Sport and Cinema.com

With the flurry of programming announcements from NBC at the Television Critics Association (TCA) conference in Los Angeles touting mostly new dramatic, comedic and reality series, perhaps the most important was revealing plans for the highest rated prime time show in all of television, Sunday Night Football and using the powerful platform of Super Bowl XLVI to promote its new shows.

According to an Associated Press report, NBC, bidding against ESPN/ABC and Fox, has retained the U.S. Olympic television rights in a four-games deal through 2020 worth more than $4 billion.

Two traditional hockey towns, Boston and Vancouver, face each other beginning Wednesday in the 2011 Stanley Cup both with high hopes of bringing the NHL crown back home.

The road to Super Bowl XLV in Dallas gets more treacherous as the league enters the playoffs where it is lose and you’re done time. No rest for the weary (except for those that earned a bye – Steelers, Patriots, Bears and Falcons, but as recent history has proven the higher seeds aren’t locks for a Super Bowl berth.)

The Olympic Games have traditionally been a ratings bonanza for American televison networks and they still are. Correspondingly the astronomical rights fees have reflected broadcasters’ level of interest in securing them. But the times, they are a changin’. As the future rights fees are not likely to reach such heights.
(see chart below)