• by Wayne Friedman , January 24, 2011

With Comcast adding many TV sports properties to the NBC Universal mix in its soon-to-be-closed merger, NBC is starting up a new in-house ad/marketing agency devoted to sports.

The NBC Sports Agency will be run by John Miller, chief marketing officer of NBC Universal Television Group, who last year announced he would transition into semi-retirement.

Much like The NBC Agency, which was co-founded by Miller and Vince Manze in the late 1990s to handle marketing and advertising for its entertainment brands and cable networks, the new sports group will target all marketing and media materials for its sports TV brands.

In addition to NBC Sports efforts, Comcast-owned TV sports networks include Versus and The Golf Channel, among others.

NBC Sports has recently produced campaigns for partners such as the United States Olympic Committee, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League, as well as collaborating with Procter & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, Mercedes, Target, Sears, Coors, DirecTV, and Papa John's.

Miller has worked at NBC for three decades. In 2004, he took the title of chief marketing officer. Last year, when he reduced his workload, he left much of the day-to-day marketing responsibilities to Adam Stotsky, president of NBC Entertainment.

Along with establishing the new division, Miller is relocating from Los Angeles back to New York, where the sports ad group will be based.