer or otherwise. With a suite of online sites that already includes Fancast.com, Comcast.net and the social networking address index Plaxo, the options seem limited only by your imagination and corporate will.

I know, all this pie-in-the-sky talk is easy now. It will take a cadre of strong top executives to cut through all the conflicting agendas and crosswise priorities to build Comcast NBC into a worthy alternative to ESPN and other, smaller brands.

But besides replacing Leno, saving the rest of NBC prime, propping up the late night shows, rescuing the Universal movie studio and handling the tourist downturn at the Universal Studios amusements parks, what else do you have to do?