Jon Miller (television executive)

Last updated
Jon Miller
JMphoto.png
Born
Jonathan Miller

(1956-11-14) November 14, 1956 (age 68)
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 other events. During his tenure, he has worked with every major sports league in the US. [2]

Contents

Early life

Miller was born in Washington, D.C., 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. [3]

Career

Early days

Miller started worked as an account executive for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., in October 1978. [4] While at WRC, he created the George Michael Sports Final, the precursor to the George Michael Sports Machine, which was the first nationally distributed sports highlight show in television. After moving to New York to sell national advertising for the NBC Stations Group, he joined the NBC Sports & Olympics Sales department. In 1988, he was promoted to Vice President of Programming, Planning & Development for NBC Sports. [5]

Programming

Miller worked under the leadership of Dick Ebersol on the programming team. Soon after, NBC lost the rights to Major League Baseball for the first time in 40 years, a major shock to the network. [6] To help fill the void, Miller created the NBC Sports Ventures unit which aimed to create events that NBC used to generate non-traditional revenue streams. [7] Among the major events he created include golf's PNC Championship, [8] the National Heads-Up Poker Championship [9] and the Collegiate Rugby Championship. [10] Four other events changed the world of sports programming:

National Dog Show

The National Dog Show [11] debuted on NBC in 2002 on Thanksgiving Day. Miller was searching for something to fill the time between the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and NFL games. A few months earlier, in January 2002 Miller and his wife, Jan, rented Best in Show for a movie night with their neighbors. “When they (the neighbors) left, I watched it a second time and found it hysterically funny,” Miller remembers. He contacted the Kennel Club of Philadelphia to ask if they would allow NBC to broadcast their event. They agreed, and the annual broadcast of the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day was born, quickly becoming a Thanksgiving Day tradition. [12] [13] [14]

NHL Winter Classic

On January 1, 2008, the Buffalo Sabres hosted the first NHL Winter Classic, [15] [16] [17] an outdoor game attended by a then-record 71,217 fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium, now known as Highmark Stadium. The game, in which Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby scored the shootout winner, was a massive hit. The NHL Winter Classic claimed a spot on the New Year’s Day sports calendar, and has consistently delivered the highest viewership number of the NHL regular season. The game aired on NBC through 2021. [18] [19]

American Century Celebrity Golf Classic

The American Century Celebrity Golf Classic, [20] is a celebrity pro-am held annually in Lake Tahoe. NBC announced that it signed a six-year extension to keep the American Century Golf Classic running through 2029, which will be the 40th playing of the event. [21]

Premier League TV Coverage

Miller was a key executive in helping NBC Sports land the initial Premier League rights deal for what eventually would be 10 years. Beating many competitors, some with higher bids, in November 2021, that extended to 15 years with a $2.7 billion deal and a six-year term ending in 2028. To promote its investment, NBC has hosted Premier League fan festivals in eight different cities: Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Orlando. [22] “We were able to press upon the Premier League something that I’ve said since day one,” explained Miller. “We’re not the network of soccer. We have no desire to be the network of soccer. But we do want to be the network of the Premier League.” [23] [24] [25]

Also in his time at NBC Sports, Miller has been involved in acquiring and programming sports properties including the NHL, Notre Dame Football, the French Open, horse racing's Triple Crown, the Breeders' Cup, NFL on NBC, MLB, Wimbledon, 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. [26] In 2020, Miller led the team that brought the US Open back to NBC after five years on Fox. [27] [28] [29]

Miller created the strategy and led the negotiations that resulted in NBC’s August 2022 media rights agreement with the Big Ten Conference that started in 2023 and runs through 2030,  launching a new football brand for the league in Big Ten Saturday Night on NBC.This deal, worth $2.45 billion, ended the Big Ten/ABC relationship that dated back to 1966. [30] [31]

In September 2024, following NBC Sports' completion of an 11-year deal for the NBA and WNBA, Miller participated as a panelist at the IMG-RedBird Summit. [32]

Recognition

In November 2022, Miller was inducted into the SportPro Hall of Fame, an award that recognizes the body of work of an individual within the sports broadcast and OTT industry. [33]

