Lakenheath Old Boys

We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!

Monday, October 29, 2012

NBC Secures Premiership Rights

Thanks to UWS for alerting us about a new deal under which the NBC/Universal networks have secured the rights to show the English Premiership starting next season as part of a three-year $250 million deal. I thought I'd move it off the archaic platform of email onto this forum where we can all chip in. Of course, this raises a lot of issues for football fans who have grown accustomed to getting our weekend fix of the beautiful game through the Fox Soccer Channel, including:

* Can FSC survive this blow to their coverage?
* Will NBC continue the practice of respecting the coverage, including using the English commentary track?
* Will the NBC deal grow the game in this country?

I've got mixed feelings about the deal. There is a lot right about the FSC coverage at the moment, including live coverage of matches via the English feed. At the same point, we shouldn't romanticize FSC, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. We've often criticized FSC coverage, including their practice of turning down the crowd noise track and missing the kickoffs in favor of inane ads for zit creams. I'm hopeful that having the matches on basic cable (or network) telly will increase the audience for the game in this country (I'm already seeing the effect of ESPN coverage on American sports fan friends). At the same time, I always worry about change and I wouldn't be surprised if NBC tried to "Americanize" the coverage - always a mistake.

More information here: http://epltalk.com/2012/10/28/nbc-universal-confirms-acquisition-of-premier-league-rights-in-us-from-2013-16/

 Your thoughts, gentlemen?

posted by The Blue Devil @ 10:56 AM 

3 Comments:

Blogger manunitedrules said...

I had replied the "old fashioned way" last night.My concern is the fear of the unknown.We may not always agree with FSC, but at least we have live EPL coverage, feeds to Sky TV, and no commercials during the matches. My concerns are if NBC make drastic changes are that NBC may try to Americanize the coverage, as BD stated.There are ten matches each weekend. Will they all be live? Will they all be on tape delay? Will We need to choose between five matches at 10 AM or will we have to wait till 4 PM to watch on tape delay?will we miss a goal during a commercial break or will we have some American announcer who has never played footie, with stupid remarks?I know this is just the tip of the iceberg and that there is plenty more to discuss. There are two Spanish language channels as well, so be open to watching in Spanish if Telemundo is the channel broadcasting the match of choice. I will be interested to hear what others have to say.

8:55 PM  
Blogger The Blue Devil said...

I'm wondering if FSC couldn't pick up the rights to La Liga. I've got probably more friends who want to watch the Messi/Ronaldo fest more than the EPL up here.

Alternately, I'd love to be able to watch the Championship if they decided to go that route.

9:26 PM  
Blogger manunitedrules said...

I know they broadcast Serie A . I have a sinking feeling that it will be the dreaded SPL. I don't know why, but I have a hunch.I think GOL TV and Bein broadcast La Liga. The Championship is another alternative too.It's all up in the air.

10:55 PM  

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