U.S. Figure Skating has extended and expanded its media rights agreement with the NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal.
The new deal provides NBC Sports with exclusive media rights to leading domestic and international figure skating events through 2026.
Each season during the partnership, NBC Sports will present an unprecedented 80-plus hours of coverage, including 30-plus hours of figure skating coverage on the NBC network, with an additional 50-plus hours airing on cable network NBCSN.
In addition, original programming plus repeats of NBC and NBCSN figure skating coverage will be presented on the Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA. Coverage will showcase the U.S. Figure Skating Championships; the International Skating Union’s Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, including Skate America; ISU World Championships; ISU Four Continents Championships; the European Championships and the World Team Trophy.
Building on U.S. Figure Skating’s current relationship with NBC Sports that began with the 2007-08 season, the U.S. Championships will continue to receive live weekend coverage of all four discipline finals on NBC, including three hours of primetime coverage on the network.
In total, NBC will carry 10 hours from the U.S. Championships, including the Skating Spectacular, while NBCSN will provide extensive coverage of the event’s short programs earlier in the week.
With the new agreement between U.S. Figure Skating and NBC Sports, the governing body will sell the national commercial media inventory across NBC and NBCSN for the figure skating competitions covered by the agreement.
In addition, as part of the agreement, NBCSN will carry four hours of coverage of ISU Speed Skating and Short Track Speed Skating World Championship events.
Sam Auxier, U.S. Figure Skating president, said: “The opportunity for us to not only continue, but to expand upon our strong relationship with NBCUniversal, the US media home of the Olympic Games, is one that makes complete sense for our organisation.
“Ensuring that domestic and international figure skating events have maximum exposure is a priority to us and this new agreement will have a lasting positive impact on our ability to develop figure skating at every level in the United States.”