By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – The pre-season march of English Premier League clubs through the US has paid off with American broadcaster NBC announcing it has struck a deal to show live Premier League games for the next six years, extending its current contract until 2022.
“We are excited to continue our tremendous partnership with the Premier League, and we look forward to presenting the world’s finest soccer league to Americans for many years to come,” said the NBC Sports Group chairman, Mark Lazarus.
“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.”
While strict protective rules cover the number of regular 3pm kickoffs that can be televised live at home, fans of the Premier League living in the USA have no such issues, with NBC continuing to show all 380 Premier League fixtures each season, across its television and internet platforms, mainly on weekend mornings when there is little rival live sports programming.
With the women’s World Cup, which generated impressive viewing figures for Fox, still fresh in the memory (the 25.4 million fans who tuned in to watch the USA’s victory in the final was a record for a single soccer game in US history), Lazarus said Premier League matches had become “a real destination for a growing fan base in the US.”
“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 US rights for seasons 2016-17 to 2021-22,” said Premier League chairman, Richard Scudamore. “Outstanding production, expert analysis, and wide audience reach have all been beyond expectations.”
Although financial details of the contract extension have not been revealed, it is likely to exceed the current three-year $250 million deal. Last season, matches averaged 479,000 viewers on NBC, up 9% from the previous campaign.
If that figure is correct, it was close to the amount domestic US broadcasters pay for their own leagues and national teams.
In May last year Major League Soccer (MLS) secured new eight-year television and media rights partnerships with a total of three US networks. bThe deals, with ESPN, Fox Sports and Univisión Deportes, cover MLS and US Soccer matches in the United States until the end of 2022.
No price-tag was stipulated, but the agreements were rumoured to be worth a combined $90 million a year, which would represent a significant increase,
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