Beginning with the 2019/20 season, NBC Sports are making changes to its Premier League streaming service with the launch of a new tier as well as a combination of enhancements, new programming and a price increase to its flagship NBC Sports Gold product.
Fans of Premier League clubs will need to pay attention to the changes as they’re a massive development to what soccer fans have been accustomed to with the NBC Sports Gold service.
NBC Sports has launched a brand-new Premier League MatchDay Pass option, which is available for $39.99/season. The service will only allow subscribers to access the 140 live Premier League games that are not televised. While the concept is similar to the original NBC Sports Gold Premier League Pass that was priced at $49.99/season, it’s different in the following ways:
• No full-match replays are available (Programming offered includes live games only; 140 per season; featuring a minimum of 4 matches per club per season),
• No ability to pause or rewind games,
• No access to shoulder programming.
While NBC Sports has put restrictions on Premier League MatchDay Pass, it’s now focusing more of the bells and whistles on the enhanced tier of NBC Sports Gold that it has created that retains the Premier League Pass name.
With Premier League Pass, you now get:
• The same 140 games available via Premier League MatchDay Pass,
• Full match replays for above 140 non-televised games available on-demand approximately 4 hours after each game ends,
• Full match replays of all of the televised games (240 per season) available at 9PM ET on each matchday,
• New regularly-scheduled content from Sky Sports that previously was never available in the United States,
Notably, the price of the flagship Premier League Pass service has increased by 30% from $49.99 per season to $64.99. (Current NBC Sports Gold subscribers have been offered a discount of $59.99/season when their subscriptions auto-renew at the beginning of August).
Since launching NBC Sports Gold in 2017, this is the first time that NBC Sports Gold has ever made all 380 Premier League matches available to consumers in the United States (albeit with a huge catch, which we’ll explain in more detail below).
Both NBC Sports Gold services will stream coverage via desktop, mobile, tablets, and connected TV devices.
With Premier League Pass, NBC Sports is promising more than 1,400 hours of shoulder-programming too. See end of article for more details about daily coverage.
Is NBC Sports Gold a smart buy?
Analysis by Christopher Harris, Soccer media analyst
Since 2017 when NBC Sports rolled out their new paid streaming subscription model to monetize the streaming of Premier League games not shown on television, the move angered soccer fans in the United States.
When NBC Sports first acquired the rights to the Premier League in 2013, the US broadcaster made every single Premier League game available live and at no extra cost to customers who subscribed to NBCSN through cable or satellite. That benefit, which helped fuel the growth of the NBCSN brand, came to a sudden end in the summer of 2017.
While competitors such as ESPN have been expanding their soccer offerings on the ESPN+ streaming platform and keeping the price at an affordable $4.99/month, NBC Sports has doubled down on its paid subscription service by now making it more restrictive and increasing the price by 30% for the 2019/20 Premier League season that begins in early August.
NBC Sports is trying to serve two taskmasters that are in complete contrast to each other. As a business entrenched in the television industry and owned by Comcast, NBC Sports needs to retain as many television subscribers as possible. At the same time, it’s important for NBC Sports to stay relevant in the digital space, so offering a product that consumers can subscribe to and where NBC Sports can generate additional revenue is vital.
But what NBC Sports ends up with is a streaming product that satisfies almost no one. If you’re a cord cutter, NBC Sports Gold will not provide you access to every single live game. And if you’re a NBCSN cable or satellite subscriber, it feels like NBC Sports is “double dipping” because you have to pay extra for it.
NBC Sports Gold was bad enough when it was $49.99/season, but the decision to not make linear TV games available on-demand until 9PM ET on the day of the game is crippling. Either NBC Sports doesn’t understand the needs of their viewers or they don’t care because the 9PM ET restriction will significantly irritate the viewership experience for fans of the Premier League. For most soccer fans, by 9PM ET on any given matchday, Premier League games are old news and practically irrelevant.
With the changes to Premier League Pass, NBC Sports can now advertise that it streams all 380 Premier League games per season to soccer fans in the United States. But if you read the fine print, it doesn’t give the consumers what they want, which is a streaming product that offers live and on-demand access to all 380 games similar to what DAZN is offering consumers in Canada starting this August.
Schedule of shoulder-programming available throughout each week:
Daily Content:
Premier League Today – daily, weekday program showcasing the top news stories from around the Premier League.
Fanzone – a daily international fans’ phone-in show, which also includes Skype callers, as well as social media contributors and emailers.
