• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

After forging a new, multi-year NBA deal -- and shutting down its NBCSN (NBC Sports Network) four years ago -- NBCUniversal is restarting the sports network this fall.

The network will feature Big Ten Conference college athletics, NBA games (from its new NBA TV deal), college football and NWSL women's soccer.

YouTube TV will be one of its first distribution launch partners, along with sister cable system service Xfinity TV, owned by NBCU’s parent company Comcast Corp.

The deal was announced at the same time NBCU and YouTube TV announced a renewal of their carriage deal -- after some public disputes between the two companies.

The previous carriage deal ended on September 30, and the two sides have been operating under a short-term extension of that deal.

This comes as the industry has seen an accelerated rise in interest among consumers -- and advertisers -- especially with live, linear TV programming.

The YouTube/NBCU carriage deal also includes four renewed agreements with its regional sports: NBC Sports Bay Area, NBC Sports California, NBC Sports Boston, and NBC Sports Philadelphia.

In recent years, YouTube TV dropped other RSN groups due to high costs and low consumer subscription purchases of those networks. This includes Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group (Bally Sports-branded networks), New England Sports Network, and SNY (SportsNet New York).

Last month it dropped Monumental Sports Network, which affected the Washington, D.C area.

NBCSN was originally closed down in 2021 due to overall cable TV consumer cord-cutting at that time -- as well as a lack of new, additional high-profile sports TV programming at the network.