Rick Cordella Named President, Programming For NBC Sports And Peacock Sports

Rick Cordella has been named President, Programming for NBC Sports and Peacock Sports, it was announced today by Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports.

Cordella, who rejoins NBC Sports after three years on Peacock’s executive leadership team, will lead NBC Sports’ programming strategy, overseeing a team working across all properties to maximize distribution and efficiencies on broadcast, cable and Peacock. In addition, he will oversee sports betting, sports fantasy and related efforts.

Tom Knapp, a leader on the GOLF Channel team since 2012 and for the past two years a member of the NBC Sports executive team, has been named Executive Vice President, Golf. He will focus on the overall golf business and portfolio, overseeing NBC Sports’ relationships with all stakeholders in the golf industry.

“We are thrilled to strengthen our leadership team on multiple fronts,” Bevacqua said. “Rick had a tremendous track record in 13+ years with NBC Sports and was the architect of multiple NBC Sports Digital platforms before undertaking a central role in the development and launch of Peacock. We are excited to welcome him home to NBC Sports, where he will continue to work closely with the executive team at Peacock, which is integral to the growth of NBC Sports. In addition, this move will allow Tom to maintain a singular focus on golf – his area of expertise and deep relationships with the Tours, organizations, and properties – which will greatly benefit our businesses across the industry.”

Cordella moves into his new role after most recently serving as Peacock’s Chief Commercial Officer, where he led business efforts across several content pillars, including sports, streaming channels, and live events. He was instrumental leading Peacock’s record-breaking start to 2022 with two of the biggest sporting events in the world, the most-streamed Olympics and most-streamed Super Bowl in history.

Previously, Cordella served as Peacock’s Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for launching the service’s product, programming and content strategy, live content partnership management, monetization, editorial, channels, standards & practices, and program acquisition of topical, short-form and sports content.

Prior to Peacock, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Media, NBC Sports, overseeing all aspects of NBC Sports Digital: direct-to-consumer services, including NBC Sports Gold; NBCSports.com; NBCOlympics,com; Rotoworld.com; the NBC Sports Talk franchises, inclusive of Mike Florio’s ProFootballTalk; and the NBC Sports, NBC Sports Talk and NBC Sports Scores apps.

Among many firsts under Cordella’s leadership, NBC Sports Digital streamed the first NFL games (2008), the first Super Bowl (2012), and the Olympics.

A six-time Sports Emmy Award-winner, Cordella previously served as General Manager, Fantasy Sports, where he managed NBC Sports’ fantasy sports properties, including Rotoworld.com, SnapDraft.com, Allstarstats.com and Sandbox.com. He joined NBC Sports in August 2006 with NBCUniversal’s acquisition of AllStar Stats, Inc., the parent company of Rotoworld.com.