Monday:
The Weekend Review – a two-hour studio show reviewing every weekend match with expert analysis, a former referee discussing the key decisions and VAR talking points, and the best post-match reactions.
Tuesday:
The Headline Makers – a 60-minute studio show featuring journalists from around the world offering perspective on what’s happening in the Premier League.
The Watching World– a 30-minute show dedicated to Premier League coverage from around the world, which features the top content from the past week’s international broadcasts, including the best discussions, analysis, interviews, debates, and more.
Netbusters – a half-hour program which showcases all the goals, misses, saves, bloopers and quotes from each round of matches using alternative camera angles.
Wednesday:
Premier League World – the weekly magazine show provides club updates, with manager and player interviews, and showcases features from around the world.
The Big Interview – Exclusive sit-down interviews with the biggest names in the Premier League.
1-11 – a Premier League legend or current player reveals the best 11 they’ve played with and against.
Thursday:
The Analysis Show – a 60-minute show providing the first look ahead to the weekend fixtures with detailed analysis.
Inside the Premier League – a 30-minute show offering unique insight into the Premier League through sports science, tactical trends and top performances.
Match Pack – on Thursdays, a half-hour magazine show previewing the weekend’s matches using in-depth statistical data and graphic animation.
Fantasy Premier League – on Thursdays, this show offers fantasy managers the latest inside information, tips and predictions based on the Premier League’s global online fantasy game.
Friday:
The Kelly & Wrighty Show – a 90-minute preview of all the weekend’s action with Sky Sports’ Kelly Cates and Arsenal legend Ian Wright.
Weekend Warm-Up – With a mix of new features and strands, this weekly studio show features the best preview material directly from the Premier League clubs.
Premier League Preview – a comprehensive, fast-paced look ahead to the weekend building up to the major matches, which also includes key comments from the day’s press conferences.
Saturday:
Soccer Saturday (Sky) – Sky Sports News highlighting the day’s Premier League action.
Sunday:
Goals on Sunday (Sky) – A panel of commentators dissect Saturday’s Premier League action and look ahead to Sunday’s games.
Additional weekly programming:
Men In Blazers – 30-minute show featuring popular soccer personalities Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, who have received critical acclaim for their wit and rapport discussing international soccer for an American audience.
Match of the Day – An in-depth look at each day’s matches, featuring long form highlights and match commentary.
Season Preview (2019-20) – A look ahead to the upcoming season with a focus on the major storylines, players and favorites in the Premier League.
Premier League Download – NBC Sports Group’s exclusive series, Premier League Download has both entertained and educated audiences by taking in-depth looks at some of the league’s biggest topics and themes. Prior seasons’ shows featured managers Pep Guardiola, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, and Jose Mourinho.
Additional archival programming:
Gary Neville’s Soccerbox – Premier League legend Gary Neville sits down with former teammates and rivals to relive their most compelling matches
Premier League Legends – a docuseries profiling the greatest and most influential players in the history of the Premier League
Premier League World: Alex Ferguson Special – An hour-long feature encapsulating the legendary career of the iconic Manchester United manager.
The Noisy Neighbours – A look back at the final day of the 2011-12 Premier League season, as Manchester City won the Premier League title in epic fashion over crosstown rivals Manchester United.
Never Lose Faith: The Sunderland AFC Story – An insightful documentary exploring the trials and tribulations of Sunderland fans over the history of the club.
Tottenham Hotspur: To Dare is to Do – Roger Bennett’s in-depth look at the history of Tottenham Hotspur and the impact of the club’s new stadium
2018-19 Season Review – A look back at all the action and storylines that made the 2018-18 Premier League campaign one to remember.
According to NBC Sports, their exclusive Premier League content begins Wednesday, August 7, 2019 with their season preview programming. NBC Sports Gold’s new Premier League MatchDay Pass debuts on Saturday, August 10.
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I think I may give the Gold package a try this year, I miss all the shoulder programming.
“…but the decision to not make linear TV games available on-demand until 9PM ET on the day of the game is crippling. Either NBC Sports doesn’t understand the needs of their viewers or they don’t care because the 9PM ET restriction will significantly irritate the viewership experience for fans of the Premier League.”
This ignores the fact that the NBC Sports Gold package is not designed to be a replacement for having a subscription to a TV/streaming service which offers NBCSN but rather a complementary service. If they were to offer every game live through the service, it would have a negative impact on not just NBCSN’s reach but the ratings they get for their PL coverage.
