NBC Sports has announced a brand-new digital streaming subscription service that will allow soccer fans to be able to watch Premier League games without requiring a cable or satellite subscription.
The new service, Premier League Pass, will launch in time for the 2017/18 Premier League season.
Premier League Pass, priced at $49.99 per season, will allow soccer fans to watch all of the Premier League games that are not shown on television. So on a typical Premier League weekend, subscribers will be able to watch three games that are available exclusively via the new service.
Previously, those three EPL games per weekend (typically the 10am-Noon ET games that were not on NBCSN, CNBC or USA) were shown exclusively via Premier League Extra Time (on TV) and NBC Sports App (via streaming with authentication). With the launch of Premier League Pass digital service, it means the end of the Premier League Extra Time channels that were available by many TV providers as extra channels on DIRECTV, DISH, Time Warner and others. It also means that those three games will no longer be available via the NBC Sports App.
NBC Sports Group will continue to present its traditional TV offering, featuring up to 250 Premier League matches, including at least one match in each Premier League match time window, across NBC, NBCSN, and CNBC, as well as online on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App for mobile, tablets and connected TV devices. There will be no decrease in matches on NBC and NBCSN compared to prior seasons. Matches such as the Manchester Derby, North London Derby, and Merseyside Derby will remain on NBC and NBCSN as they will be televised in single-game windows.
It’s important to note that each Premier League club will have at least three matches available exclusively via the Premier League Pass service.
Premier League Pass is part of NBC Sports Gold, which is NBC Sports Digital’s direct-to-consumer live streaming product. Currently, NBC Sports Gold has similar paid subscription passes available for rugby, cycling, motocross and track-and-field.
In addition to the three games (on average) per week during the Premier League season, Premier League Pass will also feature full access to highlights and match replays. The match replays will be the 130 games available via Premier League Pass each season as well as “some” matches not offered on Premier League Pass.
SEE MORE: Schedule of Premier League games on US TV and streaming
Exclusive content via Premier League productions should be available via the NBC Sports App (with authentication). To be honest it sucks when I can’t watch shows like Premier League Preview/Review, Premier League News, Premier League World, classic match etc.
So let me get this straight. There’s a chance that we wont be able to watch a specific club on any given Saturday morning live? I may want to watch a Newcastle V Swansea game at 7am Pacific time on a Saturday morning and it wouldn’t be available?
Someone please correct me if I am wrong but if you have a cable subscription, you should be able to watch any game you want via the app.
Serms like that’s not the case anymore, would need cable subscription and nbc gold access.
Nope, they’re getting rid of that.
Is there any site that offers all ÉPL games with replay? Please
The replays are split between NBC Sports Gold and the NBC Sports App. NBC Sports Gold have the replays (for a short period of time) for the games that are exclusive to them via nbcsports.com/gold The NBC Sports App will have the replays of games that are exclusive to TV broadcast. Those can be found via nbcsports.com/live
This is awful news, honesty. Those matches available on the 491-495 channels on Directv were fantastic. Now to have to watch them through online services is not ideal to me. A major let down.
This is a terrible move by NBC Sports.
If you were able to watch every match via this service then fine. This however means that if you want the ability to watch every match you have to continue paying for your cable provider and adding this.
How could we go from the perfect platform for the league for this many years and then get thrown this load of nonsense?
What happens to football bars now on those weekends where your club is pushed into the 10-12 window and is not featured? Are we going back to illegal feeds
Looks like I’ll be using illegal streams again
What a terrible decision from NBC
NBC Sports paid $167 million/year for U.S. rights in all language to Premier League.
With ratings down, NBC Sports needs to find another revenue stream.
All the overflow matches will now cost you another $50.
If you are a neutral viewer, this won’t matter to you.
If you are a supporter of a small club, tough luck. NBC Sports now want to you pay another $50.
(What will really happen: a cottage industry of Virtual Private Network software packages and/or pirate streaming boxes will show up literally overnight for those who want to pirate video from the Middle East i.e. beIN Sports Middle East 1-12,, which offer every EPL match. Every ethnic neighborhood in major large cities in the U.S. will have shops selling illegal pirate video streaming boxes. Several of my neighbors watch Golden State Warriors NBA games on CCTV5 China using such illegal streaming video boxes instead of subscribing pay TV and pay over $7/month for NBC Sports Bay Area.)
