• Businessweek, Monday, October 12, 2009 10:30 AM

As Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts considers a deal to take majority control of NBC Universal, people who know him say he is most interested in NBC's sports assets. NBC controls the rights through 2012 for the Olympics and through 2013 for Sunday night National Football League games.

With NBC's high-end sports, Roberts could build Comcast's smallish Versus sports channel into a bigger player. And with the NFL as a partner, Roberts could pressure the league to cut him a more robust deal to carry more football games.

With NBC, Roberts will "have effectively created a potent competitor to ESPN," says Neal Pilson, a former CBS sports executive. Pilson figures Comcast will use NBC Sports' national platform to complement its 11 regional sports networks, which include major markets such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Throw in Comcast's Golf Channel and Versus, and the new entity clearly would be a serious challenger to ESPN.

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