I got stuck in my car for the commute this afternoon, and wound up catching a few segments with the local sports radio yakker. For one chunk, they had this guy Richard Deitsch talking about some big announcement NBC recently had about the English (err Barclay’s) Premier League.
What the? NBC? EPL? How did I miss that.
Turns out NBC Universal scooped Fox and ESPN for the US broadcast rights back in October and I flat out missed it. Then yesterday NBC showcased how they’re going to broadcast all of the games live, albeit across all platforms including the Internet. Hey, I get it. With 380 matches, exactly, you gotta find a place for those QPR-Wigan tilts.
This is interesting on a number of angles. First, as one who’s got international football on the downlow, looks like I’ll be getting comprehensive coverage with a more engaged broadcast partner. The Fox/ESPN combo was doing okay, but ESPN never quite seemed committed despite getting some top notch matches.
Second, someone actually outbid ESPN for a significant sports property. And here I was thinking they’d make a big push into soccer because it seems to me they’re in need of a programming hit. I don’t mean to slight women’s basketball, but the audience for high-school all-star games is probably tiny. And you can only have so many screaming head shows. Plus, ESPN did an admirable job with coverage of the last World Cup. Besides a lot of rich people around the world are really into this sport and they probably haven’t hit the point of ESPN overload we here in the States are experiencing.
Finally, the end result will only be as good as the quality of the announcers, analysts, and production. I’m not too worried as NBC takes the MLS seriously and looks like they’re attracting legitimate football announcers respectable in the UK.
So I’m looking forward to August 2013 and the start of the next Premiership campaign, especially seeing as how Manchester United has all but tied off this one.
Now what’s the deal with the Bundesliga?