John Miller, a leading executive at NBC Sports and an instrumental figure in negotiating the network’s multi-billion dollar media rights deal with the Premier League, says he will “continue to push for” the first English top-flight games to be played in the United States.
NBC have held the exclusive rights to broadcast the Premier League in the United States since 2013, overseeing dramatic growth in the audience and popularity of English football’s top-flight.
NBC’s latest six-year contract started in 2022 and is worth $450million-per-season to the Premier League, which represents more than five times the first deal signed with NBC when they began broadcasting the Premier League in 2013.
As such, NBC are among the Premier League’s most significant partners and they contribute hugely to the spending power and earning potential of top-flight clubs.
In an interview with The AthleticMiller, NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and sponsorship, was asked if he would be supportive of matches heading to the US to further connect English football with its American audience.
He said: “Very much so. And this is a point that 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 (in pre-season) last year where we had six teams come over; Fulham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford. We had nine games in seven days in five cities around America (and 265,000 fans were in attendance). .
“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. 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 because 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.”
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NBC to continue push for Premier League games in US, says leading exec
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