By RYAN TOLMICH
Fans of NBC’s presentation of the Premier League will be happy to know that coverage will not be leaving the channel any time soon.
The Premier League announced Monday that NBC has won exclusive live broadcasting rights in the U.S. for an additional six years. The agreement, which extends until after the 2021-22 season, continues a partnership that was entering the final year of a three-year, $250-million deal.
“NBC Sports has done a fantastic job broadcasting the Barclays Premier League for the last two seasons and we are extremely pleased that they have invested in our U.S. rights for seasons 2016/17 to 2021/22,” said Premier League Executive Chairman Richard Scudamore,. “Outstanding production, expert analysis, and wide audience reach have all been beyond expectations. First-rate creative marketing and promotional campaigns have driven interest in our clubs, and the competition as a whole, to unprecedented levels.
“NBC Sports has committed to extend partnership activation and promotion of clubs in future seasons – a significant factor in the awarding of these rights – and we look forward to continuing our excellent working relationship with them for the next seven years.”
In addition to English language rights, the new agreement also includes exclusive rights for Spanish language coverage of the league in the U.S.
“We are excited to continue our tremendous partnership with the Premier League,” said NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus, “and we look forward to presenting the world’s finest soccer league to Americans for many years to come.
“As sports fans, there’s nothing better than waking up on a weekend morning to live and relevant events, and we at NBC Sports are thrilled to continue to be this outlet for the fast-growing Premier League fan base.”
Available to 95 percent of U.S. homes in total, NBC saw the Premier League’s opening round of action achieve record viewership this past weekend.
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What do you think of the new deal? Excited to see the Premier League remain with NBC? Would you have liked to have seen a different broadcast company get a shot?
Share your thoughts below.
I think NBC is doing the best soccer coverage in america right now. ESPN does a decent job and fox is terrible. Of course the premier league really is the best league in the world for the fans. It’s fast, tough, has lots of star power, and even the lower teams almost always give good competition to the top of the table. Not to mention the insane pressure the british media puts on everyone involved ups the drama as well. The problem with the la liga and the bundesliga is there is too much of a gap between top and the bottom. I don’t care how incredible messi or ronaldo are, it’s not fun to watch a 5-0 drubbing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-11/why-nbc-doubled-down-on-the-english-premier-league-s-small-audience?ref=yfp
Oh thank god this happened. I was really concerned my Twitter feed would no longer be filled with hashtags like #suboptimal and #patchinthepark.
EPL is my third favorite league after La Liga and Bundaslig but I do find myself watching more Premier League games because NBC does such a good job in there coverage. The other top leagues in Europe would be wise to give the rights to their games for free to ESPN just for the promotion of their league.
From the NY Times I read, ESPN does not want European soccer nor submitted a bid. Their reasoning was that the Saturday competes with pre-game and early college football and Sunday morning competes with their NFL set up coverage. Both these programs have much greater ratings than soccer, unfortunately.
Frankly, I am over ESPN and soccer. They give it very little respect. NBC’s coverage is perfect (tv coverage and free streaming options). ESPN will not do anything close to that because they have too much to loose with college football and college basketball. I have yet to see what FOX will do. However, I have seen their schedules and about 1/3 – 1/2 the games are on FoxPlus or Foxsports2go. I have Fox/Fox Sports1/Fox Sports2. Why should I pay an extra $20 for a couple more games. I pay $10 for Bein, but at least I get 3 leagues (La Liga/Ligue 1/Serie A) and on demand games going back 2 weeks.
I really do like a watching ESPN fc
Fox should counter by securing the U.S. rights to the Swedish Allsvenskan.
It’s not even a top 7 UEFA league.
Now that NBC sport has locked down EPL till 2022, i want them to bid for UEFA champions league
Please get rid of Kyle Martino. He sucks, and I think the two Robbies would agree!!
Yeah, he doesn’t have an accent so he totally sucks. What could he contribute to the conversation. That blonde bird knows so much more about the game
Most guys I know who watch NBCSN LIKE Kyle Martino. What makes him so bad? I think that he is actually very good and adds good insight.
What exactly don’t you like about him? What examples? What does he do or not do? Or are you just parroting something someone else said.
