NBCUniversal Snags Six-Year Premier League Rights Renewal, Fending Off Rivals

The English Premier League and NBCUniversal are extending their relationship, announcing a six-year rights renewal in the United States, keeping the company as the exclusive home of all 380 soccer matches every season through 2028. NBC Sports Group held on to the U.S. package after a heated bidding war between several other top media companies, including ESPN and ViacomCBS. The exclusive rights to the Premier League are a boon to NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock, as the matches have performed particularly well for the streamer. Peacock has been eyeing sports as a way to stand out with subscribers, especially as NBCUniversal plans to shutter cable network NBC Sports Network, which aired the top Premier League matches, at the end of the year and move most of that content to USA Network and the streaming service. The company had phased out its Premier League Pass last summer, moving all of that content to Peacock Premium. “We are excited to come to this long-term extension with the Premier League. Our Premier League team, led by Jon Miller, has been incredibly dedicated to growing the Premier League in the United States over the last nine years," said Pete Bevacqua, NBC Sports chairman, in a statement. "This new agreement is also a testament to the hard work of production, marketing and other areas of our company, as well as the tremendous partnership that has been established with the leadership and club owners of the Premier League.” Why Streaming Services Are Bingeing on Sports Rights Deals The deal shows the increasing value soccer rights have in the U.S. NBCUniversal snagged the rights to the Premier League in the U.S. for the first time in October 2012 when it outbid ESPN and Fox. At the time, the company paid $250 million for the exclusive live rights to all 380 games a season from 2013-2016, triple what ESPN and Fox had paid to split the rights from 2010-2013. In 2015, Comcast reached a six-year extension worth $1.1 billion, with the first three seasons worth about $156 million a season, and the final three worth about $201 million per year. The new deal is reported to be worth nearly $2 billion. NBC Sports’ current deal ends in May 2022. Final bids for the 2022-2023 season through the 2027-2028 U.S. season were due last week, and second round bids were due today. The new deal also includes the exclusive rights for Spanish language coverage. With ViacomCBS and ESPN among the companies bidding for the Premier League rights, there had been speculation that the package would be split in two, but ultimately NBC Sports held onto the entire thing itself. “We are delighted to announce our new U.S. broadcast deal with NBC Sports, who have been brilliant partners for the Premier League over the last nine seasons. NBC Sports has significantly strengthened the popularity of the League in the United States in that time through its fantastic coverage and promotion," said Richard Masters, Premier League chief executive, in a statement. This season, NBC Sports' Premier League games are averaging 609,000 viewers in its Total Audience Delivery metric across its English- and Spanish-language windows, which the company said is up 14% from last year and is the highest viewership average through this point in the season since 2015-16. Bulking up on soccer rights Media companies in the U.S. have been bulking up on soccer, both on linear and streaming. ViacomCBS’ Paramount+ has the rights to larger leagues like UEFA Champions League and Europa League, the National Women’s Soccer League and Serie A, but also leagues such as Argentine Primera División and Brasileirão. The company just snagged the rights to the Barclay’s FA Women’s Super League across Paramount+ earlier this week. Soccer is also high on ESPN+’s priority list, broadcasting matches from top leagues like La Liga and Bundesliga. The company had hoped the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would deliver a major boost to its fledgling streaming service Peacock with new sign-ups and subscribers, but for the first quarter since Peacock debuted nationally a year ago, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell declined to share sign-up numbers or any other metrics, leaving the industry in the dark about where the streamer is headed and how big it has gotten. Peacock last reported that 54 million people had signed up for the service ahead of the Opening Ceremony. The Premier League is proving increasingly important to NBCUniversal’s sports portfolio after the company lost NHL rights this year following the expiration of its 10-year, $2 billion deal with the league. Disney became the NHL’s top television partner starting this fall, and Turner Sports won the other package.