NBC Offers $50 Premier League Streaming Service; No Cable Plan Needed

Image courtesy of Paolo Camera

Soccer fans in the U.S. are used to the complications of watching Premier League games, which often require getting up at an ungodly hour to watch British teams like Manchester United or Chelsea FC at a bar with a fancy cable sports package. They’ll have another option this summer, however.

NBC Sports $50 “Premier League Pass” will let subscribers stream live games from the U.K.-based league starting in August, without requiring them to have a cable subscription first.

There will be 130 lives games available to U.S. fans — with at least three games per club — as well as additional content like studio shows, recaps, highlight clips, and archive programming. NBC’s broadcast channel will still show a few games as well, along with a few hundred more on NBCSN and CNBC, available only to pay TV customers.

NBC previously gave paying customers the option to stream some Premier League games that weren’t available on the air, notes Recode, but the expansion to cord-cutters gives the company a whole new way to make money.

The broadcaster also offers a la carte streaming access for Tour de France coverage, motocross, rugby and other niche sports through its NBC Sports Gold streaming offering, but the Premier League package targets a much larger audience.

NBC won’t be alone in streaming soccer games, either: Facebook said yesterday that it will team up with FOX Sports to stream more than a dozen matches from the Champions League, a European soccer tournament that includes Premier League teams, this fall for free.

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