By Tom Parsons
April 17 – NBC sports group will air all 380 Barclays Premier League games during the 2013/14 season live on its networks. The US broadcaster will present the games across their platforms as well as streaming them live via NBC’s Sport live extra service on desktop, mobile and tablets.
NBC acquired the rights in October 2012 to become the exclusive English and Spanish language media rights holder of the Premier League in the United States on a three-year agreement beginning with the 2013/14 season. The rights allow them to show all Premier League matches live in English as well as 76 Spanish language telecasts.
The broadcaster has now outlined how they would use these the rights, which begin on August 17, and ends each season on ‘Championship Sunday’. The deal is believed to have cost NBC an estimated £156m.
NBC said there will be “more than 600 hours of Premier League original programming” each season combined with the live broadcasting of the matches. This extra coverage includes pre and post-game coverage, a preview to the 2013-14 season, a match of the day style programme each week and a weekly review and preview show.
The capture of the Premier League rights means NBC will dominate the football broadcasting market in the US. They currently have the deal to broadcast 45 MLS games a season, including play-offs, after signing a three-year multi-million pound deal with the MLS back in 2011. NBC also carries national team games.
The broadcaster announced their live multi-platform coverage of all 380 Premier League games on twitter this afternoon followed by an official press release. Arlo White will be the lead commentator for the priority games with former Premier League players Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux providing analysis on games as well. Current Match of the Day host Gary Lineker will also be involved as a special contributor completing the star-studded line-up.
Speaking on the deal Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore outlines the importance of the US market to the league stating “this is a market of huge interest to our owners. The plans these guys (NBC) have are a big step for us.”
Where the games will be shown:
