It's been almost a whole calendar year since Versus was rebranded as NBC Sports Network, but might the channel be already at a bit of a crossroads just 11 months into their current identity?

Although the channel recently acquired the U.S. rights to the English Premier League, Formula 1 Racing, Major League Soccer & the Tour de France, in addition to signing a long-term extension to broadcast the NHL in this country, NBCSN has swung & missed trying to land other sports properties on their outlet.

For example, although NBC itself carries the opening NFL regular season game, as well as "Sunday Night Football", the first Saturday of NFL Wildcard Weekend & last year started airing the primetime Thanksgiving Night NFL game under terms of the network's own 8 year extension with the league, the "Thursday Night Football" package itself is a different story entirely. While the NFL started its "Thursday Night Football" package from the very getgo this past season, the league elected to keep those broadcasts on NFL Network instead of shifting them to NBC Sports Network, considered in some sports media circles as the favorite to land the broadcasts. It remains to be seen if "TNF" would be split into another package, but that's not about to happen anytime soon.

NBC Sports Network also swung & missed trying to land the rights to 2 major college conferences. First, they had a reported $225 million offer on the table to land the rights to Pac 12 football & basketball. All of a sudden, the folks from ESPN & FOX Sports came out of nowhere and offered a whopping $3 billion, 12 year combined deal to air Pac 12 football & basketball on their respective outlets. ESPN & FOX are paying $250 million a year to carry the Pac 12.

Now, just when it appeared as if NBCSN would wrestle away the rights to the Big East, ESPN this week agreed to a 7-year, $130 million extension to continue as the primary carrier of that conference's football & basketball packages through 2019-20.

NBC Sports Network's issues dig even deeper than that. The ratings have been awful, especially during the NHL lockout when the channel was hard-pressed to find programming to fill a lot of airtime. NBCSN's overall struggles can be found here:

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/feb ... art-i.html

When you add English Premier League Soccer, Formula 1, and the Tour de France to their stable of hockey, Patriot League hoops, and the Olympics this is definitely the whitest network ever to be on the air.

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I think NBC Sports Network's issues dig deeper than that. Ratings have been awful, and until recently, the channel wasn't necessarily where fans could find it on their cable or satellite provider.

Really SHARK? You believe programming a sports network around fringe sports that a small percentage of American's actually watch would be a problematic strategy? Tell me more. Additionally did you see that NBC got beat in Februrary sweeps by Univision?

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I did see that...

Shark,
Funny you should start this thread. I was just going through my channels the other day and found it. I forgot it even existed.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Is David Hernandez involved in this?