As such, the 9pm restriction on accessing televised games is a ‘compromise’ position which balances ‘protecting’ NBCSN’s coverage and providing a way to access all PL games via a OTT package.
One other note – while it’s good that some Sky programs have been added to the Gold package, they should have gone ‘all in’ and offered as much as possible. For example, I noticed their weeknight show ‘The Debate’ isn’t one of the shows being offered which is disappointing
The Matchday Pass is useless without any replays. If they just left out replays of matches shown on TV that would be understandable for the price. But to have no replays of matches you have access to with the plan is just crazy. Basically they have increased the price of the original streaming plan by 30% and added a restriction to replays of 9pm ET. Match highlights appear on youtube within hours so the 9pm restriction makes little sense.
If you subscribe to Fubo or Sling, would it be possible to record any of the matches on Matchday Pass? That could be a workaround.
Hi Steven, unfortunately Matchday Pass isn’t available on fuboTV or Sling. It’s only available as a paid option through NBC Sports Gold.
I can’t say I’m upset about this. If you just want to watch your teams live games on Gold, it’s cheaper. If you want MORE shoulder problem, it’s a bit more. If the content from Sky is anything like the daily show on NBCSN now, it’ll be well worth it.
The weekend programming from sky seem odd choices that clash with, rather than enhance the nbc coverage. Soccer Saturday is mainly targeted at the 3pm kick offs for the uk who can’t see those matches. And goals on Sunday will be irrelevant as we in the US wake up to the games and don’t need hours of pre-programming.
Personally I’d love to see Gary Neville’s parts of Monday Night Football made available. Or something like the 24/7 ‘sky sports premier league’ channel made an option.
I did the free trial of Gold last year and it was clunky and difficult to easily find the shows that I wanted. ESPN+ has 50x the content and easier to navigate. Actually make a good product if you are going to charge a steep annual fee and then increase that. Oh well, I just find my club’s 4 or 5 games in the nether world when they are on Gold.
Exactly!
The question I had when this was announced a few weeks ago: will you be able to see replays of the NBCSN game via the standard NBC Sports login? If not, they’re actually taking more functionality away from those who don’t need/want Gold.
There is no reason to think they’d remove On Demand for NBCSN broadcasted games.
I mean, I hope not. However, it would not shock me if they made us pay for NBCSN on-demand as well.
There’s a new blog post on this.
It seems a bit odd to cripple the $40 package with no On Demand for the smaller tier teams. Though I suppose more options and stuff. $65 still wouldn’t be bad if Stoke City were still in the EPL.
The thing I don’t understand, if your reporting is accurate, is if I am paying the full boat for Premier League Pass, meaning $60/season, (and I separately pay for an NBC/NBCSN package), then since my team (West Ham) is on Gold a lot, as a full payer for the Gold pass, are they really making me wait til 4 pm Eastern Time if I don’t happen to be at my TV at 10 am Eastern for the live Gold game? This seems absolutely unnecessary and I can’t for the life of me figure out who NBC/Comcast would be ‘protecting’. If the only way to watch Brighton v West Ham on August 17 is on Gold, and if I can’t be at my TV from 10-noon, why wouldn’t NBC let me start the match at 11 or noon or 1 pm??? Certainly I can do that on MLB.tv or ESPN+! Why is NBC crippling their on-demand service for full payers???
The leaving of replays until much later in the day is a deal killer for my family….and at that price, a terrible choice. ESPN+ is so far ahead as far as content AND much better picture quality…..and there inreasing content all the time. Maybe its just me, but if your going to charge these kind of fees, think about what your subscrbers want most…and on demand acess is got to be near the top. I love the EPL, but i may just drop my subscription this year, and spend the money elsewhere….and thats the only voice NBC will listen too,
They are giving you every game on demand… for only $65. You expect the show time to be only a few hour delay for that cheap of a price?
If you compare it to price per game, then it’s more expensive than streaming services for North American pro sports leagues like MLB and the NHL–and with those services you literally have to wait ZERO time for replays since you can start live games from the beginning even if they’ve already started, something NBC somehow still isn’t doing with this service.
ESPN+ is only a few minutes…… I know NBC doesnt want to hurt their main cable coverage, thats fine, but once the late game is over, make the rest avaible. There is zero reason to delay those games for 6 plus hours….and your right, the cost is not the issue, its doing something that hinders subscribers without reason.
Without reason? Comcast wants you to subscribe to NBCSN. That is how they make their money. Selling a la carte comes at a price to NBCSN, both in carriage revenue and advertising. So, they put in the hiccup. Also… we have the West Coast to blame with their three hour time difference probably.
