July 22, 2015
It has admittedly been a weird couple of months without Bill Simmons working in an official capacity at ESPN, especially considering his hiatus has spanned most of the NBA’s sweet spot: playoffs and free agency. After “The Sports Guy” and ESPN parted ways in May when the cable giant decided not to renew his contract, he found a landing spot at HBO for what is described as a “multi-year, multi-platform exclusive agreement.”
“We have been fans of Bill Simmons and his work for a very long time,” HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said in a press release. “His intelligence, talent and insights are without precedent in the areas he covers. We could not be more thrilled for him to bring those talents to HBO and to become a signature voice at the network, spanning the sports and pop culture landscapes.”
“It’s no secret that HBO is the single best place for creative people in the entire media landscape,” Simmons added in the release. “From the moment I started talking to Michael and Richard (Plepler), it was hard to imagine being anywhere else.”
Simmons’ responsibilities will include a talk show that is scheduled to premiere in 2016 that will air on HBO, a production deal to produce content such as video podcasts and features, and consulting on non-boxing sports programming like shows and documentary films.
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