Anyone who thinks pay TV is going away in favor of over-the-top subscriptions packages need to think again.
The pay TV model in the U.S., with expensive sports TV channels all bundled into one gigantic expanded tier, will be around for a while.
I now pay $133/month for pay TV, without a single premium channel such as HBO or Showtime. The expanded basic bundle I choose, DIRECTV’s XTRA package, is extremely bloated with several sports channels that are valued at over $7/month each.
So if I’m a Palace supporter and they are on early midday kickoff I wont be able to watch them. How does this work I pay a $50 a season to my supplyer or someone else if so can I still watch this on TV or watch by tablet?
You could NBC Sports directly via NBCSportsGold.com Most of the 10am ET games on Saturday will only be available via Premier League Pass through NBCSportsGold.com
What about Goal Zone?
No mention of Goal Zone has been made by NBC Sports yet.
So that means I might lower my package for my cable company??
Aside from the live games issue, this also suggests that NBC isn’t really investing in additional studio and other shoulder programming on NBCSN or NBC. There may be an occasional Behind the Badge, but the inconsistent Goal Zone times, Match of the Day times, non-existent news and highlight programs, etc will remain.
Honestly, right now may be the golden time period for soccer coverage in the US, with Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, MLS, etc all available on cable or broadcast TV. Who knows if NBC, FOX, etc are making money on Premiere League and Bundesliga, and who knows if bein will be a channel long term. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of this programming is pay only in the form of direct to consumer streaming eventually.
What the hell did you think would happen? You can’t pay that money and get the ratings they have. That was almost NBA money. Welcome to the real world everyone as now it’s just like everyone other sport in the US similar to buying out of market packages. I guess Fox isn’t so bad!
Will we be able to see the schedule of which games will be streamed on this new service before signing up?
It couldn’t have lasted forever. I think the comments suggesting that lower tier teams won’t be available may be initially true, but if nbc doesn’t realize the revenue that they anticipate it would be a logical leap for them to look to the ‘big five’ or six teams and remove them entirely from the main channel line up. They’d have reason to believe they could anticipate more revenue from United and Chelsea fans than Stoke City supporters. I’ll probably take a wait and see approach. However, if I cannot watch my team, I’ll certainly pay the fare.
So, getting rid of the overflow channels means I no longer need to subscribe to Directv. My wife will be overjoyed, since I am paying about $150 for the sports packages, no HBO/Showtime or anything…that should cut the family expense by about $50/month.
But, yes, that’s a bad move by NBC…oh, well, there are other ways to watch your favorite team, week in and week out…
Exactly what I did a few months ago. There will be ways around this for an old-timey geek like me. Meanwhile our household cut our costs in half while subscribing to TWO online serviced.
This has Comcast written all over it.
They are no better than drug dealers. Get people hooked with some for free then start charging through the nose for it.
How do you think this will affect local sport bars and pubs? A lot of people like myself go to a local pub to catch the Saturday matches, does this mean they won’t be a channel to switch on to?
NBC was doing such an excellent job with the EPL until this terrible idea.
Hope they continue highlights shows including Match of the Day
Much maligned Bein Sports looks better and better, but for how long before they jump on this bandwagon.
People will complain about anything unless it is free. They think they should be entitled to view every single sporting event out there.
is it free this is how much they charge your cable Station to show there channel and how many subscribers they have and how much revenue they get
NBC Sports Network $0.32 Charge 83,790 million subscribers $321 Million Revenue
To be completely honest, you guys have had it so good that now you’re feeling what the rest of the world feels, it hurts. Yes, you will need to pay extra but you can’t have everything included on your basic sports channels forever. PLP was the main service in New Zealand and parts of Asia in the previous deal and it was pretty decent. At $49.99 for a SEASON, that is a steal. Try being in the UK and being asked to pay the equivalent of $63.79 a MONTH or $91.50 with HD and that’s just for 126 matches on Sky Sports!
