NBC is extending Notre Dame’s exclusive television contract for five more years.
The contract, which was set to expire in 2010, is extended to 2015 and calls for 7 home games and 1 neutral site game per season aired on NBC.
Notre Dame football is the only team in American sports with an exclusive, national television contract (unless you count Duke basketball on ESPN).
Unfortunately, there is no mention of when or if Tom Hammond and Pat Haden will be replaced as announcers.
This news may come as a shock to the thousands of irate and screaming college football fans, and one notable SIMPian, who claim that Notre Dame’s ratings have declined and that NBC was chomping at the bit to end the contract.
5 Comments until now
This should be interesting see how it plays out, and would also be curious to the terms of the deal (did NBC lock in cheap?)
NBC makes it *very* clear that Notre Dame being in the Top 10 is very important to the success of the arrangement. I’m surprised at NBC’s confidence that ND will return to that stature quickly and maintain that for many years.
Only time will tell how good or bad of a deal this is.
If you look at ND’s roster, they are in the best position in terms of talent, balance, and depth they have been in over a decade.
I know I’m biased, but ND looks primed for a 7-9 win season this year and a National Championship run in 2010 and 2011.
NBC chose wisely . . .
Well, at least Duke bball IS number one!
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology
hahaha… how ridiculously early can these things come out?! at the same time, now that the Nibba is done for the year, it lends additional creedence to my ‘Bring On College Bball Season’ comment from yesterday!
http://www.snakesinmypants.com/2008/06/18/the-best-defense-ive-seen-in-my-time-in-the-nba/#comment-13634
Again, only time will tell. Remember, its only been 5 years and 5 months since Ty Willingham finished a 10-2 season. There have been three seasons at or below .500 since…
Hey Mike, who is the “notable SIMPian, who claim that Notre Dame’s ratings have declined and that NBC was chomping at the bit to end the contract”? It’s a fact that Notre Dame’s ratings have declined and NBC had to financially compensate advertisers, but there’s never been any indication that NBC wants to end the deal. They don’t have a major conference deal to replace it. The other major conferences including the ACC have long-term deals with ESPN-ABC, plus Thursday night college football. Unless NBC sports does something radical, they need each other.
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