Dick Ebersol — one of the most powerful and innovative broadcast sports executives — resigned Thursday after 22 years as the head of NBC Sports. Mark Lazarus, who is currently president of NBC Sports Cable Group, will become the new chairman of the NBC Sports Group.
Ebersol’s retirement comes at an interesting time. The International Olympic Committee will meet in Lausanne, Switzerland during the first week of June to open the bidding for the rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It could also be possible that the IOC would be willing to offer up the broadcast rights for the 2018 and 2020 Olympics — which cities have yet to be chosen.
It has been thought that NBC and ESPN were locked in a real battle, with Fox also expected to be involved in the bidding. Rumors are running rampant that without Ebersol, ESPN is now the favorite. But I would not count out either NBC or Fox. Both have deep pockets and the IOC will likely make this very interesting.
As for his retirement Ebersol, he has held the title of chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics. He oversaw all aspects of the network’s recent transition from NBC Universal to Comcast, which has now been branded the NBC Sports Group.
He made sure that NBC rebranded their extensive golf coverage as “The Golf Channel on NBC,” making Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller seen on the cable coverage, as well as their usual weekend network coverage.
The new NHL deal that Ebersol helped craft keeps Versus as the home of hockey — a 10-year, $2 billion deal — that will be in place at the beginning of the 2011-2012 season.
He returned the NFL to the network and “NBC Sunday Football” adopted the new flex scheduling that allows for the changing of nationally televised games later in the season. It made the new NBC franchise a ratings monster each and every Sunday night.
But it was the Olympics where Ebersol shined. He worked closely with the Olympics for decades, learning under Roone Arlidge at ABC before heading to NBC.
Ebersol really built on Arlidge’s concept of using personalities to drive the Olympics and making it more than a sporting event so viewers care about the athletes that they are watching. It was a formula that brought the casual fan and families to NBC telecasts and made stars out of people like Michael Phelps and Shaun White.
No matter what venture, Ebersol never disappointed.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
