Comcast Fills SpinCo Sports Executive Ranks With Matt Hong as President, Jeff Behnke as SVP of Production

Comcast has brought in Matt Hong to serve as President of Sports for SpinCo, the company’s planned publicly-traded spinoff entity that will include its cable networks and selected digital properties. In addition, Behnke will be executive producer and senior vice president of sports production. The news was first reported by The Wrap.

Matt Hong will serve as president of sports for SpinCo

As president of sports, Hong will oversee the new company’s  sports rights portfolio, which will primarily be distributed on USA Network and Golf Channel. These rights include NASCAR, WWE, Premier League, the PGA Tour, USGA, The Open Championship and the WNBA. He will report directly to SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus.

Meanwhile, Behnke will oversee day-to-day operations of the sports portfolio and leading all studio and remote productions. Both he and Tom Knapp, who will continue to lead the Golf Channel and Golf Media businesses, will report to Hong.

“As we continue to build a new, modern media company, we’re focused on strengthening our world-class Sports businesses across every platform,” Lazarus said in a Tuesday statement. “With Matt’s experienced leadership and Jeff’s expertise, we will lay the foundation for future growth and an unparalleled connection with our audiences.”

Hong was most recently President and COO of PlayOn! Sports, which operates the NFHS Network high school sports steraming service and GoFan  high school ticketing solution. Prior to that Hong was COO of Turner Sports, where oversaw the acquisition, programming, and marketing of premium content including the NBA, March Madness, MLB, NASCAR, the PGA Championship, and UEFA Champions League across the networks TBS and TNT. He additionally oversaw 24×7 properties including NBA TV, Bleacher Report, NBA Digital, NCAA Digital, SI Digital, NASCAR.com, PGATOUR.com, PGA.com, and GOLF.com. Prior to joining Turner Sports in 2008, Hong held executive positions at Thomson Learning and AOL. Hong is also currently a senior advisor to NASCAR and Grand Slam Track, a Board Member for the NWSL, and Minority Owner/Alternate Governor for the Washington Spirit.

Behnke, an 11- time Emmy Award-winning sports television producer and executive, joined NBC Sports in January of 2013 as VP of NASCAR Production. In addition to overseeing production planning and editorial content for NBC Sports’ NASCAR coverage, Behnke also oversaw production planning for NBC Sports’ coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, SuperMotocross, and IMSA. Prior to joining NBC Sports, Behnke served as Executive Producer of Turner Sports for seven years, where he coordinated and provided strategic direction for all productions and personnel covering NASCAR, NBA, MLB and several of golf’s Major Championships. Behnke’s appointment to Executive Producer was the culmination of a 27-year run at Turner that included more than two decades of NASCAR production experience. Behnke began his production career at ABC Sports, where he worked on a variety of events including the Indianapolis 500, Wide World of Sports and multiple Olympic Games.

In addition to USA Network and Golf Channel, the publicly traded entity — which is expected to reach 70 million U.S. households and generate $7 billion in annual revenue — will house CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine. Comcast expects the spinoff of the new company to be completed by the end of 2025.