Last week, Jabari Young and Alex Sherman of CNBC reported that NBC Sports Network will shut down by the end of 2021. It marks off a decade of rebrands of the channel since the 1990s, when it was first known as Outdoor Life Network and then Versus in 2006. NBC Sports Network was known by its current name since 2011.
NBCSN’s biggest broadcasting rights include NHL games, NASCAR races and English Premier League soccer games. These games are now moving to USA, which is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC Sports Network.
In Young’s and Sherman’s release, the decision to shut down NBC Sports Network is because of a combination of cord cutting in the cable television space as well as the network not gaining ground or at least enough of it against other competitors like ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and CBS Sports Network.