Well, in that case we’re not too far from blaming the US nation as a whole, or that subset of its population who regularly watches EPL matches and programming. After all, it is the five hour-or-so time difference due to the rather inconvenient ocean between ol’ Blightey and the East Coast that even throws off the broadcast schedules and programming line-ups and thereby cause all this consternation and kerfuffle.
Opinion: Quality vs quantity for me. I have both and value ESPN+ greatly for a sliver of their content, but not a lot of it. I value all of Gold.
So I need the top package to be able to watch a delay of the games – ie midweek ones that you can’t (for whatever reason) watch live. If I auto-renew it’ll cost me $10 more for the season. Obviously that sucks but not a deal breaker.
Living in the USA – but still being able to watch every Saints game (on TV or a decent stream) is what counts. Specially when we ‘do a Leicester’ and win the league this year. Roll on the new season.
For me, it’s worth it to keep my subscription to NBC Sports Gold, even though the price has gone up. I have my fill of football with the live matches, replays and Premier League Today every day during the week.
Gaffer — was there any mention of the upper tier having a better frame rate than 30fps? I gave up on NBC Gold because the quality was so poor. I would reconsider if they would up the frame rate.
I bet the people who moan the loudest about this are the sort of people who spend at least $10 a week ($520 a year) in corporate chain coffee shops.
Plus I bet they support Lpool or Man Utd or Man City or Arsenal or Chelsea – so rarely need NBCSG anyway.
How many points will Saints win the league by? I’m going for 2. Last game of the season v Sheff Utd will be tense.
The article mentions Soccer Saturday being in the package. Does this mean we can watch Soccer Saturday live every week? Any idea how long the broadcast for Soccer Saturday would be if it is available??
Hi Bobby, I haven’t watched the show in years, but it will be available every Saturday during the season. And if I remember correctly, it broadcasts for approximately 2 hours (from 10am to Noon ET).
Last season Soccer Saturday ran from 12pm to 6pm in the UK (7am to 1pm ET). Three hours preview and build up, studio watching screens of 4 matches at 3pm and an hours results service and EFL goals. It is possible the show will change format slightly now that Sky in the UK have rights for the 5:30pm PL kick off.
After reading your article its obvious now why Goals On Sunday will now have a new presenter and no longer feature EFL action. The Comcast \ Sky takeover is now really taking shape with more American style shows being produced here like “Transfer Talk” on Sky etc.
Thanks for the response. The quick updates are fun to listen to but then it’s hard to follow the game on TV. It’s great if your team isn’t in the EPL.
I wonder of that will be live only or if we can stream a replay of these shows for a limited time? I live in Hawaii, so I often watch my EPL on delay by a few hours. Would greatly affect my perceived value of this product.
I’ll wait and see before I make judgment on the price.
I already have NBCSN via Fubo and the NBCSN app with provider login would get match replays after they air, usually restricted to the matchweek the last two seasons. If NBC somehow does away with the latter in favor of the 9pm on demand, then I would see a concern.
I don’t understand anything about this. I don’t want ANY bumper programming, just the ability to watch games on demand since life often requires things other than football. NBC is going to turn me from a paid customer to a pirate.
Am I wrong that the on demand replays of the game will be removed from Gold for a given week when the next week’s matches start? They are not available throughout the whole season?
The games are usually available on-demand for roughly 2-3 days after they air. Under the new streaming offerings, this would only be for the Premier League Pass option at $64.99/season
They are certainly not available for the whole season.
thanks
Matches have been historically been available on demand for about a week or until the next match day. In fact, for international breaks , they’d be available for the whole two weeks until new content pushed them aside.
I remember on WST people were asking someday being able to watch all 380 games live online and enjoying the big games without Arlo White doing commentary. You can’t do any of that. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but before NBC Gold came about, we could watch 7-8 games per week through NBCSN and sister networks. Now with Gold, we can watch about 5 games per week through NBC and NBCSN, and have to pay for the rest.
It was never that many through networks. Participating carriers would have something called “Premier League Extra Time” which put 10am ET games in overflow channels for free. Those overflow games have been on Gold for the past 2 seasons.
I again will not subscribe. Awful service, picture/stream quality and price compared to something like ESPN. I wish more fans would boycott and not subscribe so NBC would improve and charge a more reasonable fee. I guess they had enough demand last year where they felt they could make this service worse and charge more for it. Shame.
