NBC Sports & World Championship Sports Network Partner to Launch Universal Sports

NBC Sports
and World Championship Sports Network have joined
forces to create Universal Sports. Universal Sports will combine
NBCU’s programming and production expertise and promotional power with
WCSN’s leading online destination for Olympic sports plus its growing
television network to create the preeminent multiplatform destination
for Olympic sports programming. U
niversal Sports will include both a television
network and a robust online platform UniversalSports.com.

“Universal Sports will provide a terrific year-round home to almost

all Olympic sports and the athletes who give our viewers such

compelling stories,” said
Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics
.

“We invested in WCSN because we believe that Olympic sports have a
large and passionate following and other than NBCU, WCSN was the most
responsible steward for this audience,” said Leo Hindery, Jr., Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners
. “It is a
privilege and delight to see WCSN and NBCU now come together as
partners, and the clear winners today are the fans of Olympic sports
and the very sports themselves.”

As part of the transaction, NBCU will become a significant shareholder
in WCSN and will jointly control WCSN with InterMedia Partners. The
WCSN management team, including Chairman and CEO Claude Ruibal and
President Carlos Silva, will continue to manage the company.

In the first step of this new partnership, on Thursday, June 19
gymnastics fans and Friday, June 20 diving fans can now see live
early-round coverage of the Olympic Trials on Universal Sports.
Previously, these early-round competitions have not had a platform on
which to be viewed.

“WCSN is the leading rights holder of Olympic sports programming in
between each Olympic Games offering fans comprehensive coverage of
skiing, swimming, track and field, gymnastics, and more than 40 other
Olympic sports disciplines,” said Ruibal, “Under the new Universal
Sports name, and with NBCU as a partner, the combined business will be
the undisputed home of Olympic sports across all distribution
platforms and will provide these sports and their athletes a real
opportunity to get the consistent exposure they deserve across the
USA.”

WCSN will rebrand itself as Universal Sports prior to the 2008 Beijing
Summer Games and will offer coverage of the U.S. Olympic Trials. NBCU
will use the promotional power of its Olympic coverage to drive
Universal Sports’ online and television reach. With the combined
rights and archives of WCSN and NBC Sports, Universal Sports will
represent a new standard for coverage of Olympic sports in the U.S.
expanding the availability and growing popularity of these great
sports and athletes. In addition to serving Olympic fans everywhere,
Universal Sports provides a year-round destination for the elite and
everyday athletes who compete, hope to compete and admire those who
compete.

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters