Versant, the US cable TV operator that is set to be spun off from media giant NBCUniversal in early 2026, has established a sports division to house its rights.
USA Sports will serve as the umbrella business division and consumer-facing brand that covers Versant’s burgeoning sports portfolio, including soccer’s English Premier League, golf’s PGA and LPGA tours, motor racing’s NASCAR, basketball’s WNBA, and professional wrestling’s WWE.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
In total, USA Sports represents over 10,000 hours of content each year between event coverage, shoulder programming, and ancillary content.
Most of this content will be disseminated on the USA Network linear channel and the Golf Channel sport-specific offering.
The unit will be headed by Matt Hong, who was appointed to lead Versant’s sports operations earlier in 2025.
Speaking on the announcement, Hong said: “Our new USA Sports brand and division name leans into USA Network’s decades-long reputation as a top national sports and entertainment network.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“Our diverse portfolio of sports properties and programming across our platforms highlights top-tier global leagues and amplifies major events throughout the sports landscape.”
Mark Lazarus, who will be chief executive of Versant upon completion of the spin-off, has said that it is targeting the capture of more sports media rights upon the completion of the spin-off later in 2025.
Lazarus, who had been chair of the NBC Sports business unit since 2011 before the spin-off, told CNBC (one of the linear networks that will be part of Versant) that he has been in contact with major US sports properties such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) about potentially acquiring rights packages for game broadcasts.
Back in May, commented: “We have a pretty good sports portfolio. We’re looking for sports deals that drive distribution, diversify ad sales, and have a value.
“We’re not going to be in the NFL business. We’re not going to be in the Big Ten business, because that stuff’s all spoken for. But we’ll be with the next-level stuff.”
The collection of Versant networks, which also includes the entertainment channels Oxygen, E!, and SYFY, collectively made around $7 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year (October 2023-September 2024), and are all still profitable; however, this move is likely an effort by Comcast to preempt their declining popularity by making them easier to sell off individually.
This spin-off stemmed from the emergence of Peacock as a home for NBCUniversal’s sports rights, combined with the trend of cord-cutting among US consumers looking to eschew costly cable TV packages in favor of cheap yet weighty OTT services.
