In this articleCMCSAFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTA version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.NBC is about to have itself a “legendary” month. “Legendary February,” a marketing tagline invented by NBC Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Storms, is all about the sports that will be aired by NBCUniversal, the subsidiary of Comcast. The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics begin Feb. 6 with the opening ceremonies. That will air on NBC, followed by a two-week slew of Olympics programming. Just two days after the Olympics coverage starts up, NBC will air the Super Bowl, and, a week later, the network has the NBA All-Star game, a product of the new NBA media rights deal that began this season. The Olympics ends on Feb. 22, and NBC won’t just air the closing ceremonies — it also has the Boston Celtics vs. the Los Angeles Lakers that night. All of the marquee events will air on NBC and on its subscription streaming service, Peacock. Get the CNBC Sport newsletter directly to your inboxThe CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media, delivered weekly to your inbox.Subscribe here to get access today.This doesn’t even include the FIFA World Cup, which will air on NBCU’s Telemundo this summer, or Major League Baseball, which returns to NBC in March after a three-year hiatus. The run of premier sports events will be a major test for NBC after it spent billions of dollars to acquire rights to air them. The return on the investment is judged by a mixture of advertising revenue sold against the events, plus the added distribution value by making NBC a must-have component of any pay-TV bundle, plus the value these events have for its streaming service Peacock in terms of adding and holding monthly subscribers. The month of February is a microcosm of the company’s strategy these days — and a notable turn for the media company in recent years. While Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh says he disagrees, it’s hard to argue otherwise: NBC has become a sports-first entity. NBC’s evolution Sports has been a major component of NBC for decades, but it didn’t use to be the network’s calling card. In the 1990s, NBC stood for “Must See TV,” anchored by hits “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” “Frasier” and “ER.”That run bled into the early 2000s, with another string of hits led by “The Office,” “The West Wing,” “Friday Night Lights” and “This is Us,” along with critical darlings such as “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Community” and “The Good Place.” NBC has also always had successful morning shows (“Today”), news programming and late night shows (“Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show”), but ratings have come down for all of those entities as tens of millions of Americans have canceled traditional pay TV during the past 15 years.The massive cord cutting has, of course, led to a significant change in the business of media. With ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery still in limbo as Paramount Skydance and Netflix jostle for control, NBC suddenly appears subscal …
