PLEASE NOTE: This article has been edited from its original content for clarification.
NBC Sports Network is dead. Long live NBC Sports Network! In the turbulent world of television, streaming, and sports media, the one constant is change, and American fans of the Premier League should expect more change for how they watch English football, starting next week.
But that change should be familiar to most. According to Variety, beginning this Monday, November 17, NBCUniversal is planning on resurrecting NBC Sports Network, a cable and streaming channel, which for years broadcast the majority of Premier League matches that weren’t on network TV. NBC parent company Comcast killed it back in 2021 and moved Premier League games, as well as Olympics and other sports, to USA Network and also their then-fledgeling stand-alone Peacock streaming service, a move that rankled sports fans who had to spring for yet another paid streaming service to watch all of their favorite clubs’ matches.
Now NBCSN is back, but with a twist — the streaming channel will debut, at least at first, only on YouTube TV. Variety hints that the deal is, in part, an attempt by YouTube to influence the ongoing carrier dispute between YouTube TV and Disney, which has led to the removal of ESPN and other Disney channels from YTTV over the past two weeks. NBC said that NBCSN will “soon” also be available on Comcast Xfinity. USA Network, meanwhile, will be part of the spun-off Versant company that was formerly part of NBCUniversal; Versant will launch a USA Sports channel, but it looks as though they will not broadcast Premier League matches, the rights to which remain with NBCUniversal.
According to the release, NBCSN will carry Premier League football matches, Monday night NBA games and the NBA Playoffs, the Olympics Gold Zone whip-around, WNBA games, Big Ten and Notre Dame football games, cycling (including Tour de France), certain major golf tournaments, and the Kentucky Derby.
On one level, if you’re already a YouTubeTV subscriber (and haven’t cancelled your subscription already over not having ESPN and ABC) then this is potentially good news. Sports fans who only subscribed to Peacock for Premier League football can now cancel their Peacock subs as streaming life reverts back to the halcyon pre-COVID days where everything you wanted to watch was on one paid service.
NBC has stated that NBCSN will not carry any exclusive content — the sports content set to be carried on NBC, USA, CNBC, Golf Channel and Peacock will still be carried there — just ALSO on NBC Sports Network.
If this is making your head spin — it’s okay, mine too! Enough so that the first version of this article was published with incorrect assumptions about what will be televised and streamed, and where. It’s still a little murky, but it appears as though as long as you have a streaming or cable package that includes NBC and USA and have a Peacock subscription, you’ll still be able to watch all of Tottenham’s matches. If you have (for now) YouTube TV or (eventually) Comcast Xfinity, you may not need to subscribe to Peacock at all.
See the following statement from NBC on the launch of NBC Sports Network:
“NBCSN will feature live games across major sports, giving pay-TV customers a way to enjoy much of NBCUniversal’s extensive sports portfolio that also streams on Peacock.”
Don’t you love American sports media?
