Six commentators will do two games this weekend. Arlo White and Lee Dixon will call Tottenham vs. Bournemouth starting in under 20 minutes and Man United vs. Aston Villa tomorrow at 11:30 A.M. Graeme Le Saux normally calls one of the the games, but not this weekend. Jim Proudfoot and Andy Townsend will call Southampton vs. Watford on NBC. Proudfoot will also call Norwich vs. Arsenal with Efan Ekoku tomorrow at 9:00 A.M. Phil Blacker will call Burnley vs. Crystal Palace with Garry Birtles starting in under 20 minutes and call Wolves vs. Sheffield United with Iaian Dowie tomorrow at 9:00 A.M. Peter Drury and Jim Beglin called Newcastle vs. Man City and will call Leicester vs. Everton tomorrow at 11:30 A.M.
Yeah, I noticed that. But it's partly or largely because of the Jose saga (he takes "his new Spurs" back to "his Old Tramshed"). I think whenever United-Spurs is done, NBCSN will switch quickly over the Mersyside Derby for most of the second half, since that match kicks off 45 mins later I believe.
Yeah, they do have a super long Goal Zone planned after the match (til 6pm) so plenty of time for bonus coverage. Still, 3 matches in a row on Gold for the presumed champions. And all before any reductions in price for the season. Bet they've added some subscribers in the last few weeks.
I'm away this weekend without laptop, so was hoping to stream some matches on the nbcsports app on my iphone. But it crashed EVERY single time I clicked to play a match. App is up to date. Very frustrating. Especially since it used to work great before, eg. last season. Does any else have this problem lately.
I had a couple problems streaming Soccer Saturday yesterday - but I was also on the go streaming over cell signal. No problems at all watching Man City-MUFC on my phone over cell though.
You could use the FitzyTV app and authenticate with your provider instead. That worked for me (or could've just watched on the Telemundo Sports App)
Thanks I'll look into Fitzy. But frankly I'd rather the NBCSports app just work reliably like it used to.
I knew that Sky Sports News is on TV in the USA, and I just found out that NBC's Pro Football Talk (referring to the NFL) is on Sky Sports Action in England.
I guess some people actually like to watch NBC's Fan Fest editions of their EPL coverage. But for me it it knocks NBC down a notch every time they do one. For me it's cringe-worthy which is so practically diametrically opposite their normal weekly coverage. They say it's all about the fans. But much of the time it seems top be all about Rebecca, Kyle, Robbie & Robbie. OK, they have the right to have fun and do silly stunts amongst themselves, but do the majority of fans want to spend the majority of a 2hr PL Mornings show watching their self-oriented antics. Sorry to be such a curmudgeon but every time their Fan Fest weekends roll around, I really can't wait until the following weekend when they return to their normally quite excellent and professional coverage. My 2c.
Honestly I don't understand the bother over pre-match shows. Just turn on something else, it's what I do for Prem and Champs League. Yesterday I listened to BBC London's 9am (ET) build up. Today I flipped on Goals on Sunday before the 9am kickoffs. Fan Fests are very dumb on TV but they're hugely successful PR events for NBC, they're not going anywhere and will probably continue growing.
For me, if I watch 99.9% of EPL games on NBC, then it makes sense to watch NBC for the pre/post match coverage. And generally speaking NBC does a credible job of that. But Fan Fests are jeuvenile IMHO. If that's what most of America actually wants to see, then that's kind of depressing. They may think this was the best Fan Fest they've ever done. I think it's probably the worst I've seen.
Watching their fan fest stuff a few moments when I catch it reminds me of the MTV spring break programing. No matter how quickly I push the remote button, it’s never quick enough.
Here's what I don't get: There's a game at (say) 2:30 on a Tuesday. There's another one at (say) 3:15. The first game is on NBC Gold. The second is on NBCSN. What's their logic behind opening the paywall for 45 minutes? If I paid for NBC Gold, I probably wouldn't be too happy if that stuff was on NBCSN. Is it to sell more subscriptions?
Probably two-fold. Can sell more subs to the fans that want access and they probably retain viewers for a longer window of time than they would with studio nonsense.
I don’t think that negatively impacts Gold because no one is interested in only 45 minutes of a game. Certainly, not people who already subscribe to Gold. Plus, if they air first 45 on tv, someone might take interest and decide to splurge on Gold to see the second half.
The primary purpose of Gold is still for overflow/conflict matches. NBCSN is really good about showing live football when no other football is opposite it. They may advertise "Gold Exclusive"s but they're not putting anything there when they have the chance to show on NBCSN.
Related to Premier League coverage, just not on NBC: Amazon has the UK broadcast rights to all the Boxing Day fixtures, so they’re all available live via Prime Video. It’s a pretty sweet deal since each weekend you’ve only got a few matches broadcast live on Sky Sports or BT Sport and the clump of 10 a.m. EST matches are always blacked out entirely. Amazon broadcast the midweek fixtures the first week of December as well and has a couple nice features such as a video feed akin to NFL Redzone showing all the goals and - my absolutely dream sports broadcast feature - a “Stadium FX” audio option for each match that turns up the stadium’s ambient noise and has no commentary. Anyway, just a little insight into the often convoluted PL broadcast schedule in the UK.