Jon Miller (television executive)

Jon Miller
Born Jonathan Miller
(1956-11-14) November 14, 1956
Washington DC, United States
Occupation American television executive NBC
Spouse(s) Jan Miller
Children Jeff Miller, Robby Miller

Jon Miller (born November 14, 1956) is an American television executive for NBC Sports, a division of NBCUniversal. He joined NBC in 1978, and was named President of Sports Programming in 2011.[1] 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. He attended Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Maryland) and subsequently earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.[2]

Career

Early days

Miller started worked as an account executive for WRC-TV in Washington DC in October 1978.[3] 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 for the first time in 40 years.[4] 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:

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, Notre Dame Football, the French Open, horse racing's Triple Crown, NFL on NBC, MLB, Wimbledon, Premier League, Formula One, NASCAR, Indy Car, Tour de France, NBA, US Open Golf, PGA Tour, Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Rugby World Cup and America's Cup.[11] Controversially, Miller backed the use of a divisive British tabloid on NBC Sports Soccer. Promoting "The Sun" lead to viewer complaints, a petition, and a formal request from Liverpool Supporters Clubs in the United States [12] for NBC to drop its association with the tabloid. Miller's response was to block the respondents on social media and ignore the requests, despite NBC initiating an "Erase The Hate" campaign [13] that was meant to address the types of bigotry espoused by "The Sun".

References

  1. ↑ Vanderberg, Marcus. "SPORTSNEWSER NBC Sports Announces New Executive Leadership Team". Ad Week. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  2. ↑ Steinberg, Dan. "Jon Miller went from Whitman High to the top of NBC Sports". DC Sports Bog. Washington Post.
  3. ↑ "Executive Bio - Jon Miller". NBCUMV.
  4. ↑ Kiesewetter, John. "Stay Tuned". Miamian Magazine: Summer 2007. Miami University.
  5. ↑ Donnellon, Sam. "Winter Classic: 'Truly a hockey holiday'". Philly.com. Daily News.
  6. ↑ Baysinger, Tim (14 July 2014). "NBC Sports' Veteran Programmer is a Classic". Broadcasting & Cable. 144 (25): 26. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Adler, Max. "What We Can Learn When Celebrities & Athletes Go Head-To-Head At Lake Tahoe". golfdigest.com. Conde Nast.
  8. ↑ Benston, Liz. "NBC Spot in the Cards for Poker Tourney". CasinoCityTimes.com. CasinoCity. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Caduhada, Melanie. "The National Dog Show becomes a Thanksgiving TV favorite". nypost.com. News Corp. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  10. ↑ Belzer, Jason. "Growth of Collegiate Rugby Championship Evidence of Sport's Rising Popularity". Forbes.com. Forbes Media. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  11. ↑ Klapisch, Bob (August 2011). "Miller Time". (201) Magazine. 8 (8): 54. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  12. ↑ "SunsetNBC". Official Liverpool FC Supporters Club New York. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Erase The Hate". Erase The Hate, a campaign from NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
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