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American TV giants NBC are set to press the Premier League to send two opening-day games across the Atlantic.
NBC have held the exclusive rights to broadcast the English top-flight in the United States since 2013.
They signed their last contract in 2022, which is worth more than £360million per season to the Premier League.
That is more than five times what they paid for the rights when they first partnered with the top flight 11 years ago. The astonishing cost puts them among the Premier League’s biggest financial contributors.
Now, the Americans are looking to leverage that power by bringing games to the country. The Premier League have hosted pre-season tournaments in the US, but regular season games have previously been strictly off limits.
The last time the idea of taking games abroad was floated was in 2008, with the potential introduction of a ‘39th game’. But those proposals were met by a fierce backlash and ultimately dumped.
Sixteen years later and NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and partnerships Jim Miller is ready to press again. Miller would support bringing games to the US and has set his sights on the opening day.
“At some point in the future, I would love to see a couple of Premier League games open the season here in big stadiums on our opening weekend. And I know that’s something that we’ll continue to push for,” he told The Athletic.
“I think that there’s an American audience here that would like to see regular season games but in the meantime, we’ll continue to work with the Premier League to do everything we can to make the games available to as many people as possible.
“We’ve had conversations with the Premier League and they’ve been very open and receptive to listening to me. We did the Premier League Summer Series last year. All the teams that came over did really well, had a great experience, and really were able to interact with the fan base. And the Premier League saw that it was very successful.” – Mirror
Online Reporter
