Rick Cordella is the EVP and Chief Revenue Officer at Peacock, the NBCUniversal streaming service which just successfully completed its maiden voyage with WWE with WrestleMania this past weekend. Coming off this accomplishment, we thought he would be the perfect choice for this month’s installment of 5 Goals! Here are his goals, in his own words.
1) Be the best Uber-driving dad I can be.
Work/Life balance is never really a balance as much as it is a constant panic that I’ve misaligned my priorities for the day. My wife and I have five children ranging from high school to preschool, four girls and a boy. It’s a handful.
Working from home these past 13 months has forced me to be around more. Seeing the kids before they go off to school, or family dinner time has been great. But I think some of the best one-on-one conversations I have with my kids are when I’m driving them around to various activities in the early evening and to school in the morning. They can’t skirt away to their bedrooms and avoid my probing questions. And I learn more about what is going on in their lives than I ever did before. “How are your grades? How are your friends doing? What else is going on?”
Moving forward after the world returns to normal and I’m back in the office, I want make it a priority to be there to drive them around town.
2) Appreciate being the kid in the candy store.
I grew up in Foxboro, MA, as a die-hard Boston sports fan, rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins. I spent the vast majority of my time playing sports, watching sports and thinking about sports. And so when I was lucky enough to come to NBC Sports through a small acquisition of a fantasy sports company, Rotoworld.com, back in Aug 2006, I had to pinch myself. I was so proud to be a small part of Sunday Night Football, the Olympics and all the various sports we had rights to air.
I specifically remember during the 2012 Olympics, walking the Olympic Park in London and taking it all in. And then standing on the sidelines during the pregame of Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix and then seeing my hometown Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks a few hours later in one of the most exciting Super Bowls of all-time. As a lifelong sports fan, how am I possibly getting paid to be here?
I think it’s easy to get lost on the day-to-day grind of managing a business, but I try to take a step back every now and again and appreciate how lucky I am to be involved in these sports properties that I grew up idolizing.
3) Get across the finish line.
I was a college athlete many years ago but now need a goal or fear of humiliation to motivate me to do something about my dad bod. This fall I plan to run the Boston Marathon. I’ve run three marathons in the past, but this will be my first one in my 40s, and I’m much more firmly in the Clydesdale division than ever before.
Finishing with a good time is nice, but just meeting the challenge and getting across the finish line is the goal.
4) Make appointment viewing in an on-demand world.
Many streaming platforms focus their content investment on original and library movies and shows. At Peacock, we have all of that as well and can further differentiate our catalog with programming from across NBCUniversal that plays to our strengths – like sports and live events – that have existing fanbases who follow their favorite team, sport, and athletes everywhere. When a Manchester United/Liverpool game streams on Peacock, those fans show up. When we recently streamed one of the biggest live events of the year — WrestleMania – WWE fans migrated to Peacock.
When the fans come to Peacock, they are watching other entertainment programming we offer. We can drive them to our platform with the content they are most passionate about, and then anchor them in our service by delivering our massive library of entertainment, news, sports, and more. For example, we have seen this happen with Premier League fans, where more than 90% are watching non-Premier League content on Peacock.
Peacock has been nationally available for just over nine months, and sports and live events have been foundational to our service. And we’re very much looking forward to the Olympics and the NFL coming later this year on Peacock.
5) Try something new and keep learning.
I’m not all that musically inclined, but about two years ago, my 10-year-old daughter took up playing the guitar. She has gotten impressively good at it. I’ve always wanted to try it, and I figured it was also a cool way to connect with my daughter, so during the pandemic, I signed up for weekly guitar lessons. I had never picked up a guitar before in my life. So now, at 44 years old, I can play the opening riff of Nirvana’s Come as You Are and a handful of other 90’s alternative rock songs (not entire songs, of course). But I’m really enjoying it, and it’s been fantastic to jam out with my daughter.
Ryan Glasspiegel is a contributor for BSM. He has previously worked for Outkick, The Big Lead, and Sports Illustrated. In addition to covering the sports media business, Ryan creates promotional products for brands and companies including t-shirts, hats, hoodies, and various types of swag. For business inquiries email him at Glasspiegel.Ryan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @sportsrapport.
