For the 2013-14 season of the Premier League on NBC Sports, every single match will be made available live on television and the Internet via a combination of NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC, Premier League Extra Time, NBC Sports Live Extra app and other NBC networks. However, not every single match will be available on demand for the beginning of the season.

According to a NBC Sports spokesperson:

“There will be select games on demand (via Premier League Extra Time TV package and NBC Sports Live Extra streaming product) each week. This weekend to start, we’ll have two games and we’ll likely add games each week as the season progresses. The games will be available beginning later that afternoon and will be archived until the following Saturday.”

NBC Sports didn’t disclose the reason for the phased approach in regards to starting with two games available on-demand the first week followed by the possibility of adding more each week as the season unfolds.

It’s possible that NBC Sports may want to roll out the on-demand offerings in a phased approach to ensure that both NBC Sports Live Extra and Premier League Extra Time can handle the huge demand from soccer fans in the United States. As Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com points out, NBC Sports Live Extra specializes in live streaming and doesn’t currently offer on-demand matches for Major League Soccer or the National Hockey League.

What does this mean for soccer fans in the United States? If you have access to Premier League Extra Time, get your DVR ready to record the matches you want to watch later. For soccer fans with access to NBC Sports Live Extra, watch the live Premier League matches that are most important to you. As a safety net, NBC Sports will also have their Match Of The Day program for recaps of all games.

While everyone will agree that we would have loved to have 100% on-demand access beginning with the opening weekend via Premier League Extra Time and NBC Sports Live Extra, that isn’t the case. We still have every match available to us live. In the first few weeks of the season, it means that we’ll need to prioritize what games we want to watch live, get our DVRs ready and then think about a strategy of how best we want to consume the Premier League games. Over time, NBC Sports will increase the on-demand capabilities where we won’t have to think too much about what we want to watch when we want to watch it.