After NBC Univeral’s announcement tonight, we now know a lot more about their Premier League coverage plans for 2013-16.
Here’s what we know so far:
1. NBC will make all Premier League matches available for viewing.
2. All of the Premier League games will be shown live. Games will not be shown on tape delay.
3. NBC’s English-language networks will show 6 live Premier League games a week. One or two of NBC’s cable will be used along with NBC Sports Network. Other games will be streamed live.
4. NBC Sports Network will be the main channel to watch most EPL games.
5. Approximately 18-20 Premier League matches per season will be shown live on free-to-air NBC, primarily on Saturdays.
6. Telemundo and mun2 will show Spanish-language coverage of the Premier League in the U.S.
7. Among the TV channels where Premier League matches may be viewable are NBC, NBC Sports Network, Telemundo and mun2; among other channels which could include CNBC, MSNBC, USA and Bravo.
8. Matches will also be live-streamed on the NBC Sports Live Extra platform across web, tablet and mobile devices.
9. Mid-week Premier League games will be available digitally or through some sort of arrangement with MVPDs (multichannel video programming distributors) on some sort of pay TV package.
10. NBC’s coverage of the Premier League will begin with the 2013-14 season (in August, 2013) and will end with the 2015-16 season (in May, 2016).
11. NBC will include pre- and post-match shows, as well as highlight and weekly wrap-up programs
12. NBC may partner with BT on production. The two media companies have already had early talks regarding a deal.
13. It’s a near guarantee that NBC Sports soccer commentator Arlo White will be a prominent role in the coverage of the Premier League.
14. NBC will be in an acquisition mode to hire talent for its coverage of the Premier League.
The only major questions marks I have thus far are: 1) How much will their premium package cost to ensure that Premier League fans in the United States can have access to all of the live games throughout the entire season, 2) How many of the games will be shown in HD, and 3) Will the matches feature NBC commentators, or will the audio feed from TWI/IMG be used instead (as FOX Soccer does except for rare circumstances where they use the Sky Sports audio feed)?
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