Arsenal on TV: 2012-13 U.S. only

There's also Universal HD which shows a lot of crappy movies that Universal produced or distributed as well as reruns of USA originals. That channel had a lot of Olympic overflow on it during London 2012.

I think it will be fine and we'll end up with just as much coverage. But I do wonder about the future of Fox Soccer. I know that about the only things I ever watch on it are Premiership and Champions League.

 

The Reading/Arse C1 cup game on Tuesday will be on Bein live.

 

Is it the channel that Comcast has in Spanish or is it the one that it doesn't in English?

 

Uh, English? No idea really, Directv has it on channel 620

 

the NBC package looks like a pretty cool thing.. the only thing that will be a whip is not using the international announcers...

 

Sounds like they'll be putting Arlo White on Premier League games, I like Arlo White.

 

Seems like FSC and FS+ will have nothing left. So I'll be able to downgrade my cable package next year, then.

 

The NBC sports channel actually has a wider distribution than Fox Soccer. The real question will be how they distribute the games across their network. I'm looking forward to having Spanish options for games too.

How does NBC do streaming? As a premium service, or free if you subscribe to a cable company?

 

Is it confirmed that they won't? Will they have enough to cover all the games? Or will it just simply mean there will be less games than Fox had?

 

"It will not be unlike the Olympics where you saw programming on CNBC, Bravo, USA or MSNBC," Lazarus said. "We are working to make it a consistent schedule so fans know exactly where to find games. But the Premier League fan will be able to get to every game live."

The Associated Press reported that NBC expects to put six games a week on television and others online.

NBC plans to air 18 to 20 games per season over the air.

For me, all of the above is awesome and a massive improvement.

1) Fox Soccer is very limited in many places, requires the top notch package or a dedicated sports package, and is not in HD in many areas by Comcast. NBC is way more widespread, and they are planning on showing all games on those channels. Also, Fox Soccer Plus which has the other half of the Premier League games requires an additional $15/month fee and is not available on Comcast.

2) 6 games a week on TV + EVERYTHING else online. You don't get that on Fox. You will with NBC. Pure awesomeness. No more searching for streams it seems for the Prem! And I think 6 games on TV is comparable to Fox now.

3) Right now FOX has only about 3 games per year that's live on over-the-air. You don't ever get over-the-air Premier League matches in England, sure, but NBC's 18-20 OTA games per season is purelyawesome.
All-in-all, I really like this.

 

I bet they hook up us Comcast subscribers, but make everyone else pay. Its what they do with their programming, I believe.


Also, the chairman said they could put games on Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and other channels as well.


the other thing is that their MLS coverage is excellent. I really have high hopes for this.

 

so basically if you have DirecTV (like myself), then this sucks.

i already get every match on TV, never have to "search for streams", and enjoy the international feed.
who cares if it's on NBC proper??

 

I'm looking forward to ditching FSC. Ever since the switch from FSW to FSC that channel has just been going downhill. Perhaps they can sell their CL rights to ESPN and convert the channel into something else. I just don't see how FSC can survive with people tuning in twice a week for 6 weeks from Sep-Feb.

 

Hah, see.. yeah. Well, it depends on what you have now. Some people will get screwed, others will gain.. Such is a life, I guess!

 

I'm surprised that BeIn was outbid. Why else would they even try and get into the US market if not to broadcast BPL games?

I hope they don't start using American announcers for the games. I want the real ones from across the pond.

there's finally a good reason for me to subscribe to Hulu+.

 

Possible FSC goes hard into Italy and Spain though too. That could round out their schedule and the Spanish league would dovetail nicely with their (awful) adds for Fox's Spanish language channel.

 

"Going hard" at Italy & Spain wouldn't be worth it, though. Only Barca v. Real gets any rating here in the States.

 

Here's how I see the new NBC deal:

RELATIVELY GOOD NEWS:
+ It's NBC not BeIN... phew! (BeIN would've been a complete disaster given their lack of footprint)

LIKELY BAD NEWS:
- Far fewer games will be available for live or same-day viewing (including our beloved AFC)
... * They say 200 games/yr will be on NBC TV channels... that's just over 5 per round ...
... * Compare that to what we have now ...
... * This past weekend, FSC, FSP & ESPN2 showed 10 games (7 LIVE + 3 SDD)
... * And in case you missed any on match day, many are replayed during the week on FSC/FSP/FSN

POSSIBLE BAD NEWS:
? Don't use the British announcers feed? (that is so so vital to the quality of the coverage)
? Don't air the brilliant 60min EPL Review show? (I've been addicted to this for 10-15 yrs!)
? Don't air the 30 min EPL Preview show?
? Don't air the EPL Season Review shows?
? Don't air the EPL Classic Matches (in which AFC features frequently)

I have no idea if NBC are hip to the awesome coverage that FOX has privided for so long, and how us EPL junkies have commensurately high standards. But I sure hope they do their homework now and try their damndest not to reduce the quality & quantity of EPL coverage we've come to depend on.

Is there some NBC blog that we could post on, to make sure they're listening?

 

I've been taking survey at NBCSports for the past little while actually. They call them "Gamebreakers", or something like that. I trust NBC with this. They'll be doing their homework.