NBC has taken good care of the English Premier League this season, giving it a reliable home where it can be appreciated and broadcast without interruption. To finish a season of stellar production value, NBC Sports went wild with the final Sunday – the only day in which every team plays at the same exact time: 10 a.m. Eastern – and were rewarded for their work with a ratings record.
Sunday’s matches “posted a combined 1.56 metered market rating (10am-Noon ET) on the 10 English-language networks,” per NBC’s press release.
Obviously NBC and NBCSN couldn’t air all 10 games themselves so they wrangled eight other networks in the NBC family to show games – which is usually the case during the Olympics – except this time with more channels. There was a game on NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, E!, Bravo, the Esquire Network, MSNBC, SyFy, USA and Oxygen, as well as every game airing live online. Each game combined to create this television rating, which was 79 percent higher than the final day of the 2011-12 Premier League season on ESPN2, Speed, FX, Fox Soccer Channel and Fuel. And it is also higher than the final match day of 2012-2013, which only had games airing on ESPN2 and Fox Soccer.
This rating – and the games on Championship Sunday – is a microcosm of this season of English soccer on NBC. This is a television sports group that knows what it’s doing. They have quality people like Rebecca Lowe and Arlo White providing commentary and insight, and have made the league the most accessible it has ever been.
The season starts again in August and EPL fans know the league is in good hands with NBC.
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