Easy to say, but when you are a “proper” fan of a club outside the top 6 then $60 to watch 25 of your team’s matches isn’t a bad deal. You can also get into the relegation battle which NBC usually skirts over in favour of focusing on Arsenal charge for the 4th place trophy
This is going to require some thought as to what to do. I have Gold, didn’t use it much but was glad to have it when I needed it. I liked the bumper coverage but didn’t actually watch it that much. I’m intrigued by the additional Sky Sports coverage, but if it will just be more programming that I like but don’t have time to watch, then it would not be smart to upgrade.
I guess we are lucky to have some much coverage but the content providers aren’t doing us any favors with the distribution.
“some much” s/b “so much”
I can understand the 9PM restriction on replays for the televised matches, don’t want to cannibalize their cable subscriptions, but the 4 hour delay for the streaming only matches? Pretty sure + has them available very soon after matches end. Also, not able to pause/rewind etc makes no sense. Almost everyone with cable access usually has DVR service so matches on TV have this functionality, to not include for streaming is a huge disservice. People who can’t watch from the very beginning for whatever reason are locked into missing some action or having to wait an additional 4+ hours to see.
Is the weekly programming exclusive to NBC Gold or is some on NBCSN too? For example Men In Blazers mentioned and that was on NBCSN. On delay for Gold if remaining on TV or are they moved to streaming only (like ESPNFC)?
The 4 hour delay for streaming pushes you to watch the 12:30 game plus Goal Zone. I don’t have a huge problem with that.
This feels like a greedy cash grab to me that is only going to get worse as the years go on. It seems to present problematic issues that no one will be happy with.
More and more, some of us are going to have to prioritize our choices. I opted out of B/R Live last year as TNT coverage plus Univision was good enough (I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but I lived…). I wonder how many PL games will be on NBC Universo/Telemudo?
At the end of the day, I am on the fence with this new plan. On one hand, the upper tier might be nice in the fall and spring where youth soccer has me out on the fields, so I can’t always watch live. On the other hand, like with B/R, I can probably live without it.
another scum by nbc thieves to rip off the USA soccer fans.
plenty of free streams on line to watch any game
smart people do not pay extra , pay enough already on cable
remember lads when nbc first started in 2013 they promised all the games will be free, yeah right
a big F….ck off to NBC
The on-demand changes are infuriating to me. So we’re talking about the 10 a.m. ET games, which you used to be able to set the DVR for when they were televised as part of cable packages as Extra Time, now not being available until 4 p.m. ET?
I understand it for games that are already on NBC/NBCSN, since you can set a DVR for those, but what is the logic behind making people wait all day for these non-televised games, especially since you can’t start games from the beginning after they’ve already begun? (This also speaks to inferior technology, since this is something you can do with other sports streaming services.)
And this is somehow worth a price increase???
Gaffer — Just received an interesting email from NBC Sports. Here is the direct language in the email:
Thanks for reaching out in reference to your subscription. Premier League Pass on NBC Gold videos are streamed in 4K. Please, let us know if you need anything else.
Thanks,
Angela
NBC Sports Support
This makes the Premier League Pass very interesting. I was hoping for 1080 at 60fps, but was not expecting 4K.
That is an interesting email. In my opinion, Espn + and the Fox Sports app have by far, way better video quality than the NBC Sports app. I had Gold for two months last year, and it was slightly better video quality but with the resources Comcast/Universal has as well as the premier league there really should be a massive improvement done. A game with premier league sides in the FA Cup looks superior on Espn +. However, maybe that email is signs that things will be more positive. Now, will these be for all games including the ones broadcast on the cable channels? Hopefully so
Whoa. If that 4k streaming is true, then that’s definitely a perk.
I just heard back from NBC Sports and they said that the information provided by the customer service rep is incorrect.
NBC Sports will broadcast about 40 matches in 4K this season (similar to last season). They are part of the linear TV package, and 4K streams are not available via NBC Sports Gold.
For the games in 4K that are shown on television on NBC or NBCSN, those games are streamed in 4K via fuboTV.
It sounded too good to be true lol.
Thank you so much for checking on this matter. Did NBC Sports state if the Gold Stream would be improved at all? I, like many others, thought 4K was too good to be true, but with ESPN+ and even Fox Sports streams supplying 60fps, the poor quality of the NBC Gold stream prevents many people from making the purchase.
