Broadcast is not fading away, according to Jon Miller. It is getting stronger, he said, even as streaming reshapes how U.S. viewers watch sports and entertainment.
Miller, president of acquisitions and partnerships for NBC Sports, made the case during the “NBC Sports Playbook: Rights, Partnerships and What’s Next” panel at the NAB Show 2026. Nearly 50 years after starting at local NBC affiliate WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., he said the medium that launched his career is “stronger and more important than ever” and “definitely having a moment.”
The weight behind that argument is in the business. Miller said streamers have “a different set of priorities and strategic objectives” from broadcast networks and cannot match what traditional TV still provides: marketing, promotion and, just as important, production expertise from NBC, CBS, Fox and Disney’s ABC/. NBCUniversal, he said, has spent decades building broadcast rights, production infrastructure, data analytics and delivery systems that can provide 1080 HDR or 4K to affiliates, giving broadcast “the largest reach that you can get out there.”
That position matters today because the U.S. sports TV market is becoming more fluid as rights grow more expensive and more leagues move to streaming platforms. NBC’s own streaming push has changed the company’s leverage. Miller described Peacock as “a great complementary service to NBC” that has penetration into about 65 million homes and was “never meant to displace anything on broadcast.” Instead, he said, it has helped NBCUniversal invest in properties it otherwise would not have been able to pursue.
He pointed directly to two of the biggest prizes in sports media. NBC would not have been able to acquire NBA rights without Peacock as a platform, he said, and it also could not have won the exclusive U.S. rights to the Premier League without it. That is the tension in the model: Peacock gives NBC another lane to bid more aggressively, but Miller said the network still sees broadcast as the core engine, not a relic to be replaced.
He also tied that strategy to the Olympics, where NBC has long been the U.S. broadcaster and has been trying to make the event more relevant to younger viewers. Miller said, “Snoop Dogg has been spectacular,” a nod to the company’s effort to broaden the appeal. For NBC Sports, the message from Miller was simple: the future is not broadcast versus streaming. It is broadcast with streaming, and Peacock is helping pay for the reach that still matters most. For more on NBC Sports coverage and the latest MVP conversation, see Shai Gilgeous Alexander Stats lead NBC Sports MVP race breakdown.
