It is officially owned and operated by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast.

In 2001, NBC partnered with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to establish the XFL – a new football league which introduced modified rules and debuted to tremendous, but short-lived fanfare, only lasting one season (NBC shared broadcast rights to the league's games, which were mainly held on Saturday nights, with UPN).

In 2003, NBC obtained the broadcast rights and a minority interest in the Arena Football League (AFL).

NBC Sports' senior vice president Mike McCarley additionally became Golf Channel's new head.

[5] The merger also helped influence an extension of NBC Sports' contract with the NHL; the 10-year deal – valued at close to $2 billion, unified the cable and broadcast television rights to the league and introduced a new "Black Friday" Thanksgiving Showdown game on NBC, along with national coverage for every game in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

[13][14] On March 18, 2013, nearly all of the operations for NBC Sports and NBCSN began to be based out of a purpose-built facility in Stamford, Connecticut.

[15] Only Football Night in America remained in New York City, at NBC Studios, until September 7, 2014, when production of that program also moved to Stamford.

[24][25] In early 2018, it was announced that NBC Sports would renew its contract with the IndyCar Series (continuing a relationship with NBCSN which began in 2009 as Versus),[26] through 2021, and acquire the broadcast television rights previously held by ABC.

[27][28] Shortly after, NBC announced a six-year agreement with the International Motor Sports Association beginning in 2019, including the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with the majority of coverage on NBCSN.

[30] On June 29, 2020, Fox sold the last seven years of its contract to air USGA tournaments to NBC, regaining rights to the U.S. Open for the first time since 2015.

[31][32] In January 2021, it was reported that NBCUniversal planned to shut down NBCSN by the end of the year; an internal memo cited increased competition from streaming services and the other mainstream sports networks as reasoning.

[33][34] The channel was officially shut down on December 31, 2021;[35] its remaining programming rights were moved to other NBCUniversal platforms, particularly USA Network and Peacock.

[43][44] On August 18, 2022, NBC Sports announced a seven-year deal to carry Big Ten Conference college athletics across its platforms beginning in the 2023–24 academic season.

Most notably, Peacock exclusively streamed the Miami Dolphins–Kansas City Chiefs wild card playoff game during the 2023 season.

[55] On June 27, 2024, NBC Sports and the Big East Conference announced a six-year deal to begin in the 2025–26 academic year.

NBC will also carry a doubleheader on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, coverage of All-Star Weekend, and a slate of playoff games (including six conference finals over the length of the agreement).

1980 would prove to be a stinging disappointment for the network; after contentious negotiations, NBC won the broadcast rights to the 1980 Summer Olympics.

The new design was also intended to be modular, allowing it to be expanded for use in larger events across multiple networks (such as the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games).

[67] A refreshed design for on-air graphics was introduced on January 1, 2015 (in time for the 2015 NHL Winter Classic and NFL playoffs), with a cleaner and brighter visual appearance.

[69][70] NBC similarly diverged for its Premier League coverage in 2019, adopting elements of its new British sibling Sky Sports.

[72] The new college football graphics were, in turn, adapted by the NBC Sports Regional Networks for their own use in September 2024.