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War Between NBC, ESPN Gets A Little More Heated With NBC's Acquisition of MLS

Remember when NBC was in the dumps? When they had the lowest TV ratings of the four major American networks? 

They may not be much better currently, but on a day in which the Dow Jones dropped over 500 points, NBC Sports announced that a multimedia agreement with the MLS has been reached, one that includes the network's showing of four U.S. Men's National Team Games as part of the package. 

The announcement comes two months after ESPN wrested Wimbledon away from NBC, and about the same amount of time from when NBC retained its rights to the Olympic Games through 2020, winning a bid away from ESPN that the Worldwide Leader probably thought was in the bag. 

Of course, the MLS isn't that big of a deal, being the redheaded stepchild of American professional leagues, but that NBC was able to grab one piece of ESPN's summer programming could mean that more is on the way. 

It also means that SportsCenter might start giving the NHL more play, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.