Broadcast giant Comcast’s Monday announcement that it plans to spin off NBCUniversal could have a disastrous impact on Notre Dame football in the long run. The division, which might now be up for sale to the highest bidder, or parts of it could be, includes the Universal movie studio, the European media arm Sky, the streaming service Peacock, and NBC. That’s where the Fighting Irish are unfortunately involved.
As Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing pointed out shortly after the spinoff news, NBCUniversal’s splitting away “will have huge implications for sports media.” NBC owns a massive portfolio of sports rights, including the NFL, NBA, Olympics, Kentucky Derby, PGA Tour, and college football. They also own the broadcast rights for Notre Dame, and that ownership has allowed the Irish to remain independent and outside a conference.
At first glance, it would appear Notre Dame is relatively safe since it would almost certainly be one of the more popular aspects of any sale of sports rights. However, there are some unintended consequences depending on just who might swoop in and buy NBCUniversal and any or all of its holdings.
The first side effect of any new buyer could be that after the sale, whoever ends up with the rights to the Fighting Irish home games will be cash-strapped. There’s no guarantee that if another entity takes over, it will be willing to spend the same amount of money - or anywhere close to the same amount of money - in the next contract.
Comcast spinoff could create long-term questions for Notre Dame football and NBC
A refusal to understand the need to increase the money on the table as time ticks by, or worse yet to reduce it, could end up being the straw that broke Pete Bevacqua’s back and forces him to explore the football program joining a conference. Cash is king more than ever before in college football. If anything were to make it more difficult for Notre Dame to keep up with the Power 4s in spending the way it is now, it could indeed be disastrous for the very identity of the program.
Even if the Irish stay home and stay with NBC, there are still money issues that could spark up. The network also has rights to the NFL,, but if part of NBCU is sold, the NFL has the right to open broadcast rights deals. That could cause a massive increase in the money needed to keep the pro league in-house. Should that money be big enough, could it be so much that once again, cost-cutting spills over to South Bend?
To be fair, there’s a better-than-average chance that whoever buys or keeps any sports rights will understand just how valuable having Notre Dame under their umbrella is. The Comcast spinoff could have almost no effect at all. But even a minor change, such as the Irish moving to a streaming-only platform like Amazon Video, would still almost certainly be a net negative for the football program.
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