ThePremier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. The Premier League isbroadcast in the United States throughNBC Sports.[1]Premier League viewership has increased rapidly, with NBC and NBCSN averaging a record 479,000 viewers in the2014–15 season, up 118% from2012–13 when coverage still aired onFox Soccer andESPN/ESPN2 (220,000 viewers),[2] and NBC Sports has been widely praised for its coverage.[2][3][4] NBC Sports reached a six-year extension with the Premier League in 2015 to broadcast the league through the 2021–22 season in a deal valued at $1 billion (£640 million).[5][6]
TheEnglish Football League, founded in 1888, is the oldest such competition inworld soccer. It was the top-level soccer league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form thePremier League.
Beginning in 1978, highlights of select games were broadcast onPBS[7] under the titleAll Star Soccer[8] withMario Machado[9] providing the commentary. For the1980-81 league season,Star Soccer switched from Mario Machado and used theITV feed with commentary fromBrian Moore.
In 1980, the first everTrans-Atlantic Challenge Cup, afriendlysoccer competition that was hosted by theNew York Cosmos, of the originalNorth American Soccer League took place. The Trans-Atlantic Cup featured teams from Europe competing against teams from North America.Manchester City's matches against the New York Cosmos andVancouver Whitecaps were televised on American television.
The1987 FA Cup Final betweenTottenham Hotspur andCoventry City was televised byFNN/SCORE[10] ontape delay.
During the1990-91 and1991-92 seasons,Jim Rosenthal hostedEnglish Soccer,[11] which was broadcast onregional sports networks across the United States. The format ofEnglish Soccer was similar in that toBBC'sMatch of the Day, where the majority of the highlights were focused on the biggest game of the week, and a shorter amount of time was given to showing the goal highlights from the other matches.
Prime Network was one of the first media companies to purchase the U.S. rights to overseas soccer leagues.[12] When the Premier League officially launched in August 1992, Prime provided a match of the week on adelayed basis. The matches were also edited and condensed to 90 minutes (with commercial breaks). Meanwhile, around this same time,SportsChannel America[13] aired a 1-hour weekly highlights package on Friday nights.[14][15][16]
Prime Network later provided live coverage[17] of the1995 English FA Cup Final (Everton-Manchester United), withJP Dellacamera andTy Keough hosting the pre-game, half-time, and post-game "wraps" fromHouston's Liberty SportsComm studio.
ESPN2 formerly aired matches from thePremier League between 1996 and 1998,[18] and then from 2009 to 2013. On tape delay in1981, ESPN had initially shown select games. From 2010 to 2013, ESPN2 had its own commentary team ofIan Darke andSteve McManaman, withDarrell Currie, Dave Beckett, orAlicia Ferguson reporting pitchside live inEngland. On occasion, the network would simulcastESPN UK's coverage with full studio coverage from hostRay Stubbs orRebecca Lowe and commentary fromJon Champion andChris Waddle. In the U.S., ESPN's studio team was hostAndrew Orsatti orGeorgie Bingham with analystRobbie Mustoe.
Fox Soccer aired theEnglish Premier League from 1998 to 2013. At the start of the season, Fox Sports Net or Fox Sports World broadcast weekly highlights from Premier League matches, with Lionel Bienvenu hosting the show. Meanwhile, the live match broadcast is broadcast on a pay-per-view basis through several providers. Later, Fox Soccer aired live and tape-delayed matches each week, plus weekly magazine (Premier League World), preview (Premier League Preview Show, andMatchday) and recap (Premier League Review andGoals on Sunday) shows. Besides matches on Fox Soccer,Fox Deportes andFox Soccer Plus, up to 3 matches each season were available live free-to-air onFox. Up to 74 matches each season were sublicensed toESPN, Inc. Contract ran through May 2013, at which point coverage went toNBC Sports/NBCSN to the present day. In the later years of their coverage, Fox had a studio pregame show first hosted by Christian Miles until 2011, then byRob Stone. Studio analysts wereWarren Barton,Eric Wynalda,Brian McBride, andKeith Costigan. Commentary was provided by former corporate siblingSky Sports.
America One syndicated many of these broadcasts to various regional sports networks in the United States (usually, those not part of theFox Sports Net family). America One also carried tape-delayed broadcasts of the EnglishPremier League, specificallyBolton Wanderers andEverton.
NBC acquired rights to the Premier League in 2013, replacingFox Sports andESPN.[19] NBC's studio programming for the league includes the pre-match showPremier League Live, and the highlights showsPremier League Goal Zone andMatch of the Day (modeled uponthe similar BBC series).[20] NBC Sports president of programmingJon Miller explained that their main goal was to not "Americanize" their coverage (besides providing explanations of terminology unfamiliar to U.S. viewers, such asderbies), citing their decision to employ talent (such as formerESPN UK andBBC Sport presenterRebecca Lowe, who became NBC's lead host) who "know the Premier League and can talk about it intelligently".[21][22] In 2014, NBC also hired the duo ofMichael Davies andRoger Bennett—the "Men in Blazers"—to provide soccer-oriented content across NBC Sports' platforms.[23] NBC renewed its Premier League rights in 2021, extending its contract until the end of the 2027–28 season.[24]
During larger matchdays, NBCSN operated pop-up channels branded asPremier League Extra Time, which broadcast overflow matches not shown by other NBC networks.[25] However, in 2017, NBC began topaywall many of these overflow games behind the "Premier League Pass" service onNBC Sports Gold.[26] Premier League Pass was in turn phased out in 2020, with its Premier League content transferred to the newly launchedPeacock streaming service; Premier League games broadcast on the main NBC network would be simulcast on the service starting the next year.[27][28] OnSurvival Sunday, the majority ofNBCUniversal's cable networks carry games, including several networks not normally dedicated to sports.[29]
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