N.F.L. Television Pioneer to Step Down Next Year

Steve Bornstein, a pivotal figure in televised sports for more than 20 years, will step down as president and chief executive of the NFL Network when his contract expires in the spring of 2014.

Joe Namath, left, with Steve Bornstein, the president and C.E.O. of the NFL Network.

He will be succeeded by Brian Rolapp, the chief operating officer of NFL Media since January 2011.

Bornstein, 61, joined the N.F.L. in 2002 and laid the groundwork for the growth of the league’s media operations, in part by establishing the NFL Network, which made its debut in 2003.

Much of Bornstein’s time was spent securing full distribution for the new network on cable systems throughout the country. Known throughout the industry as aggressive, Bornstein engaged in sometimes contentious negotiations with cable operators. When deals finally closed with Cablevision and Time Warner in 2012, the NFL Network was available in more than 70 million households in the United States.

“Steve was great making sure we understood it was not going to be an easy road,” N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell said .

Rolapp was also involved in the negotiation with the cable operators, as well as in the talks for the eight-year deal that will keep “Monday Night Football” on ESPN through 2021. Before joining the N.F.L., Rolapp worked in acquisitions and strategy for NBC Universal in New York.

“Technology is a great opportunity for the N.F.L., and Brian understands that,” Goodell said. “He’s been at the center of what we’ve been doing in technology, and that’s going to be his focus now that we have our broadcasting agreements in place.”

Before it was NBC Universal and when it was still owned by General Electric, NBC figured in one of Bornstein’s biggest accomplishments with the N.F.L. â€" persuading Dick Ebersol, then the chairman of NBC Sports, to bring the N.F.L. back to the network in 2006. The negotiations involved switching the league’s cable TV package from Sunday to Monday nights so NBC could have marquee games for its new “Sunday Night Football” lineup and could take advantage of flexible scheduling late in the season.

In 2006, Bornstein also presided over the first season of games on the NFL Network â€" eight games in prime time, which echoed the first season of eight Sunday-night N.F.L. games carried by ESPN in 1987, when Bornstein was the sports network’s programming chief. Securing N.F.L. games was a breakthrough for ESPN, enabling it to increase the fees it charged cable systems.

Bornstein joined ESPN in 1980, during its first year of existence, and in 1990, at 38, became the network’s president. He stayed through 1997, when he was named chairman of ESPN and president of ABC, its broadcast-network counterpart. In 1998, ESPN began broadcasting its first full season of N.F.L. games.

Bornstein, who will also give up his title as the N.F.L.’s executive vice president for media, said he had not decided what he would do next.

“If you want to talk about what’s on my tombstone, which I hope is far away, both the NFL Network and ESPN would have to be mentioned,” he said. “The difference is, the N.F.L. was going to thrive with or without me. At ESPN, we were faced with a touch-and-go situation. There were no guarantees that business was going to survive.”