Martino looks like a pretty boy so perhaps you think he is an airhead.
However, he produces far more insightful analysis than other former USMNT players such as Twellman, Alexi “set piece” Lalas and Harkes.
I’d like to see them sign up Friedel, Keller and McBride for their “ex- USMNT player in England” insights..
NBC does a great job with its EPL coverage. This is good news.
Further highlighting MLS’s desperate need for much better tv ratings. Reports are that NBC spent over 800 million to get 6-years of EPL rights That’s well more US tv money per year going to a foreign league than MLS gets from its own new 8-year deal. And the EPL deal obviously does not include massive tv revenue from England or anywhere else in the world. Its hard to imagine MLS ever achieiving top-tier status when the EPL is bathed in such worldly riches. Don Garber hates foreign soccer on US tv for this reason.
Wrong. This is good news for MLS. A soccer league is getting 800 mil or whatever to be shown in the US. That shows the market is there for soccer on US TV. It’s only a matter of time before the domestic league is going to get dollars in that range.
The number I am hearing is $1 Billion/ 6 years. This is why TV coverage is important. Game attendance is only good for atmosphere.The REAL money comes from TV money. EPL gets $166 million/year from their American contract. Last season, the averaged close to 500K a game for US ratings. Liga MX averages 1 million a game for US ratings. Neither of these is the main market for those leagues. To put things in perspective, EPL is getting about $500 million for the 1st 3 years (2016-19) of the US deal, but they are expected to collect $13 billion…13BILLION…for that 3 year period from all their global contracts. That is about $4.33 billion/year in broadcasting revenue. The NFL is at $1.9/year.
The NFL deal is $3 billion a year. But the point is still valid, the EPL rakes in more cash and divides it among fewer teams. I saw in a British paper that the TV money alone will be £100 million, about $156 million per team per year.
And there was much rejoicing!
Who needs the EPL when the Bundesliga is kicking off on Fox this weekend?? I can officially say bye-bye to English football and NBC this weekend. Hell yeah!
On a serious, note NBC has done a standup job with their coverage. While I may not tuning into the NBC as frequently, now that I have access to the Bundesliga, I am happy to know it will be there if I need to quench my Premier League thirst.
“It’s good to have options.” — David Bazan
Isn’t Bundesliga on Fox Sports 2, which many cable packages do not include?
About half the games are FS1 and half on FS2 so there’s something for us plebs stuck with terrible cable providers. I actually would pay more to get FS2 but Comcast doesn’t seem fit to even offer it as an option.
if you are a football fan and I do not have a package expensive enough to include Fox Sports 2… you are probably really not that big of a fan or you watch matches at the bar…
i have little sympathy for people that “dont get that channel”… get Fox2Go…never miss a match
So purchasing more cable packages makes us “big” football fans, right? How about folks like slowleftarm, whose cable provider does not even include it as an option? Nothing against Fox2Go, particularly if you like streaming, but it is not the same as watching the game on TV.
I’d rather use that extra $20/mo. to buy beers at an MLS game…
you are wrong here. the problem isn’t paying, the problem is comcast (and perhaps other providers) don’t even offer don’tx 2 as a channel option. i would pay the extra $10 or $20 it would cost me but don’t even have that as a choice…
then cannot access fox2go on the comcast network in my area. it is possible on time warner.
so enough with your judgmental comment….i think the situation described above is what leftarm was alluding to…
comment directed at andy in atlanta
If you live in a place that offers anything othern than Comcast… then you should not be with Comcast… worst company in America…
DirecTV is the only way to go when it comes to watching football…
The problem is having enough time watching all these soccer games. Being married and having kids really restrict one’s ability to spend entire weekends in front of the TV.
Having to prioritize, I’ll be more than happy with one or two Bundesliga matches plus a little bit of MLS (can’t wait for CCSC to be done with the stupid TimeWarner local/blackout contract at the end of this season…hopefully).
I used to switch providers back in the days but I’m done chasing leagues…I’m happy with DirecTV as it is great as far as broadcast of UEFA CL and EL games go as well as channel availability (NBC, FOX). Am I still upset about the dropping GolTV right when that was the only place to watch Bundesliga? Maybe just a little bit…