It’s no secret that soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. But for fans in the United States, it can be a little difficult to follow all the action of the English Premier League and other top-flight leagues around Europe. Luckily, NBC Sports has you covered! If you want to get NBC outside the USA, we’ll show you in this guide. So whether you’re a longtime fan or just getting started, read on for all the information you need.
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History of NBC Sports
Since its inception more than seven decades ago, NBC Sports has a lengthy history of broadcasting sporting events on television in the United States. Before World War II, the massive network NBC was the first to broadcast games from the National Football League, Major League Baseball, collegiate baseball, and boxing. These events were shown on a sports channel named W2XBS that acted as an experiment in addition to their primary NBC channel. These sports were all broadcast on American television for the first time at this time.
After the war was over, NBC began airing sporting events on a more consistent basis. During the 1940s and 1950s, NBC became the exclusive broadcaster of many major sporting events, including the NFL Championship, MLB World Series, the Rose Bowl, and several NFL, MLB, and NBA home games.
Even though it was undeniably the most popular sports network in the country for the majority of the 20th century, NBC did not debut its own dedicated sports channel until 1995. When it first launched, the sports channel was known as the Outdoor Life Network, and its programming initially focused on hunting and fishing. When NBC made the decision in 2006 to rebrand the channel as Versus, everything began to shift in a new direction. The network’s coverage of only outdoor activities ended when they began broadcasting boxing and mixed martial arts events.
After a few years, Versus changed its name to NBC Sports Network and subsequently to just NBCSN. They also soon increased their broadcasting rights. Even though NBC has been broadcasting sporting events in the US longer than any other network, the amount of time the network devotes to covering soccer is relatively limited.
National Soccer games were shown on NBCSN from 2012 to 2014. However, despite low TV ratings, NBC Sports decided not to try to extend the rights after MLS demanded prices that were significantly higher than what the league actually made. The English Premier League’s rights were then purchased by NBC Sports starting in 2013. In a later agreement, the rights deal was extended to 2022, solidifying the league’s status as the most popular soccer league on English-language television in the United States.
Soccer Rights on NBC
Even while NBC does not have the right to broadcast many different types of soccer competitions, they do have the right to air the Premier League. The United Kingdom’s Premier League is the club soccer competition that receives the greatest attention from fans worldwide. During the 2019-20 season, NBC Sports in the United States attracted an average of over 460,000 views per match, which is a marginal improvement compared to the previous campaign. During the course of the previous season, nearly 10 million individuals in the United States tuned in to watch Premier League matches on the channels provided by the network.
NBC now broadcasts soccer games over a number of channels. We’re here to help and will let you know where to locate these crucial games on the NBC family of networks, even if it can be kind of confusing to figure out where every other match is broadcast. Matches from the Premier League may be seen on NBCSN, local NBC networks broadcast over the air, Peacock Premium, Telemundo, and Universo in Spanish. NBC presently has the rights to broadcast matches from the FA Women’s Super League and the Summer Olympics in addition to the Premier League. Always visit WorldSoccerTalk.com to determine the precise channel to select before a game.
Watch NBC Sports Via Peacock Premium
A significant number of Premier League games are available on Peacock Premium, in addition to the many matches shown on NBCSN and NBC. For $4.99 a month, subscribers to the network’s streaming service can watch current NBC shows, original series, and movies the day after they air. Each season, 46% of Premier League games are only available through this service.
Peacock Premium also allows users to pay $49.99 annually rather than monthly, which results in savings of approximately $10 per year. Customers of Xfinity and Cox are eligible for a free membership to Peacock Premium, meaning they do not need to pay the additional $4.99 per month fee.
Users can watch Peacock Premium using their web browsers, Cox cable boxes, Xfinity, XBOX One, Playstation 4, Vizio Smart TVs, select LG, Chromecast, Roku, Android, and Apple TV.
How to watch soccer via NBCSN
In addition to the aforementioned methods for gaining access to Peacock Premium, users will be required to invest in an extra cable, satellite, or streaming subscription to watch as many Premier League matches as humanly possible. Traditional cable and satellite television service providers, including DISH Network, DirecTV, Spectrum, Cox, and Xfinity, all offer channel bundles that include NBCSN in their respective programming lineups. On the other hand, streaming platforms are virtually always the more cost-effective and streamlined alternative when compared to traditional service providers.
The NBCSN channel is available through cord-cutting services such as YouTube TV, Sling Blue, Live TV, Hulu, and Fubo TV. These streaming websites are a wonderful and time-saving method to watch television, and their prices and the total number of channels that they provide can vary.
If you live in the USA, we recommend streaming using Fubo TV. It offers a great selection of live and on-demand sports programming, including NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and more. Plus, with a subscription to Fubo TV, you’ll also get access to other great features like cloud DVR, multi-screen viewing, and picture-in-picture mode. So if you’re looking for the best way to stream sports online in the USA, be sure to check out Fubo TV.