I agree, the ESPN + and Fox Sports app video quality are superior in every way. NBC/Universal/Comcast really has no excuse for that. They will charge as much as they can and that is their prerogative and business, but at the very least they should be 1080p 60fps for all those sporting events they have the rights to. That goes for Gold and the main NBC Sports app.
Hi Timm, no news about improvements to the stream quality as far as frames per second, sorry.
What about the nbc sports app ? Am I still able to watch the televised matches right away using my login credentials or do I need to wait until 6pm ?
Just pirate the matches i cant see. Its only 4 per season.
Has NBC Sports given any reason for the 9pm delay of replays?
On the NBC Sports Gold website comparing the two plans, I noted that the Matchday Pass is not commercial-free like the Premier League Pass. How intrusive will the commercials be during the match if that’s what they plan on doing.
Looks like Comcast wants to build another skyscraper in center city Philadelphia. Well not on my dime I am not paying them anything extra. I already pay enough for a cable bill. It’s simple for me if the match is on I watch if not I don’t. I will survive with out it.
Does anyone know if the nbc sports app will continue to function as before ? i.e the EPL games are available right after on demand ? Or does the 6pm delay apply to this app as well ?
I noticed something NBC is doing with other sports: Tour de France and Golf. Live on NBCSN, and once it is over when you go to replays the event is then classified under Gold. You no longer see the NBCSN logo so that the event you previously saw live now is not available for replay. I’m assuming this might happen with EPL, I hope that is not the case. I just noticed this tidbit and wanted to share it.
This is what I’ve been curios about since the news last week. So apparently the only way to watch these games are to either watch them live or dvr them ( if you’re a cable subscriber )
Today we got our answer: no more replays on the NBC SN App, you have to have Gold. Or DVR
NBC had to pay a premium to keep the prem last round of bidding and this is what you get. A lot of you sound like socialist hippies who think everything should be free. It’s like wanting to watch the best players on the world but getting pissed when ticket prices skyrocket. Suck it up and buy one or get a new job other than a barista at some hipster coffee shop. $60 is great for all the shoulder programming and live games.
I won’t disagree with your point too much. I will say, essentially increasing the price of the content for consumers two of the last three years looks somewhat sloppy and poorly planned.
Fox televised UCL but made us pay extra for on demand through foxsoccertogo. Only ESPN consistently provides it matches on demand for “free” (with the exception on NFL games I think).
Like I said, the optics look bad if in fact the numbers make sense in general.
Tim, Stop being a parrot for NBC Sports. I’m not interested in their talking points. Poor you, calling people socialist for standing up to a corporation. Is that what they taught you at Trump University?
The NBC hiking of EPL access was inevitable they flat out said they made little to no money off the Premier League under the old original 3 yr $250m=$83m yr deal. After the deal was renewed to 6yr $1bn=$167yr they were always going to have to do this to break even on the deal. The real question and issue comes when this deal is over and the money driven EPL will again ask for a doubling or significant increase to the new deal. Expect subscription prices to almost double as NBC tries to find a way to break even. Here’s a excerpt below from Awful Announcing
By Matt Yoder on 11/28/2017
“Jonathan Tannenwald at the Philadelphia Inquirer has an article up this week about NBC Sports Gold with the platform sure to be under the microscope this week for the wrong reasons. In fact, NBC executive Rick Cordella joked about the backlash that is sure to come on Twitter with so many big clubs being inaccessible to the majority of fans.
At least NBC is open about the fact that this really wasn’t done to make fans happy, but to help offset rights fees and make more money.
We have conviction that this is the right business model around the Premier League, and the other sports we’ve added to NBC Sports Gold,” Cordella said. “The media world is continuing to shift, and TV ratings aren’t what they used to be, and certainly subscriber levels haven’t been as high as they’ve been in the past. So [we’re] trying to figure out, how do we remunerate the rights we paid for? Direct-to-consumer [subscription video] with NBC Sports Gold is going to be an important part of that.”
You might have noticed Cordella’s use of the word “remunerate.” It wasn’t accidental. In 2015, NBC paid the Premier League approximately $1 billion for a six-year rights deal, after an initial three-year deal worth around $250 million. The network then saw Premier League TV ratings drop by an average of nearly 100,000 viewers per game from the 2015-16 season to 2016-17.
Cordella said NBC “made no money to very little money” from streaming non-televised games on the free-with-authentication platform. So they tried something different. And they boosted the offering with nearly 1,000 hours of shoulder programming produced by the Premier League’s vast in-house production arm, as well as a Premier-League produced live studio show that airs in various forms across almost all 24 hours of the day.
I’m not opposed to the idea of having to pay for a streaming service in order to access all the games–the only hard part about that is that these games used to be available simply as part of my cable package, whereas that never was the case for other sports leagues.
The problem is that they want to charge this money but the service itself is inferior. They can pile on all the add-ons they want, but none of that makes up for a service where you can’t start a live game from the beginning or watch on demand immediately after it ends–not to mention with picture quality that also isn’t as good as it could or should be.
Sure. Push more people to pirate sources. Brilliant.
Fox charged $15 a month for live EPL access (and their streaming experience ranged from decent to awful). NBC is charging about half of that, and they paid a lot more for the rights, which is why it comes with an asterisk. NBC’s biggest mistake was just giving everything away with access to NBCSN. That spoiled a lot of viewers.
This isn’t like the Champions League or worse Europa League, where Turner took the rights from another company that broadcasted a lot of the games and put some to all but one of the matches behind a paywall.
I see this as a problem of the majority of soccer fans in the US being neutral and not having one team they root for as a diehard (not saying they don’t exist, just more neutrals).
For our American sports we are already accustomed to following our local team on a regional sports network and occasionally on national TV. We don’t expect to be able to watch every game for every team unless we subscribe to an additional service like NBA League Pass, NHL Center Ice, etc.
With soccer we were/are spoiled with being able to watch it all.
Perhaps NBC could add another cheaper tier that only has access to the matches of a particular club? If on NBCSN the fan would still need cable to watch, just like for American sports if their team is on national TV that game.
Might be a compromise so someone only wanting to watch West Ham for example can do so a little more cheaply. Those neutrals who want more than what NBCSN and NBC show could pay the higher rate for access to all matches.
Is sky sports news still once per day or do we get more access
Once a day still on NBCSN for one hour.
glad you answered my question without me asking.but let me ask that list of shoulder programming either serial on particular day, or as special offering, are these only on Gold or is that an accumulation of shows they plan to offer on Gold & NBCSN? Thanks.
Sky Sports News hasn’t been on NBCSN for most of the summer, are they not getting the ratings they wanted?
Sky Sports News will return to NBCSN later this month. They haven’t been broadcasting it the last couple of weeks due to coverage of the Tour de France.
Sky Sports News is only for an hour on NBCSN. If something is happening at 12PM ET like a news conference for example, you can’t see it. It’s also at a time when millions of people are working or in school. I’m not against it but what is the point if you’re not at home? It was at noon ET on weekdays & at 7PM ET on weekends on the old Fox Soccer Channel with highlights from the major European Leagues. Please correct me if I’m wrong. It would be better if Sky Sports News is streaming online like Sky News is on YouTube.
Streaming Sky Sports would probably be problematic as the US rightsholders of the EFL, SPL, F-1 , cricket etc might object to the use of their highlights
So will NBCSN still have games live on Apple TV etc without the need for Gold?
If so how many across the season?
Hey from NY
The biggest problem for me is that NBC Sports raised the subscription price and to make matters worse placed a delay of several hours to on-demand content. And they did not give a reason why there was a need for the delay. Not explaining things properly to subscribers is bad form.
Going to give this a miss this season. I’ll be back if and when they upgrade their streams to broadcast quality.
Have absolutely no objection to paying, and the new split choice seems reasonable, but if they don’t up their game to 60fps then count me out.
Does this mean that Gold will not show the uk 15.00 games live on a Saturday anymore , just on demand a few hours later ?.
They’ll show those games live via NBC Sports Gold, and available on-demand approximately 4 hours later.
The stream fps has to be improved. Same with BEIN Sports La Laga games. They’re all 30fps and look terrible.
NBC should be embarrassed not being in 60 FPS and how their app streams poorly compared to ESPN + and Fox Sports. It may work for golf but not soccer. If they cared enough they would have addressed it by now.
Not saying I agree with NBC but they are trying to break even on the deal. How much money would a infrastructure upgrade of their streaming service in regards to production cost, cost to stream at 60ps from 30ps. I imagine its cost prohibitive especially when their not making money off the deal. Doesn’t seem like much but when you are trying to eek out dollars it adds up and stuff like that starts to matters when it probably wouldn’t under better circumstances.
Something will have to give next EPL TV deal either the EPL will have to settle for less money (smaller increase) with NBC or they may end up going to the highest bidder likely FOX/ESPN (ESPN+) superior streaming service.
Once you see streams that are 60 fps from other broadcasters, it is hard to go back to 30 fps.
