Jon Miller (born November 14, 1956) is an American television executive for NBC Sports, a division of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

. He joined

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

in 1978, and was named President of Sports Programming in 2011. He is responsible for the creation of the NHL Winter Classic and The National Dog Show among many other events. During his tenure, he has worked with every major sports league in the US.

Early life

Miller was born in Washington DC, but grew up in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

. He attended Walt Whitman High School and subsequently earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

in Oxford, Ohio.

Career

Early days

Miller started worked as an account executive for

WRC-TV WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A Telemundo outlet WZDC-CD (channel 44 ...

in Washington DC in October 1978. While at WRC, he created the George Michael Sports Final, the precursor to the legendary George Michael Sports Machine. After moving to New York to sell national advertising for the NBC Stations Group, he soon joined the NBC Sports & Olympics Sales department. In 1988, he was promoted to Vice President of Programming, Planning & Development for NBC Sports.

Programming

Miller worked for many years under the leadership of Dick Ebersol. Shortly after joining the programming team, NBC lost the rights to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the first time in 40 years. To help fill the void, Miller created the NBC Sports Ventures unit which aimed to create events that NBC use to generate non-traditional streams of income. Events he has created include: * NHL Winter Classic * American Century Championship * Father/Son Challenge *

National Heads-Up Poker Championship The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network.

* National Dog Show *

Collegiate Rugby Championship The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News an ...

In his time at NBC Sports, Miller has been instrumental in acquiring and programming some of the world's top sports properties including the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

Notre Dame Football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame ...

, the French Open, horse racing's

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Tri ...

NFL on NBC The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

, MLB, Wimbledon, Premier League, Formula One, NASCAR, The Indianapolis 500, Tour de France, NBA, US Open Golf, PGA Tour, Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Rugby World Cup and America's Cup. In 2020, Miller led the team that brought the US Open back to NBC after five years on Fox. Starting in 2021, Miller played in integral role in two important NBC Sports rights deals that combined for $5.15B in just under a year. First, in November 2021, he led the team that renewed the Premier League rights for another six years through the year 2028 for more than $2.7B. Following that, in August 2022, Miller agreed to a rights deal with the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

that runs from 2023 to 2030 and will launch a new football brand for the league. Big Ten Saturday Night is planned to air every Saturday night on NBC starting with the 2023 Football Season. This deal worth $2.45B ended the Big Ten/ABC relationship that dated back to 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Jon Living people 1956 births Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. Miami University alumni American television executives NBC executives Presidents of NBC Sports Walt Whitman High School (Maryland) alumni