Major League Soccer and the NBC Sports Group today announced a historic partnership that will see MLS and U.S. Men\u2019s National Team matches aired on NBC and Versus (soon to be rebranded as the NBC Sports Network), starting in 2012.The deal runs through 2014 and will see 45 MLS games and four U.S. Men\u2019s National Team contests televised each season on the NBC and the NBC Sports Network.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone at the NBC Sports Group is thrilled to begin this partnership with Major League Soccer,\u201d said Mark Lazarus, Chairman of the NBC Sports Group. \u201cMLS is a perfect fit for our new group, and we are uniquely positioned to help grow soccer in the United States with extensive coverage on NBC Sports Network, significant programming on the broadcast network and our growing digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal will complement, rather than replace, ESPN\u2019s existing deal with MLS that also runs through 2014. MLS\u2019 agreement with Fox Soccer Channel, however, which runs out after this season will not be renewed.<\/p>\n
As part of the agreement NBC will broadcast two regular-season MLS games, two playoff games and two appearances by the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team on their national broadcast TV network. This will place four MLS matches on English-language network television for the first time since 2002.<\/p>\n
Telecasts on the NBC family of networks will also consist of pre- and post-game coverage and the NBC Sports Group obtains digital rights across all platforms and devices for the games it televises.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur new partnership with the NBC Sports Group is a significant step forward for Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer,\u201d said MLS Commissioner and Soccer United Marketing CEO Don Garber.\u00a0 \u201cThe NBC Sports Group is world-renowned for its award-winning coverage, superb broadcast quality and promotional expertise. We are excited to be part of NBC\u2019s ambitious plans for soccer, and look forward to reaching a considerable audience on multiple platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
NBC Universal is owned by Comcast, which runs Comcast SportsNet, with whom the league already has regional partnerships with five affiliates (California, Chicago, Mid-Atlantic, New England and Philadelphia). Local broadcasts of New England Revolution games appear on Comcast SportsNet New England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starting in 2012, 45 MLS games and four U.S. Men’s National Team games will be aired on NBC and Versus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/mlsfeature.jpg?fit=490%2C225","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5873,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872\/revisions\/5873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}