The Dutch Eredivisie has been the red-headed stepchild of sports networks in the United States for too long. The entertaining Dutch league, which features rich histories, passionate supporters and skillful footballers, has bounced around from ESPN3 to GolTV and other networks in recent years, eventually resulting in the league not being anywhere on US television at all this 2014-15 season. But now it has finally found a home for soccer fans in the United States at Next Generation Sports Network (NGSN).
NGSN is a legal streaming service that has exclusive rights to Eredivisie, as well as a number of other soccer leagues and more leagues will be added in the future.
Best of all, for soccer fans, NGSN is offering a free 90-day trial with no strings attached.
I recently had an opportunity to sit down with NGSN CEO and President Harry van Streun in Miami to learn more about the streaming service, how it’s different, the background of the company and why they’re offering the 90-day trial.
First, the background of the company.
“NGSN is a group of entrepreneurs, part Dutch part American,” said Van Streun. “We went through the process of developing club apps in Holland for 2.5 years. We learned that was a great market, but we needed a bigger market to address.
“In Holland, we have club apps for Ajax, Feyenoord and other teams. The official apps are with us. We provide them and build them, with live feeds in there.”
NGSN has acquired the Internet rights to the Eredivisie for the next four years for not only the United States, but also Canada, China, Japan and Korea.
In addition to the Eredivisie, NGSN has the Internet live and on-demand rights to the soccer leagues from Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Portugal and Russia.
All of the games are available in HD. Van Streun was eager to point out that NGSN offers all of the games, not just select games. Plus, the games are available on-demand for the entire season not just for a few days like other services.
NGSN is available via the web, for PC/Mac and Android and iOS tablets and smartphones.
So, why did NGSN decide to offer a 90-day free trial for soccer fans who want to watch Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord, Benfica and other teams?
“We developed all of the apps in Holland, so we know the development part and the technical part,” he said. “But we know not enough about the cultural part in the US. We want to make sure that people like what they see and the translations are proper.”
Therefore, the 90-day trial will help NGSN gain valuable feedback from the soccer fans regarding what they like, so enhancements can be made before the 2015-16 European soccer seasons begin this summer.
The other difference with NGSN is that they’re providing their own commentaries, both in English and Spanish, from a studio based in Europe. One of the reasons for this is to be able to focus on providing the best quality viewing and listening experience for soccer fans.
NGSN is available to soccer fans in the US for the free 90-day trial. Sign up to NGSN for free today during the limited 90-day trial.
And after you sign up, you’ll see the links where you can download the NGSN app for Android and Apple iOS devices, or you can watch games in your Internet browser.
