NBC Sports Group has been kicking up the promos ahead of its coverage of the Barclays Premier League, beginning this Saturday.
In addition to the spots and long-form online video (over 4.1 million views on YouTube) featuring former Saturday Night Light star Jason Sudekis as Ted Lasso, an American coach, who is now the manager of Tottenham Hotspurs, NBC Sports Group has served up a larger-than-life billboard in Manhattan's Times Square. The tagline messaging at the Crossroads of the World locale reads “Premier League is coming to NBC Sports on August 17” with “Every Match. Every Team. Every Week.” The billboard also showcases the Spurs’ new kits with their star, Premier League player of the year Gareth Bale.
NBC Sports Group, which will air pre-match show Premier League Live at 7 a.m. (ET) on Saturdays ahead of its initial match of the day, starting with the season-opener pitting Liverpool against Stoke City on NBC Sports Network at 7:45 a.m., has also placed the circuit’s maps on bus shelters around the Big Apple, and deployed taxi cab tops touting the league. Moreover, it has hailed “British Cabs,” sporting messaging and outfitted in Premier League colors and logos.
Underground, the Times Square shuttle subway trains have been wrapped with two rival teams – like Manchester United and Manchester City -- inside and outside of the cars.
After Liverpool-Stoke, five matches will be played concurrently and air in the10 a.m. window. NBCSN and mun2 will televise Arsenal-Aston Villa, while the other four appear on Premier League Extra Time, comprising a series of ad hoc channels -- a la out-of-market sports services -- -- that MPVDs are presenting free of charge to NBCSN subscribers.
Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cox, Mediacom, AT&T U-verse, Cablevision’s Optimum, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, DirecTV and Suddenlink, and members of the National Cable Television Cooperative will offer matches via the Premier League Extra Time package.
Meanwhile, NBC Sports Live Extra, which makes all 380 Premier League matches available on computer, tablet and mobile devices to authenticated video subscribers of NBCSN, is on the pitch with Cox, AT&T U-verse, Cablevision’s Optimum, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, DirecTV, Dish, Suddenlink, Verizon FiOS and NCTC members. NBC Sports Group officials said offering the complete complement of Premier League matches on an authenticated basis was an accelerant to DirecTV and Dish signing on as NBCSN TV Everywhere providers.
Charter is the only major distributor that is sitting on the sidelines with both the authenticated streaming service and Premier League Extra Time.
NBC Sports Group's opening weekend schedule:
