9
Creative Dealmaking
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
NBC was between a rock and a hard place. It was 1998, and they had no professional football in their lineup. After vowing not to sign any more sports rights deals that would leave them in the red, they were on the outside looking in. “We made a cold, calculated decision that the losses were intolerable,” said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports.1
The call made financial sense, but it hurt. NBC pioneered the first televised National Football League game in 1939. It televised the first Super Bowl. Now the once-dominant peacock was sorely missing an anchor to promote its new fall shows. Seven years after the network opted out, the NFL put up for bid a new six-year contract for Sunday Night Football ...
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