In some news that is not MMA-related but could have an impact on the sport, NBC’s Dick Ebersol stepped down as head of NBC Sports on Thursday.
According to the Associated Press, Ebersol was in a contract dispute with his new bosses at Comcast.
In a report from back in 2009, MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiappetta talked about Ebersol’s lack of interest in pursuing MMA for NBC.
Ebersol, who has run NBC’s sports division since 1989, has at least historically not been a fan of mixed martial arts.
I worked at NBC Sports from 2006 to early 2009. During that time, there were at least a handful of sports executives that had interest in exploring the idea of putting MMA on the air. Ebersol, however, was not one of them. Eventually, however, Strikeforce inked a deal to broadcast MMA on late-night Saturdays, but the deal was brokered through the NBC Entertainment division, not NBC Sports.
Shortly afterward, I asked a high-ranking NBC Sports executive why the deal was approached in that regard. He explained that it was Ebersol’s preference not to broadcast MMA under the NBC Sports banner. Though not explicitly stated, the inference was that he considered the sport too low-brow for NBC Sports standards. It was hardly surprising; most of NBC Sports’ offerings veer to the traditional and genteel side, such as golf, tennis, Notre Dame football and the Olympics.
Now, with MMA having evolved into a major player in the sports scene and NBC working toward making Versus more of an NBC Sports channel, this could open the door for one of the major networks to strike a deal with the UFC or Zuffa.
While it has yet to be seen if the new head of NBC Sports will be on the MMA bandwagon, one would think NBC will be looking to secure something big in the future due to its lack of having any association with the NBA, MLB, or NASCAR.
