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NBC had the rights to the two-day horse racing series from its start in 1984 until 2005. As part of the new deal, the main event, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, will run in primetime on the network on the East Coast — a first. Friday and Saturday’s other coverage is set for NBC Sports Network, recently rebranded from Versus. The pact reaffirms the network’s commitment to the sport, after it aired all three Triple Crown races last year for the first time since 2005. From the release:
NEW YORK – January 23, 2012 – The Breeders’ Cup and the NBC Sports Group today announced a multi-year media rights partnership beginning with the 2012 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, November 2-3, from Santa Anita Park, featuring the first-ever running of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic in primetime. The agreement was announced by Craig Fravel, Breeders’ Cup Limited President and CEO, and Jon Miller, President of Programming, NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network. NBC and NBC Sports Network will combine to present 9 ½ hours of live coverage of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., including live primetime coverage of the Breeders’ Cup Classic on NBC on Saturday, Nov. 3 (8-9 p.m. ET). This marks the first time in its history that the Classic is broadcast live in primetime. The Breeders’ Cup returns to NBC where it was broadcast from its inception in 1984 through 2005. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
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Seems NBC woke up to the fact that the Horse Racing Demo is a monied crowd that advertisers want to reach.
Maybe Versus going NBC is not so bad.
I hope this will push NBC to go after races like the Pacific Classic, Arlington Million, Santa Anita Derby, Florida Derby, Arkansas Derby, Hollywood Gold cup, Haskell Handicap etc…; and get them away from ESPN.
Does NBC have a death wish?
Horse racing has no future in this country. None!
I have a feeling they think that because of the HBO show with Dustin Hoffman it will get a boost.
Wrong. It only had traction when all other forms of gambling were illegal. With casinos everywhere, it will soon disappear except for a few tracks in NYC & Kentucky.
And what if a horse breaks down in prime time?
Are they going to show it getting shot to put it out of its misery?
Hopefully this is a good thing. The Breeders Cup is one of the most exciting events in sports if marketed properly
Hopefully NBC will be able to build around the event.
HOrse racing may just turn out to be this years Pirates.
At least they took it away from the greedy stalwarts of ESPN and hoping NBC Sports network beats ESPN at their own game one day…they need to start slow and then as the deals expire for the many sports-related programming, slowly but surely NBC Sports can pick it off from ESPn and maybe ESPN can come back down onto earth and realize they need competition and bring ABC Sports back to its glory days once again and not this nonsense of ESPN on ABC drivel.