Jon Miller | |
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| Born | Jonathan Miller (1956-11-14)November 14, 1956 (age 69) Washington DC, United States |
| Occupation | American television executiveNBC |
| Spouse | Jan Miller |
| Children | 2 |
Jon Miller (born November 14, 1956) is an American television executive forNBC Sports, a division ofNBCUniversal. He joinedNBC in 1978, and was named President of Sports Programming in 2011.[1] He is responsible for the creation of theNHL Winter Classic and theNational Dog Show among other events. During his tenure, he has worked with every major sports league in the US.[2]
Miller was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up inBethesda, Maryland. He attendedWalt Whitman High School and subsequently earned his bachelor's degree in business administration fromMiami University in Oxford, Ohio.[3]
Miller started worked as an account executive forWRC-TV in Washington, D.C., in October 1978.[4] While at WRC, he created the George Michael Sports Final, the precursor to theGeorge 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]
Miller worked under the leadership ofDick Ebersol on the programming team. Soon after, NBC lost the rights toMajor 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'sPNC Championship,[8] theNational Heads-Up Poker Championship[9] and theCollegiate Rugby Championship.[10] Four other events changed the world of sports programming:
TheNational 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 andNFL games. A few months earlier, in January 2002 Miller and his wife, Jan, rentedBest 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]
On January 1, 2008, the Buffalo Sabres hosted the firstNHL Winter Classic,[15][16][17] an outdoor game attended by a then-record 71,217 fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium, now known asHighmark Stadium. The game, in which Pittsburgh’sSidney 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]
TheAmerican 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]
Miller was a key executive in helping NBC Sports land the initialPremier 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 theNHL,Notre Dame Football, theFrench Open, horse racing'sTriple Crown, theBreeders' 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 andAmerica's Cup.[26] In 2020, Miller led the team that brought theUS 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 inBig 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 theNBA andWNBA, Miller participated as a panelist at the IMG-RedBird Summit.[32]
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]