NBC Sports Extends Deal to Show Premier League Soccer Games

NBC Sports has forged a deal to extend its exclusive U.S. coverage of England's Premier League soccer for another six years. The league's success with viewers comes with a hefty price tag for NBC Sports. The New York Times reports that the new broadcasting rights deal is worth around $1 billion, almost double the annual fee for NBC's current three year contract. The Comcast (CMCSA) owned sports channel is betting big on the growing appetite for the European soccer league, which plays 360 matches per year. Last season the combined viewership reached around 479,000 viewers per game, up 9 percent from the previous year. The deal allows NBC Sports to make the soccer action available to fans across its channels, and live stream digital platform, under the new contract Spanish language rights are also included.