CNBC Sport: Versant CEO Mark Lazarus outlines his sports strategy
Comcast's spinoff of most of NBCUniversal's cable portfolio has a new name – Versant. This week, I had a chance to speak to the new company's Chief Executive Officer, Mark Lazarus. "Laz," as he's known colloquially, replaced Dick Ebersol as chairman of NBC Sports in 2011. Before that, he was president of Turner Sports. More recently, he's been chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, overseeing the company's TV and streaming platforms.
Now Laz will have a chance at running a publicly traded company that consists of cable networks including USA, CNBC, Golf Channel and MSNBC, among others. The company plans to begin trading separately from Comcast before the end of the year.
Versant will have its own sports strategy, including bidding on live sports to add to its current portfolio. Lazarus told me in an exclusive interview he's already held talks with both the National Women's Soccer League and Major League Baseball about potentially acquiring live game rights. The NWSL has a package of games it's currently shopping and could add a fifth media partner to its existing roster of CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and Scripps Sports (ION).
For baseball, it's unlikely Versant has the financial firepower to compete for the Sunday Night package recently vacated for next season by ESPN, but MLB controls the rights to many games through its out-of-market streaming service, MLB.TV, and its pay-TV add-on service Extra Innings. MLB hived off some of these games to Roku for $10 million per year last year. MLB also has national deals with Apple TV+, Turner Sports and Fox. Local deals are primarily spread out among regional sports networks, although Amazon owns the exclusive rights to some New York Yankees games.
"We're looking for sports deals that drive distribution, diversify ad sales and have a value," said Lazarus.
The CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media, delivered weekly to your inbox.
Subscribe here to get access today.
Getting a small package of games for USA Network could help boost Versant's future distribution conversations with pay-TV providers. For MLB, carving out a chunk of games for USA Network can help improve the league's reach. Lazarus said he'll examine all sorts of live rights as they come available, provided they can boost distribution revenue as pay-TV carriage renewals arise.
"We have a pretty good sports portfolio," Lazarus said. "We're not going to be in the NFL business. We're not going to be in the Big Ten business, because that stuff's all spoken for. But we'll be with the next-level stuff."
USA already airs English Premier League games in the U.S. in addition to NASCAR, certain golf events (including two majors – the U.S. Open and the British Open) and WWE's "Smackdown."
USA will also get WNBA games as part of NBCUniversal's new deal with the NBA, beginning next season. Lazarus shared with me that the WNBA commitment is actually greater than the initial agreement with the league. USA Network will have Wednesday night doubleheaders beginning next season.
The Olympics will continue to air on all of the cable networks that have long been part of NBCUniversal's broader deal – including CNBC (hello curling!). Golf Channel already airs many live tournaments, including The Ryder Cup, and "golf will be an important vertical for us, and we'll continue to invest in the golf industry," Lazarus said.
Sixty-five percent of Versant's programming is live, either through news or sports, Lazarus told me. Versant will be cut loose from NBCUniversal and will have to showcase the value of its content on its own, no longer able to link itself to NBC's broadcast network, which owns the rights to the NBA, the NFL's "Sunday Night Football" and many other leagues.
But that won't happen overnight: Versant will have about a two-year grace period, as nearly every major TV distribution deal is locked down until 2027, with the bulk coming up for renewal in 2028.
With annual revenue of roughly $7 billion, Versant won't be able to compete for the top sports rights against behemoths like Disney, Netflix and Amazon. But the company's sports strategy is very important to the future of the company, given its importance with distributors. Lazarus recently announced three significant sports executive hires: Matt Hong as President of Sports, Jeff Behnke as Executive Producer and Senior Vice President of Sports Production, and Roy Cho as President of Distribution and Partnerships.
One sport Lazarus said he won't be bidding on is F1. Those rights are currently in market, but Lazarus told me he doesn't think the racing league will move the needle on distribution deals, noting ratings are about one-third of NASCAR's.
One more detail Lazarus shared with me is post spinoff, Versant will have a negotiated promotional deal with NBCUniversal where programming is marketed between the two companies' networks and digital properties. There will be no money exchanged in the deal, but the marketing value will be equal. This goes beyond sports, but given there are far more eyeballs on NBC than on the cable networks, this works to Versant's advantage.
With Jason Wright, the managing partner and head of investments at Ariel Project Level ...
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
25 minutes ago
- CBS News
Sacramento City Council approves revised $1.6 million city budget
Sacramento city leaders have reached the culmination of a months-long process, voting to pass a revised $1.6 billion city budget and close a $62 million funding gap. In the revised budget, the City of Sacramento says it will not lay off any city employees. Though funding for vacant positions was cut, the mayor says no one is out of a job. "We adopted our budget, which was the number one thing cities must do every year. We had to make some tough decisions but by and large, residents won't see any major impacts in their communities," Mayor Kevin McCarty told CBS Sacramento after the vote. " We didn't adversely cut public safety funding from police and fire. The budget also restores money for youth violence prevention funding. However, ahead of the vote, what we heard in public comment was frustration and doubt from most of the public speakers who said the budget doesn't have enough money for the community or youth. Councilmembers Lisa Kaplan and Mai Vange opposed the revised budget. "I don't think we are doing what we need to do to be readily transparent, implement our values, and show a two-year budget when we know the minute this passes, which I know this will, that we are already $60 million in the hole," Kaplan said ahead of the vote. The mayor added that the council will be back to address a deficit next year, saying that the problems aren't over.
Washington Post
32 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Manny Machado's 5 RBIs lead Padres' 11-1 rout of pitching-poor Dodgers
SAN DIEGO — Manny Machado had three hits and drove in five runs, Luis Arraez had three hits and scored four times, and the San Diego Padres capitalized on the Los Angeles Dodgers' lack of major league pitchers for an 11-1 victory Tuesday night. Dylan Cease (2-5) struck out 11 and yielded three hits over seven scoreless innings while ending his 11-start winless streak for the Padres, who dominated a bizarre game in this rivalry series.
Washington Post
32 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Higashioka has 5 RBIs, Carter and Langford each homer as Rangers beat Twins 16-4
MINNEAPOLIS — Kyle Higashioka had a season-high five RBIs, Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford hit home runs and the Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins 16-4 on Tuesday night. Carter finished with three hits, three RBIs and scored four times for the Rangers, who had 17 hits. Jake Burger reached safely and advanced to second on a fielding error to lead off the fourth inning and scored on a double by Adolis García. Higashioka followed with a two-run single that gave Texas a 3-0 lead. The Rangers scored five runs with two outs in the fifth and Carter's two-run shot made it 10-3 in the sixth. Tyler Mahle (6-3) gave up four runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings. Ty France and Royce Lewis hit back-to-back RBI singles in the fourth. Trevor Larnach hit a two-out double and Ryan Jeffers followed with an RBI single in the fifth and Matt Wallner hit a leadoff homer in the sixth. Langford's leadoff homer sparked a six-run eighth that made it 16-4. France has reached base safely in a career-high 21 consecutive games and is hitting .329 (26 for 79) with 15 RBIs during that span. The Rangers are 3-4 on their nine-game road trip but have lost 13 of 20 overall. Corey Seager led off the fifth with a walk and advanced to second on a single by Carter, who moved to second on a wild pitch by starter Simeon Woods Richardson (2-3). Josh Jung hit a two-run single and García doubled before Higashioka added a two-RBI double and scored on a single by Josh Smith. Texas has won three consecutive road games for the first time this season. Jack Leiter (4-2, 3.48 ERA) is scheduled to start Wednesday against Minnesota's David Festa (0-1, 5.40 ERA) in the second of a three-game series. ___ AP MLB:
