NBC broadcast of Chelsea-Manchester City delivers huge audience in US

NBC’s live broadcast of Chelsea against Manchester City registered as the third most-viewed Premier League game in US television history.

The game scored an average viewing audience of 1.35 million people who watched the January 31 game live on the over-the-air NBC network. The broadcast began at Noon ET with Premier League Live, and the match itself began at 12:30pm ET. Coverage continued until 3:30pm ET with post-game followed by Premier League Goal Zone.

For the Chelsea-City match, the studio broadcast from the United States was based outdoors in downtown Phoenix, Arizona as part of NBC’s weekend-long coverage of the 2015 Super Bowl. The Premier League coverage on NBC Sports Group received a boost by appearances by Rebecca Lowe (alongside Dan Patrick and Tony Dungy) and Men In Blazers on the Super Bowl Sunday pre-game coverage, as well as promotional videos aired by NBC during the Super Bowl pre-game that included Premier League footage.

Saturday’s viewing numbers compares to NBC’s previous record of 1.4 million people who watched the Saturday, November 22 broadcast between Arsenal-Manchester United, also on NBC.

The Chelsea-Manchester City game, which was commentated by Arlo White and Graeme Le Saux live from Stamford Bridge, ended in a 1-1 draw.

In addition, Chelsea-Manchester City ranks as the most-streamed weekend Premier League match in history, with more than 73,000 uniques on NBC Sports Live Extra.

The all-time record for a Premier League game on US television was the November 2011 broadcast of Chelsea-Liverpool viewed by 1.626 million people. That game was shown on tape delay after a NFL game on a Sunday on the FOX free-to-air network.

Meanwhile, here are the most-Watched *Live* Premier League matches in U.S. history:

NBC Sports Group’s live soccer coverage continues with 20 matches in five days highlighted by two of the biggest derbies in English soccer this Saturday, Feb. 7. Coverage begins Saturday at 7:45 a.m. ET when storied rivals Tottenham and Arsenal face off in the North London Derby on NBCSN and NBC UNIVERSO, and continues at 12:30 p.m. ET, with Everton hosting neighbors Liverpool in a Merseyside Derby on NBC and NBC UNIVERSO.