NBCUniversal's efforts around its "Legendary February" sports-intensive month have TV Watch mulling the future of sports -- in prime time.
What if sports becomes even more
common -- on a daily basis -- within a network’s traditional mix of entertainment, news and sports programming?
On February 8, NBC and its streamer Peacock will begin its more than
two-week coverage of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics starting at 7 a.m. ET.
Then around noon, NBC/Peacock will air the Super Bowl -- the longtime reigning annual champion when it comes to a
single program airing every year, with around 120 million Nielsen-measured viewers.
The game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots is a rematch of sorts of its Super Bowl
game back in 2015.
The following weekend -- starting February 15, for the first time in 20 years -- NBC will produce the NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.
Its big promotional
"Legendary" month comes as NBC has continued to load up
on other sports year round -- with Big Ten football and basketball, Notre Dame Football, Big East basketball, Big 12 basketball, Premier League, and golf. Later this year WNBA starts up for the first
time, and Major League Baseball.
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Other networks such as Fox have been doing this as well -- with NFL football, Major League Baseball and many other sports leagues and content.
Sports
are estimated to comprise roughly 28% of Fox's overall prime-time telecasts, according to MoffettNathanson Research.
Looking at a broader view, sports content comprises only about 3% of the
total hours that broadcast networks air, according to Nielsen.
But it makes up much more of overall viewing. For example, in November 2025, sports comprised 37% of all broadcast viewing, per
Nielsen's The Gauge measure, largely due to NFL, MLB World Series games and college football.
So going forward, can legacy broadcast networks add even more --- perhaps airing valuable
live regular sports content in prime time everyday?
This would continue to run alongside what remains of its mostly non-live entertainment TV shows.
Looking two or three years down the
line, one can imagine that despite still limited reach, TV networks streaming platforms will have growing strength.
Why not yield to that direction -- at least to an extent?
TV
networks like NBC will still want to run new shows like “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago PD” to get the promotional appeal (for airings on Peacock, for
example) and higher-priced legacy TV advertising revenue.
Imagine just a few years from now: Does this mean at least a regular time slot, say 8 p.m. in the evening, featuring some live sports
content -- major, minor, or unusual?
How much else can TV networks add to sports content and change the dynamics of what prime time has traditionally meant?