NBCU CEO Steve Burke wants to make his company a bigger player in sports programming—and he’s hoping that sports network could become a rival to Walt Disney’s ESPN. NBCU currently has rights to the NHL, NFL Sunday Night Football, and the 2012 Olympics, but Versus is a lightweight in the sports field. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Burke is trying to gain rights to college sports and negotiate new contracts with the NHL and the Olympics that would allow NBCU to split programming between broadcast and cable TV.
The first deal that Burke plans to go after is for rights to the Pac-12 college sports conference, which includes football, basketball, and other sports from Western schools.
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