VERSUS Could Potentially Air Notre Dame Football as Part of Comcast-Universal Merger
TMC
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has a must-read column in
today’s edition, in which he talks a lot about what a purchase of NBC
Universal would do for Comcast. Here’s the most interesting potential
note:
But Comcast also has its sights set on Notre Dame football. Sources
said NBC’s deal with the Fighting Irish has a clause that allows a
certain number of games to migrate to cable. Versus would be a natural
place to house those games.
Versus also could have the right to re-air NBC’s Notre Dame games. And
it could roll out pre- and postgame shows around them. In June 2008,
NBC signed a five-year extension for Notre Dame’s home football games,
a deal that extends through the 2015 season.
Adding some Notre Dame to the Mountain West and low-level Pac-10/Big
12/Ivy League games VERSUS currently presence would mean big things
for the network as a brand in general.