Jon Miller
Born
Jonathan Miller

(1956-11-14) November 14, 1956 (age 67)
Washington DC, United States
OccupationAmerican television executive NBC
SpouseJan Miller
Children2

Jon Miller (born November 14, 1956) is an American television executive for NBC Sports, a division of NBCUniversal. He joined NBC in 1978, and was named President of Sports Programming in 2011.[1] He is responsible for the creation of the NHL Winter Classic and The National Dog Show among many other events. During his tenure, he has worked with every major sports league in the US.

Early life

Miller was born in Washington DC, but grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. He attended Walt Whitman High School and subsequently earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.[2]

Career

Early days

Miller started worked as an account executive for WRC-TV in Washington DC in October 1978.[3] While at WRC, he created the George Michael Sports Final, the precursor to the legendary George Michael Sports Machine. After moving to New York to sell national advertising for the NBC Stations Group, he soon joined the NBC Sports & Olympics Sales department. In 1988, he was promoted to Vice President of Programming, Planning & Development for NBC Sports.[4]

Programming

Miller worked for many years under the leadership of Dick Ebersol. Shortly after joining the programming team, NBC lost the rights to Major League Baseball for the first time in 40 years.[5] To help fill the void, Miller created the NBC Sports Ventures unit which aimed to create events that NBC use to generate non-traditional streams of income.[6] Events he has created include:

In his time at NBC Sports, Miller has been instrumental in acquiring and programming some of the world's top sports properties including the NHL, Notre Dame Football, the French Open, horse racing's Triple Crown, NFL on NBC, MLB, Wimbledon, Premier League, Formula One, NASCAR, The Indianapolis 500, Tour de France, NBA, US Open Golf, PGA Tour, Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Rugby World Cup and America's Cup.[14] In 2020, Miller led the team that brought the US Open back to NBC after five years on Fox.[15][16][17] Starting in 2021, Miller played in integral role in two important NBC Sports rights deals that combined for $5.15B in just under a year. First, in November 2021, he led the team that renewed the Premier League rights for another six years through the year 2028 for more than $2.7B. [18][19] Following that, in August 2022, Miller agreed to a rights deal with the Big Ten Conference that runs from 2023 to 2030 and will launch a new football brand for the league. Big Ten Saturday Night is planned to air every Saturday night on NBC starting with the 2023 Football Season. This deal worth $2.45B ended the Big Ten/ABC relationship that dated back to 1966. [20][21]

References

  1. ^ Vanderberg, Marcus. "SPORTSNEWSER NBC Sports Announces New Executive Leadership Team". Ad Week. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  2. ^ Steinberg, Dan. "Jon Miller went from Whitman High to the top of NBC Sports". DC Sports Bog. Washington Post.
  3. ^ "Executive Bio - Jon Miller". NBCUMV.
  4. ^ "Jon Miller Bio". NBC Sports Pressbox. NBC Sports. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  5. ^ Kiesewetter, John. "Stay Tuned". Miamian Magazine: Summer 2007. Miami University.
  6. ^ "Executive Bio". nds.nationaldogshow.com. Kennel Club of Philadelphia. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  7. ^ Donnellon, Sam. "Winter Classic: 'Truly a hockey holiday'". Philly.com. Daily News.
  8. ^ Baysinger, Tim (14 July 2014). "NBC Sports' Veteran Programmer is a Classic". Broadcasting & Cable. 144 (25): 26. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  9. ^ Fitzpatrick, Frank. "Flyers and Penguins' Stadium Series game continues NHL's outdoor success story". Philly.com. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  10. ^ Adler, Max. "What We Can Learn When Celebrities & Athletes Go Head-To-Head At Lake Tahoe". golfdigest.com. Conde Nast.
  11. ^ Benston, Liz. "NBC Spot in the Cards for Poker Tourney". CasinoCityTimes.com. CasinoCity. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  12. ^ Caduhada, Melanie. "The National Dog Show becomes a Thanksgiving TV favorite". nypost.com. News Corp. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  13. ^ Belzer, Jason. "Growth of Collegiate Rugby Championship Evidence of Sport's Rising Popularity". Forbes. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  14. ^ Klapisch, Bob (August 2011). "Miller Time". (201) Magazine. 8 (8): 54. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  15. ^ Ourand, John. "SBJ Media: Takeaways From U.S. Open's Return To NBC". Sports Business Journal. Street & Smith's. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  16. ^ Shedloski, Dave. "U.S. Open 2020: Behind the scenes of one of the most complicated TV deals in golf history". Golf World. Discovery Gold Inc. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  17. ^ Miceli, Alex. "Meet the Man Who Brought the U.S. Open Back to NBC". si.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  18. ^ "NBC keeps Premier League U.S. broadcast rights in 6 year, $2.7 billion deal, source says". CNBC. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  19. ^ Slater, Matt; Cardenas, Felipe. "Premier League agrees new six-year US TV deal worth more than £2 billion". The Athletic. The Athletic. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  20. ^ Ourand, John. "ESPN out of Big Ten media rights talks; CBS, NBC set to join Fox". Sports Business Journal. Leaders Croup. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  21. ^ Staff, SVG. "Big Ten Conference Officially Inks New Seven-Year Rights Deals With CBS, Fox, and NBC". Sports Video Group. Sports Video Group. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
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