Ebersol Out at NBC Sports

Reported first by The New York Times, head of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol, has decided to resign.  Ebersol, who has run NBC Sports since the late-80s was unable to agree to terms on a new contract with new management as he negotiated his first deal since the merger of NBC and Comcast.  His decision is curious because Ebersol was widely-expected to wield even greater power with the merger of the two titans, especially because many of the executives at the post-merger department are holdovers from NBC Sports. 

This is germane to Sochi how, exactly?  Well, I know a thing or two about burying a lead but the real story here is that this comes just weeks before the IOC auctions off the rights to broadcast the Sochi Olympics.  Networks can bid on Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 or a package deal that would include those two plus the 2018 and 2020 Games, which have yet to be awarded (you can see the status of 2018 bids on the invaluable www.gamesbids.com).  NBC has broadcast the Summer Games since Seoul in 1988 and the Winter Games since 2002 in Salt Lake.   As ESPN reports, the IOC is looking to exceed the $2.2 billion they got from NBC in the last deal.

Interesting stuff, if for no other reason than Dick Ebersol has had as big an impact on the way sports are presented than anyone not named Roone Arledge (the guy who thought up Monday Night Football).  NBC now presents the Olympics on about 37 channels domestically (give or take) and shows more live coverage than ever before.  In fact, as renaissance man Peter Uberroth notes in that ESPN story, Ebersol has defined the Olympic Movement over the last 30 years as much as anybody.  In fact, I would say that he's had an impact that is surpassed only by former IOC director Juan Antonio Samaranch's. 

As NBC's impact on sports in the US has receded over the last decade or so (really, other than Sunday Night Football, name an NBC Sports broadcast you watch), they really hitched their wagon to the Olympic brand.  Interesting to see how it turns out for NBC...