As far as I know, NBC is still using Adobe Flash on the computer side of things. I am not sure if using that is holding things back, but I’d like to see NBC dump that ancient bug ridden tech and adopt modern standards for streaming.
Maybe you’ll know the answer to this. Noticed a bit of motion blur watching some Eredivisie, but when watching the Community Shield it was perfect. Comes down to the quality of the original production?
Noticed in Serie A last year there was more blur in some venues (Parma) than bigger clubs as well.
All of this on ESPN+ of course
Less than a week before kickoff and I cannot get commercial pricing to show all the matches at my establishment in Las Vegas. Signed up last week and they charged me for LAST season’s pass which expired the next day.
I bought the gold package and it says it plays on the Roku, but every time I start the app it spins forever and then reboots Roku! The search for tech support has been fruitless. Does anyone here have any idea how to get tech support from the service? Or have I just poured $65 down the drain?
Thanks in advance
You can reach NBC Sports Gold Support at https://www.nbcsports.com/gold/support
The app he is using is no longer supported. Gold is accessed through the NBC Sports App. It will ask for Gold credentials (if you haven’t already established them) when you try to view Gold content.
I streamed the Tour de France via Gold and it worked fine. Do you have an older Roku?
DO NOT use the “NBC Sports Gold” app on Roku (or on iOS). It’s been retired!
Use the NBC Sports app. When you try to access a Gold program, it will ask for your Gold credentials.
https://www.nbcsports.com/gold/quick-start-watch-on-mobile
Yes, that too. I call it the Gold app solely due to inertia.
Chris, thanks for sorting all this out. As an AFCB Bournemouth supporter, this is tough news–but am at least glad to hear the straight dope.
Hi All
A question for those of you that watch soccer Saturday on gold. I was looking forward to finishing it today in preparation for the next one on Saturday but it looks like they’ve taken it down is that correct?t I can’t find it or goals on Sunday from last week it’s not a big deal I just want to know if I need to watch faster lol.
While I don’t like the price increase because it makes me feel like I’m being held hostage for loving my team I do appreciate the fact that they’ve at least tried to add value with all the shoulder programming. If only there were an easy way to watch British match of the day I’d be happy.
Thanks in advance,
Mahlon
anyone know why no 4k epl games on fubotv so far ? they were only shown on xfinity and directv .
thanks
So far this season, only Xfinity and DIRECTV have been broadcasting select games in 4K. No 4K streams are available through NBC Sports Gold. And no word from fuboTV yet whether they’ll be continuing 4K streams this season for the Prem.
I use the nbc gold sign up process to teach my students about poor web usability. I then show them how to find streams for free using a vpn. It is a great teaching tool.
Missed the first 15 mins of the Norwich v Manchester United game on Sunday because the stream was showing the wrong game (Arsenal v Crystal Palace instead). It’s inexplicable how glitches like that can still happen. The cost keeps going up, while the product keeps getting worse.
I had the same problem ,I watched the Arsenal v C.Palace live and then watched the Mau. U v Norwich game , It is certainly better than B/R live pathetic attempt to show the Champions League games which just go off for no reason and never come back on again
I know folks are leaving cable tv in droves, but many of these streaming services are not reliable enough to get my money. At least with cable you can get your account credited when it goes on the blink (if you complain enough)
I’d suggest e-mailing support@nbcsportsgold.com and letting them know about it. I wrote them today but have yet to receive a reply. Two years ago I had a similar problem and they gave me a $10 credit. The more people that report problems, the better chance they will get their act together hopefully.
I never read any negative comments about ESPN+ or ESPN3 having a bad stream or people missing parts of a game, etc. I watched 3 German Cup games yesterday on ESPN3 and the stream was perfect, crystal clear picture, no buffering or freezing. Gee, I wonder why. The answer is simple. Disney/ESPN care about their customers and want to keep them unlike the Peacock network. I will subscribe to ESPN+ next year to have access to the Bundesliga.
Disney bought its superior streaming infrastructure from Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which did all the heavy lifting. Disney’s part was to write a big check.
The Premier League pass is worthless, don’t get it! You can’t watch any of the live games that are televised on the NBC network channel or NBC Sports. You can only watch the replay a day later. They don’t give any refunds or anything, either. Terrible customer service. Wish I could avoid them altogether if they didn’t own the rights to everything.
Do not try it. It’s a rip off. Important games like Liverpool vs Man City are not going to be available on it.
It’s just a waste of money!