Premier League on NBC. . . .
- Thread starter BobbyBlueChip
- Start date
It's still the the time I have my girls all to myself, teaching them songs about balotelli, Dempsey and how we hate chelsea
NBC Premier League Debut a Very Successful One
By Zac Wassink | Yahoo! Contributor Network
COMMENTARY | And just like that, as if the station had been covering the Premier League in the United States all along, NBC Sports swooped in and made history.
On the same morning when FOX Soccer Channel showed replays of "Being: Liverpool" and two new FOX Sports stations arrived on the scene, the first Premier League programming of the 2013-14 season aired on NBC Sports. Coverage began at 7:00 a.m. ET with a pregame show that went until Liverpool vs. Stoke City kicked off. Right from the very start, diehard fans and casual viewers were presented with a top-class broadcast, one that did justice to the world's most-watched league.
The in-studio trio of Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Mustoe and Robbie Earle had the chemistry that you would expect to see from a crew that had been working together for years. To be honest, there is little specific that I remember from any of their segments. That's exactly how it should be. Pregame, postgame and halftime shows are similar to refs in that if you're not talking about them after the fact, it means that a good job was done.
Matches that aired on NBC Sports, NBC, the Premier League Extra Time overflow television stations and the NBC Live Extra streaming service were not without their flaws. Audio for games seemed to be about a half-second ahead of the video feeds, something Champions League and Europa League viewers in the US deal with on a yearly basis. Some individuals I follow on Twitter complained about the clarity of the in-game video streams, but I'm inclined to believe that their problems had more to do with their particular Internet service providers than with NBC considering that I streamed three matches at the same time without experiencing any significant errors.
There was also this blunder.
All in all, NBC gave football supporters who live in the United States all that we ask for from our domestic broadcasts. Nothing was dumbed-down or overly explained. Ms. Lowe was, as everybody with knowledge of her background expected, a well-spoken and intelligent football presenter and not just a piece of eye candy who is learning about the EPL on the job. Outside of saying "here at Old Trafford" when speaking about Manchester United boss David Moyes (United were away to Swansea City), Arlo White proved to be the perfect replacement for ESPN's Ian Darke. White, the former NBC Sports voice of Major League Soccer in the US, will become this country's preferred football play-by-play man sooner than later.
Some fans took to social networking websites such as Twitter to remark how NBC's Premier League coverage topped anything that had ever been delivered by the on-death-row FOX Soccer. I see no reason to go there. Sure, some things about the way FOX presented the game bothered me, but that company, when in possession of the Premier League US TV rights, gave me more live football than I'd ever before seen on TV. Instead of looking back at what was, I'm excited for what NBC will roll out in the following weeks and months.
It was made clear after NBC acquired the US TV rights for the EPL in the fall of 2012 that the company would be going "all in" on its Premier League coverage. That NBC did, providing millions of Americans with the opportunity to watch every game live and do so without making them pay extra for channels or leave them searching for Internet streams that may or may not come with undesired attached computer files. I can't think of a single noteworthy complaint immediately after the conclusion of Saturday's EPL action, and it's for that reason that I give NBC's coverage two thumbs up for day one of this new journey.
By Zac Wassink | Yahoo! Contributor Network
COMMENTARY | And just like that, as if the station had been covering the Premier League in the United States all along, NBC Sports swooped in and made history.
On the same morning when FOX Soccer Channel showed replays of "Being: Liverpool" and two new FOX Sports stations arrived on the scene, the first Premier League programming of the 2013-14 season aired on NBC Sports. Coverage began at 7:00 a.m. ET with a pregame show that went until Liverpool vs. Stoke City kicked off. Right from the very start, diehard fans and casual viewers were presented with a top-class broadcast, one that did justice to the world's most-watched league.
The in-studio trio of Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Mustoe and Robbie Earle had the chemistry that you would expect to see from a crew that had been working together for years. To be honest, there is little specific that I remember from any of their segments. That's exactly how it should be. Pregame, postgame and halftime shows are similar to refs in that if you're not talking about them after the fact, it means that a good job was done.
Matches that aired on NBC Sports, NBC, the Premier League Extra Time overflow television stations and the NBC Live Extra streaming service were not without their flaws. Audio for games seemed to be about a half-second ahead of the video feeds, something Champions League and Europa League viewers in the US deal with on a yearly basis. Some individuals I follow on Twitter complained about the clarity of the in-game video streams, but I'm inclined to believe that their problems had more to do with their particular Internet service providers than with NBC considering that I streamed three matches at the same time without experiencing any significant errors.
There was also this blunder.
All in all, NBC gave football supporters who live in the United States all that we ask for from our domestic broadcasts. Nothing was dumbed-down or overly explained. Ms. Lowe was, as everybody with knowledge of her background expected, a well-spoken and intelligent football presenter and not just a piece of eye candy who is learning about the EPL on the job. Outside of saying "here at Old Trafford" when speaking about Manchester United boss David Moyes (United were away to Swansea City), Arlo White proved to be the perfect replacement for ESPN's Ian Darke. White, the former NBC Sports voice of Major League Soccer in the US, will become this country's preferred football play-by-play man sooner than later.
Some fans took to social networking websites such as Twitter to remark how NBC's Premier League coverage topped anything that had ever been delivered by the on-death-row FOX Soccer. I see no reason to go there. Sure, some things about the way FOX presented the game bothered me, but that company, when in possession of the Premier League US TV rights, gave me more live football than I'd ever before seen on TV. Instead of looking back at what was, I'm excited for what NBC will roll out in the following weeks and months.
It was made clear after NBC acquired the US TV rights for the EPL in the fall of 2012 that the company would be going "all in" on its Premier League coverage. That NBC did, providing millions of Americans with the opportunity to watch every game live and do so without making them pay extra for channels or leave them searching for Internet streams that may or may not come with undesired attached computer files. I can't think of a single noteworthy complaint immediately after the conclusion of Saturday's EPL action, and it's for that reason that I give NBC's coverage two thumbs up for day one of this new journey.
It drew a .5 average rating for the three games. For perspective, the P&G Gymnastics Championships on NBC drew 0.7:shrug:
For perspective, you're comparing one NBC show in prime time to 3 shows in the morning with only one on NBC.
There's no one in television that doesn't think that this weekend was a success.
No doubt they would do better in prime time, but that's not gonna happen for obvious reasons. I don't wish ill on them, and for your sake and everyone else that likes it I am glad you get to watch what you enjoy. We both know I don't know a damn thing about ratings, but prime time or not, it is fuking gymnastics :facepalm:
Fox did a tape delay game on regular fox to go against live nfl on CBS in 2011. The game drew a 1.5 share. Time of day is huge to ratings. NBC got everything they wanted out of this weekend. Soccer fans did too.
Manchester United v. Manchester City starts in 7 minutes on the NBC sports network
C'mon City!
.....or you can get back to pre-game
C'mon City!
.....or you can get back to pre-game
