How NBC Sports Is Building off of World Cup Interest

By Adam Flomenbaum 

Midway through the 2014-15 season, viewership of Premier League soccer games on NBC Sports is up 15% from last season – and the important Adult 18-49 demo is up 24%. In November, NBC Sports broadcast Manchester United’s 2-1 win over Arsenal, which was the most-watched live Premiere League game in U.S. history.

Along with a boost in linear ratings, the NBC Sports Soccer Facebook page has enjoyed a 78% increase in fans heading into the second half of the Premier League season. “The World Cup was the biggest reason we saw the growth we did this season, Lyndsay Signor, Director of Social Media Marketing, NBC Sports, tells Lost Remote. “Our goal around the World Cup was to utilize social media to make the connection between players playing for their country and their Premier League teams. We never could have imagined the success of this tactic or the growth that came with it.”

The World Cup is certainly paying dividends for NBC Sports on linear and social – it also impacting streaming numbers. So far this season, fans have streamed more than 168 million minutes of games (up 36% from last year) on ‘NBC Sports Live Extra.’

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For sustained growth across all platforms, Signor and the NBC Sports social team stay in constant communication with the linear production team:

We are in lock step daily with our on-air production team. The social team is on a weekly production call to understand what the priority is for the slate of games we have coming up that weekend. This allows us to craft our strategy and tactics for that weekend according to the priorities of the overall team. What we are pushing out via Facebook and Twitter is very reactive to what is happening around the games televised on NBC and NBCSN. We have a responsibility to inform and engage the audience around all of the games we have, including those on Premier League Extra Time and NBC Sports Live Extra. What’s unique about the linear broadcast is that we are able to utilize the broadcast graphics to engage the audience with stats, starting line ups, and the Premier League table. We’ve found that using the high-end graphics play very well with our PL fan base on social. We also push out some of the best goal highlights from broadcast directly to our followers so they can relive those moments in close to real time.

NBC Sports Group also just launched the ‘NBC Sports MatchMaker‘ app, which allows Premier League fans to connect with each other in order to chat about or meet up to watch games. The app features an interactive map that shows which bars and restaurants fans of particular teams are watching the game.

Based on the recent success of Premier League programming and the increasing interest in soccer in the U.S., NBC Sports will likely do everything it can to renew its current contract with the Premier League, which ends in 2016.

Follow Adam Flomenbaum on Twitter: @FloBombin

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