Reflective of its all-in approach that will make every match available to Stateside soccer fans, NBC Sports Group today released its coverage plans for the first three months of the 2013-14 Premier League season that will incorporate streamed "TV Everywhere" presentations, as well as ad hoc channels with key distributors on Saturday mornings.
NBC Sports Network will televise the first match under NBC Sports Group’s three-year, $250 million pact -- Premiere League rights in the U.S. were previously held by Fox Sports Media Group, which sublicensed some action to ESPN -- with England's top soccer circuit on Aug. 17 as Liverpool hosts Stoke at Anfield at 7:45 a.m. (ET)
A quintet of matches will follow at 10 a.m., including four that will be televised on the Premiere League Extra Time Package -- comprising a series of ad hoc channels, a la out-of-market sports services -- that MPVDs will offer free of charge to NBC Sports Network subscribers. NBC Sports Network also will carry one of the five games in the busy 10 a.m. window.
As of presstime, NBC Sports Group said it has secured carriage for its Premier League Extra Time coverage with AT&T U-verse, Cablevision’s Optimum, Comcast’s Xfinity, DirecTV, Dish and Suddenlink.
Relative to streaming service, NBC Sports Live Extra, the aforementioned providers, as well as Cox and Verizon FiOS, will make all Premier League games available to their authenticated subscriber bases.
Additionally, over 100 members of the National Cable Television Cooperative have either signed-on to the Premier League Extra Time package or have opted-in via TV Everywhere, including Blue Ridge Communications, Buckeye CableSystem, CenturyLink Prism, and RCN, according to NBC Sports Group officials.
Notable by their absence: Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications. NBC Sports Group officials say they are continuing to work with these distributors and other affiliates that carry NBC Sports Network.
NBC and mun2 will simulcast the Swansea-Manchester United match at 12:30 p.m. on opening day, while NBC Sports Network will present a doubleheader -- Crystal Palace-Tottenham at 8:30 a.m. and Chelsea-Hull at 11 a.m. – on Aug. 18. The first weekend of the campaign concludes with NBC Sports Network’s coverage of Manchester City-Newcastle on Monday, Aug.19 at 3 p.m.
A total of 69 Premier League matches – at least five games each week in the season’s first three months – will be presented on NBC Sports Network, NBC and CNBC with all games preceded and followed by Premier League Live pre- and post-match shows from the NBC Sports Group International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn.
The remaining 61 matches in the first third of the season will be accessible through Premier League Extra in that 10 a.m. window on Saturdays.
In addition, 27 matches in the season’s first three months will be telecast in Spanish by Telemundo and mun2.
Other notable matches in the first part of the soccer circuit’s campaign include: ManU-Chelsea in a matchup of last season’s first- and third-place finishers on NBC Sports Network on Aug. 26 at 3 p.m.; Arsenal-Tottenham in a battle of the fourth- and fifth-place finishers on NBC Sports Network and mun 2 on Sept. 1 at 11 a.m.; and Cardiff City-Swansea City in a first-ever meeting of two Welsh team in England’s top-flight circuit on NBC Sports Network and mun 2 at 11 a.m. on Nov. 3.
NBCUniversal schedule for the first three months of the Premier League season:
(TBD indicates that there will be one match in that time slot on NBCSN, in some cases one match on mun2, and remaining non-NBCSN games on Premier League Extra Time. Final channel assignments for those matches will be made in the coming weeks.)
