English Premier League Soccer Makes Weekend Mornings Special

Jon Miller, President of Programming, NBC Sports & NBCSN, is keenly aware of the demand for football coverage in the U.S.  "We were extremely excited to begin our partnership with the Premier League six years ago, and the results have been tremendous," he says.  "In presenting the best soccer in the world, we created a new sports daypart on weekend mornings.  Ultimately, we have helped grow the Premier League's audience here in the U.S. to record levels."

Rivalries aside, the cool thing about watching these matches is that there are no commercial breaks.  So how does NBCSN afford to keep securing these very lucrative rights with only pre/post and halftime ads?  Clock-wraps maybe?  They actually build on this with shoulder programming that's viewed by this rabid fan base.  They also have created personalities from Rebecca Lowe to Kyle Martino and the two Robbies (Earle and Mustoe).   In addition, NBC has created special events (fan zones, if you will) at various cities around the country for full interactive events with NBCSN talent to bring the English passion to Main St. on weekend mornings.  This past year NBCSN camped out in Boston near Fenway Park and had a six-hour party both mornings.  This not only added to commercial breaks, but it gave Americans the chance to interact with this great sport. 

"Our production team deserves a great deal of the credit, as they have put together a terrific on-air team both in the studio and in the gantry," Miller says.  "We have delivered authentic coverage focused on all 20 teams, while rolling out numerous innovations to showcase the clubs and players on and off the pitch."

It's interesting, the lack of competitive bidding for these games -- and it's not due to a weekend-morning kickoff.  ESPN can't really do this as they've put millions to college football, and those games would butt up against EPL matches.  Also, ESPN and Fox have very lucrative NFL contracts to think about.  Hence, the EPL becomes a great fit for NBCSN (which also has NHL rights).  NBC is committed to showing every EPL match.  There are 20 teams in the league, which translates to 10 matches weekly, headlined by Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, to name a few.

While most weekends these clubs dominate NBCSN and NBC coverage, all games are available on these outlets or the streaming subscription service NBC Gold.  Most of the games are delivered via an international feed but NBC produces one or two games weekly with its own announcers.  The blend of U.S. and English columnists and announcers also plays a big part in the understanding of the game (without being preachy).

NBC took over the EPL rights from Fox Soccer Channel for the 2013/14 season.  Fox Soccer Channel did a great job in elevating awareness of the game in the U.S. but the size of the network always inhibited the league's growth.  Enter NBCSN with 90 million HHs and the ability to use all Comcast assets and a great relationship was born!  They've also done an amazing job in using the history of the game, both via players and rivalries.  NBCSN has developed specials around the Manchester United and Manchester City rivalry as well as Liverpool vs. Everton and Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur.  These Derbies (pronounced "darbies") are fiercely contested.  The 20 EPL teams are spread across the U.K., but in any one season you can see as many as seven teams based in London alone, which makes rivalries more intense.

On Championship Sunday, the final match-day of the season, all ten matches are simultaneously played at 10 a.m. ET, as the FA wanted to try and make sure all play is fair.  The points system in most of the soccer world is three points awarded for a win and one point to each team for a draw. With the potential for points to swing in any given direction, the FA feels this is the most secure way to close out the league.  NBC can handle this as they put all 10 games live on linear networks across their Comcast ownership group.  Seeing West Ham United v Burnley on Bravo is indeed a strange site but it's a great selling point for NBC Sports.

Given there's not just a race for the EPL title but also multiple (potential) stories via the relegation battle, this final day concept is key.  Unlike American sports, three teams will be dropped to the 2^nd division of English football (the Championship Division) every season, while three teams from that division will be promoted to the EPL, to replace those relegated.  This is significant as the money in play for being in the EPL is huge.  It helps teams finance players during the two transfer windows each year that happen in January and from the end of the EPL season until early August.  The last team to be promoted into the EPL every year could see a swing of over $200 million in potential revenue for that last playoff game!

The unsaid thing in all of this is the passion around this sport across the globe, and now even more so in America.  Seeing the celebrations around the U.S. Women's National team winning their 4^th World Cup is a testament to this growing popularity.  Speaking as one of those fans, I do relish my weekend mornings from August to early May, planning them out to make sure I get to watch Arsenal, be it at 7 a.m. or in the showcase game on NBC at 12.30pm.  A big nod to NBC Sports for their forward thinking, for embracing this league and for not thinking totally about profits and losses but more about a portfolio-management approach to the biggest (non-U.S.) football league in the world!

Photo courtesy of NBC -- Premier League Mornings Live fan fests

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