Christopher, question for you, Do you think the model of matches will be the same around NBC Sports and Telemundo/Universo? Meaning are they obligated to show the same games on cable tv,? In the past Telemundo/Universo has catered to its latino Audience as well (games shown on PL Extra for example on a Saturday before were shown by Telemundo/Universo)
This specifically for West Ham for example, do you think that a game from the Hammers that is on NBC Gold on a Saturday will be shown via cable by Tele/Universo?
Good question. I’ve put a message in to Telemundo to double check their schedule for the next couple of weeks (I’ll update it on the Premier League TV schedule page at http://www.worldsoccertalk.com/premier-league-tv-schedule once I get the details).
But it’s very probable that Telemundo will show games that NBCSN, CNBC and NBC will not show — especially if they’re featuring West Ham United. But we won’t know for sure until I get a confirmation from Telemundo (and again, I’ll update the TV schedule once I know).
Thanks Christopher!
It’d be awesome if you could start including the Telemundo/Universo on all just as a reference
Will do, just as soon as I get them. With Telemundo/Universo, they tend to take longer to decide or announce the information.
As per usual, this is all about money, i.e. making more of it for NBC. This sucks because the EPL deal has not been re-negotiated over the summer, so NBC’s costs to carry the EPL haven’t escalated which might justify gouging football fans (that’s right – it’s called football) by making them pay extra for something which was built into the channel line up I got with DirecTV last season.
Another reason to hate NBC Sports. Their coverage and programming of the EPL is woeful anyway. Rebecca Lowe as presenter. Seriously? Then we have Kyle Martino. Why is he there – oh yes, the token American presumably to appease the American audience. Who is he exactly and what did he achieve in the game? Answer – a nobody and nothing. Odd then that ‘Mr Cliche’ talks for about twice as long as the other pundits, never having played in the EPL and obviously knowing very little about it or football in general. Then we have Arlo White. The most awful commentator I have ever been subjected to. His commentary (don’t ever refer to it as a “call” – ever!) sounds like him reading out a long, long, long list of irrelevant facts that bear no relation to what’s happening on the pitch. Then NBC Sports ruined The Review Show – complete game highlights missed out, no manager/coach interviews but plenty of ad breaks to make up for it. The Preview Show disappeared completely and then afterwards we get Match of the Day, Match of the Day 2, Goal Zone, The Mixer and who knows what else. It’s a complete mess. The only saving grace is Robbie Mustoe in the studio and Lee Dixon’s hilarious co-commentary.
I long for the day when NBC’s EPL contract expires and Fox Sports gets it back.
The sooner NBC are out the better , Just a badly run outfit
So go the service but can’t get the app on my tv………..says not compatible with 2015 Sony TV.
Don’t figure.
This is a great way to clobber already depressed ratings.. Can’t watch Man City vs. Everton while at work? Pay $50. For many people already paying $125-225 to get decent world football coverage, another $50 is just not going to be acceptable.
I’ll just have to watch more Real Madrid and Barcelona replays, I guess.
I only have cable TV for the Premier league, I guess it can go now. Back to watching streams on my PC. NBC you suck.
This is absolutely atrocious. What a pathetic move by NBC, and also a foolish business decision. There is no way I’m paying for such a pathetic money grab attempt. Unbelievable. I hope they suffer tremendously for this.
Like we do not pay enough already for cable TV.
no way I am paying more
In case you’re wondering, NBCSports Gold Premier League pass is having troubles authenticating users this morning. Lots of unhappy subscribers are leaving messages on NBC Sports Gold Facebook page. I sent an email to [email protected] and they confirmed they are having problems on the back end and are working on it. After many attempts at logging in on my ROKU I’m finally able to watch the Liverpool-Burnley match but the bitrate is low (looks like SD).
I’m new to streaming subscriptions for sports events and with the problems I had with fubo.tv last week and was unable to watch the USMNT’s WC Qualifier, and now this on NBC Sports Gold, I’m wondering if these sort of things are expected hiccups with a live streaming service?
