Nbc Sports

London, ho! Two Philadelphia-based companies will be seeking gold-medal performances at the Summer Olympics: food vendor Aramark and media giant Comcast Corp., whose NBC Sports division holds the U.S. broadcast rights. Officials from both companies spoke last week about the Games, scheduled for July 27 through Aug. 12, at a meeting hosted by the British American Business Council of Greater Philadelphia at the Cira Centre. It kicked off the fanfare for the global event, which Nick McInnes, a deputy consul-general with the British Consulate, said could generate $35 billion in economic activity.

The Colonial Athletic Association, home of Drexel basketball and Villanova football, reached a TV agreement on Monday with NBC Sports, according to a league announcement. The agreement begins in the fall of this year and runs through the spring of 2017. Men's and women's basketball games, as well as football games, will be televised on the NBC Sports Network - formerly Versus - as well as on Comcast SportsNet regional channels. The CAA is the first college sports conference to sign with NBC Sports Network since it launched on Jan. 2. - Inquirer staff

NBC Sports, now owned by Comcast Corp., has sold a record $250 million in advertising for Sunday's Super Bowl game and is hoping that audience spillover from the big game will boost two prime-time shows, The Voice and Smash . The best scenario for NBC would be a nail-biter Super Bowl that draws a big audience, delivering for sponsors who shelled out an average $3.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Experts say more than 100 million homes could tune in. "They will do very well with the Super Bowl.

It's showtime for the new head of NBC Sports, Mark Lazarus, and programming executive Jon Miller on the 15th floor in Rockefeller Center. After Monday's televised Winter Classic - the Rangers-vs.-Flyers NHL game at Citizens Bank Park - the also-ran Versus 24-hour sports channel that never lived up to its ratings expectations under Comcast Corp.'s ownership will be rebooted as the around-the-clock cable outlet NBC Sports Network. A national sports channel was one of the economic justifications for the $30 billion marriage of Comcast and NBC Universal Inc. in 2010, which combined the cable distribution power of Comcast, whose cable lines pass about 50 million homes, with the artistry and sports legacy of NBC-TV.

Connecticut has agreed to provide a $20 million loan and other incentives as economic sweeteners for NBC Sports to consolidate its operations in Stamford. NBC Sports will relocate business functions in Philadelphia and New York to a 32-acre site. The project is expected to create 450 jobs. The Versus sports cable channel and the administrative headquarters for the Comcast regional sports networks, both located in Philadelphia, will relocate to Stamford. - Bob Fernandez

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is expected to announce on Tuesday that NBC Sports will consolidate its Philadelphia and New York operations into Stamford. Consolidating the Comcast Corp. regional sports headquarters and the Versus cable operations could cost Philadelphia more than 100 jobs, according to estimates. Operations for the local Comcast SportsNet, which airs the Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers games, are expected to remain in the city. NBCUniversal officials declined to comment and Malloy has scheduled a news conference at 11 a.m., with announcement headlined: "Gov.

Even without Tiger Woods dominating golf, the PGA Tour announced Thursday its longest network television deal in history that secures broadcast rights for the next 10 years. The tour agreed to a nine-year deal with CBS Sports and NBC Sports. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem did not disclose financial terms, although he said there was an increase in the rights fee and players would see modest advances in prize money. And that's without any assurance that Woods - golf's biggest television draw - could get back to the top of his game.

Versus is history. NBCUniversal announced Monday that it is renaming Versus, Comcast's ratings-challenged 24-hour sports channel, the NBC Sports Network in January 2012.. Versus has had major operations at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia but is now under the control of NBC Sports in New York. The goal of the Versus name change - and other changes expected to be announced in the coming months - is to make the sports channel more popular with fans so that Comcast can charge higher per-subscriber fees for it. As part of the overhaul, NBC says the cable channel's broadcasting style and presentation will parallel that of NBC Sports' by emphasizing storytelling and profiles of athletes.

Rafael Nadal, the hard-hitting Spaniard, wasn't the only one to lose at Wimbledon on Sunday. Comcast/NBCU was aced for the rights to the most prestigious tennis championship for the next 12 years, losing out to cable sports giant ESPN. The deal ends NBC's 43-year history broadcasting Wimbledon from the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and consolidates the broadcast-TV and cable-TV rights under one organization - ESPN, which will carry the men's and women's matches.