The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has extended its rights deals with the NBC Sports Group division of media company NBCUniversal and Universal Sports Network, a subsidiary of the NBC network.
USSA’s partnership with NBC Sports, which began in 1998, now extends through 2019, including the 2017 FIS Ski World Cup Finals in Aspen, Colorado and the 2019 World Championships in snowboarding, freeskiing and freestyle at Park City, Utah.
Universal Sports Network’s extended partnership with USSA includes rights to select domestic USSA events and the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Both of the agreements comprise rights over the next five years.
USSA said the new deals will result in the largest coverage plan ever for the 2014-15 US ski and snowboarding season, highlighted by the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at Vail/Beaver Creek.
NBC will broadcast 18 hours of USSA coverage this season, the most ever for the network. NBCSN will televise 29 hours, while Universal Sports will present 22 hours of the 2014-15 USSA season, plus its global World Cup schedule.
Highlighting the partnership is a record 30 hours of live coverage across the three networks for the 2015 Alpine World Ski Championships, including live coverage of every event for the first time in history. The coverage will showcase US ski team Olympic champions like Ted Ligety, Bode Miller (pictured), Julia Mancuso, Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn.
NBC Sports Live Extra – NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices and tablets – will stream all programming that airs on NBC and NBCSN as well as select events not airing live on NBC or NBCSN. UniversalSports.com will live stream all programming that airs on Universal Sports in addition to other select USSA events.
Michael Jaquet, chief marketing officer for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, said: “This is a game-changing deal for the USSA, coming on the heels of a 20 per cent increase in ratings last season. We now have a great partnership for the next five years that delivers more content to more viewers than ever before in the history of our sports. Our partners at NBC Sports and Universal Sports are heavily invested in the success of our Olympic medallists in a new deal that benefits us at USSA, but most of all the fans of skiing and snowboarding.”