It’s one thing to have these sort of problems when watching content from streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime where the content isn’t live, but this is terrible if you’re trying to watch a live sports event. The recent delay of the actual McGregor/Mayweather fight is proof of this when their PPV system had issues. NBC isn’t going to get the EPL to delay the start of matches because of their back end problems though.
Is this sort of thing expected with live sports streaming services or have I just had a run of bad luck lately?
Hi Jack, great question. To me, the issues that fuboTV had with the Honduras-USA game as well as the issues that people had with NBC Sports Gold this past weekend are very rare. On a regular basis, I’m streaming approximately 20 matches per week and rarely do I experience any problems at all.
Been trying Fubo for about 4 weeks now and have had nothing but problems, it’s not just me because when I contact them they tell me they are aware and it should be back up soon! That is the only service that I have had issues with, which is unfortunate because I like the features they have.
So i broke down and bought the subscription. Does anyone know if you can start a match from the beginning if its already in progress? Or do you have to wait for the replay to be available? I will likely be using the nbc sports gold app on fire tv.
Remember when NBC came into the game 3 years ago, and said EPL games all free.
I never believed it , I thought at the time it was only a matter of time before they start charging extra, I feel for the fans that they have to pay extra to watch their team now.
By the way had no problem finding a stream to watch LFC vs Burnley in English.
I am not paying you extra NBC.
There’s only one thing worse than piracy: boasting about it.
Still not impressed with the PLP streaming quality – can’t they at least make their HLS work properly, as it stands when it switches bitrate it also jumps back a few seconds. Audio frequently out of sync. This on fully updated ATV4. Ridiculous. And 30fps for live sport, give me strength….they should look at DirecTV Now for an example of how to broadcast live via IP.
Yep, I really don’t have a problem with the concept behind it really but the quality is not good, many people are having issues during matches, a quick search on social media will show that. I would think with a paid product they would have some type of customer service but they do not, they do not respond to social media inquiries and if you email them you receive a canned answer and no response after a follow up question.
I got the canned response, told them I didn’t care because they took my money for a service they’re not providing. My $50 was refunded. (I’d rather pay for a good feed but the Gold crap was worse than pirate feeds from 5-10 years ago so what’s the point?)
Christoper.
Can you help me with some basic info? I am a new time EPL fan; last season I watched on Sundays in a sports bar in New Orleans (mostly West Ham United but all clubs i will watch). This season most West Ham games are on Saturdays but I work Saturdays. I would like to record their games on Saturday mornings to watch at night. Currently I don’t have cable or internet just a hotspot. Is this my process:
1.) Get a cable/internet service (Cox cable most likely) with NBCSN
2.) Get a DVR?
3.) Get a Premier League Pass
4.) Record games through DVR, and watch later.
Or
1.) Get a cable/internet service
2.) Get a HDMI cable hookup
3.) Get an apple TV?
4) Watch games later through streaming service, through my TV on an HD cable?
Also, If I wanted to follow West Bromwich Albion in the Championship League, how do i do that?
Any info would be helpful. Thank you.
Hi Bradley, NBC hasn’t announced yet whether NBC Sports Gold’s Premier League Pass will be returning next season or not, so I would hold off on making a decision until we hear something.
Personally I’d recommend getting Internet service through whichever provider you have and then subscribe to a streaming service such as fuboTV or Sling TV or PlayStation Vue which streams all of the NBC and NBCSN Premier League games, and then get Premier League Pass on top of that if the product returns next season.
Regarding West Brom, it depends whether WBA signs up the iFollow service on their website (we’ll find out before the season starts). With iFollow, you can watch every game through WBA’s website except for the games where they’re on ESPN+ (which is a separate paid subscription service). So again, it’s too early to say right now depending on the iFollow situation.
Super information! Thanks Chris. I talked to NBC as well and they said to hold off until NBC has decided how they are doing the premier league. Im going to prob get a Roku or Apple TV with Sling TV and internet and then see. I had searched online and I-follow seems the right way to go for the Championship league as well; its a shame that so many teams don’t subscribe/allow it. Thanks again