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References

  1. ↑ Vanderberg, Marcus (2 February 2011). "SPORTSNEWSER NBC Sports Announces New Executive Leadership Team". Ad Week. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  2. ↑ "Jon Miller". NBC Sports. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  3. ↑ Steinberg, Dan. "Jon Miller went from Whitman High to the top of NBC Sports". DC Sports Bog. Washington Post.
  4. ↑ "Executive Bio - Jon Miller". NBCUMV. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  5. ↑ "Jon Miller Bio". NBC Sports Pressbox. NBC Sports. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  6. ↑ Kiesewetter, John. "Stay Tuned". Miamian Magazine: Summer 2007. Miami University.
  7. ↑ "Executive Bio". nds.nationaldogshow.com. Kennel Club of Philadelphia. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  8. ↑ Colgan, James (2023-09-27). "How a media rights gaffe, the Gulf War and NBC changed the Ryder Cup forever". Golf. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  9. ↑ Benston, Liz. "NBC Spot in the Cards for Poker Tourney". CasinoCityTimes.com. CasinoCity. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  10. ↑ Belzer, Jason. "Growth of Collegiate Rugby Championship Evidence of Sport's Rising Popularity". Forbes . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  11. ↑ Ruland, Sam (2018-11-11). "How the National Dog Show Won Thanksgiving". Philadelphia Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  12. ↑ Botes, Zanandi (2023-09-29). "'God Loves a Terrier': 23 Trivia Tidbits About 'Best in Show' on Its 23rd Anniversary". Cracked.com. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
  13. ↑ "November/December 2024". The Saturday Evening Post. 2024-11-01. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
  14. ↑ Turchiano, Danielle (2021-11-25). "The National Dog Show Marks 20 Years With a New Breed and Special Tribute". Variety. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
  15. ↑ Donnellon, Sam (June 2024). "Winter Classic: 'Truly a hockey holiday'". Philly.com. Daily News.
  16. ↑ Baysinger, Tim (14 July 2014). "NBC Sports' Veteran Programmer is a Classic". Broadcasting & Cable. 144 (25): 26. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  17. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Frank (21 February 2019). "Flyers and Penguins' Stadium Series game continues NHL's outdoor success story". Philly.com. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  18. ↑ Kreda, Allan (2017-12-31). "Sabres Return to Spotlight for the Winter Classic's 10th Anniversary". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-01-03.
  19. ↑ "'I Wasn't Going to Be Deterred': How the NHL Winter Classic Became a Reality". SI. 2017-12-29. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
  20. ↑ Adler, Max. "What We Can Learn When Celebrities & Athletes Go Head-To-Head At Lake Tahoe". golfdigest.com. Conde Nast.
  21. ↑ Murray, Chris (2023-07-10). "NBC Sports, American Century Investments ink six-year extension of American Century Championship". Nevada Sports Net. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
  22. ↑ "Inside the Premier League meeting that promised America – and delivered". Yahoo Sports. 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
  23. ↑ "The inside story of how NBC rescued its Premier League TV deal". World Soccer Talk. 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
  24. ↑ "NBC keeps Premier League U.S. broadcast rights in 6 year, $2.7 billion deal, source says". CNBC. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  25. ↑ Slater, Matt; Cardenas, Felipe. "Premier League agrees new six-year US TV deal worth more than £2 billion". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  26. ↑ Klapisch, Bob (August 2011). "Miller Time". (201) Magazine. 8 (8): 54. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  27. ↑ Ourand, John. "SBJ Media: Takeaways From U.S. Open's Return To NBC". Sports Business Journal. Street & Smith's. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  28. ↑ 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.
  29. ↑ Miceli, Alex (16 June 2021). "Meet the Man Who Brought the U.S. Open Back to NBC". si.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  30. ↑ Ourand, John (9 August 2022). "ESPN out of Big Ten media rights talks; CBS, NBC set to join Fox". Sports Business Journal. Leaders Croup. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  31. ↑ Staff, SVG (18 August 2022). "Big Ten Conference Officially Inks New Seven-Year Rights Deals With CBS, Fox, and NBC". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  32. ↑ Whittock, Jesse (2024-09-13). "Paramount & NBC Bosses On Venu Sports: "We Weren't Hurt By Not Being Invited" — IMG-RedBird Summit". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-09-28.
  33. ↑ "Hall of Fame". SportsPro OTT Summit Awards. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
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