Say goodbye to NBC Sports Gold and hello Peacock.
NBC Sports has announced that for the 2020/21 season, Peacock will stream 175 Premier League games exclusively on the Peacock Premium platform.
In total, Peacock Premium will present more than 1,500 hours of Premier League live match and shoulder programming. Included will be full-event replays for all 380 matches on-demand (after 9 p.m. ET).
All content presented on NBC Sports Gold’s “Premier League Pass” will shift exclusively to Peacock Premium with the start of the 2020-21 Premier League season.
NBC and NBCSN will continue to present extensive Premier League live match coverage, as well as pre- and post-match shows and additional shoulder programming.
If you haven’t given Peacock a test drive yet, Peacock will be streaming all of the Premier League games on July 15 which include Arsenal vs. Liverpool, Burnley vs. Wolves, Newcastle against Spurs and Man City against Bournemouth. The games will also be available on NBC Sports Gold, but none of them will be on TV.
READ MORE: What is Peacock and why should Premier League viewers care?
Peacock Premium is currently available at no additional cost to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers across the country. Peacock Premium will also be available for $4.99 per month and features more than 15,000 hours of content.
As of press time, it looks unlikely that Peacock will be available on Roku or Amazon Fire TV by the July 15 launch date.
NBC puts more games behind a paywall
Analysis by Christopher Harris, Soccer media analyst
NBC keeps on putting more Premier League games behind a paywall each season. They may position the $4.99 Peacock Premium price point as “no big deal,” but that’s for access to 175 of the games. In order to have access to the full 380 games per season, you’ll need Peacock Premium plus a subscription to a cable or satellite TV provider or additional streaming service to access the 205 other games across NBCSN and NBC.
Over the years since NBC Sports acquired the rights to the Premier League, the broadcaster has eaten away at the number of games that are available to cable subscribers. In 2013, every single Premier League game was available via NBC Sports Live Extra. In 2017 with the launch of the Premier League on NBC Sports Gold, 130 games were exclusive to Gold. In 2019 when NBC Sports launched the Premier League Pass for NBC Sports Gold, the number of online-exclusive games climbed to 140. And now with this week’s announcement, Peacock will have exclusive rights to 175 games. From 0 to 175 games exclusive to a paid streaming service offered by NBC Sports, that’s quite a jump.
There’s nothing wrong with offering games via a paid streaming service. But either make all of them available for a higher price point or none at all. By offering 175 out of 380, it still means that consumers have to jump through hoops to have access to all the games available.
By NBC Sports offering a halfway measure, that doesn’t satisfy cord cutters who want access to everything. And at the same time, NBC Sports infuriates cable and satellite TV subscribers by having them pay more to access all the games.
Understandably NBC Sports is trying to find as many ways as possible to monetize the Premier League coverage given that they spent approximately $1 billion to renew the rights in the last TV deal. But NBC Sports finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place. Parent company Comcast wants to lock fans of Premier League clubs into staying with cable and/or satellite providers. But at the same time, they’re looking for new ways to generate additional revenue.
It could be that the future of the Premier League after the NBC TV deal ends at the close of the 2021/22 season is to a streaming provider with bucketloads of cash who offers the most amount of money during the bidding process. Consumers may win in that scenario with a streaming offering that’s not tied to cable, but ultimately it would be the Premier League losing out because they would lose the exposure of what a NBC can provide.
Premier League’s 2020/21 season will feature 175 games exclusive to Peacock. In NBC’s final year of their current media rights deal with the Premier League in 2021/22, don’t be surprised if that number increases even more.
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Tony
September 12, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Having to wait until 9pm eastern is bloody useless ! Most people work for living and have to record games to watch when they get home .
BLOODY USELESS . Why can’t they do it like ESPN+ that make replays available soon after the game has finished ???
JT
August 10, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Any word on if there would be an expansion of Sky Sports coverage and shows? Really enjoyed the one hour coverage last season on NBCSN and would love to see them give us more. Do you know if they have made any announcements on that. Would we be getting the same Gold tv shows we are used to and some more?
Christopher Harris
August 10, 2020 at 2:54 pm
We should have news in a few weeks. We’re on it and trying to dig to find out all of the details.
GT
July 16, 2020 at 4:13 pm
NBC continues to make a mess of EPL coverage, pitiful the mess they’ve made of it. One way or another there should be a way to pay $X and get every match live and on demand in one place. And without spoilers! 9pm, ridiculous…
Peacock app still has spoilers of the matches (just like Gold does/did) when you go onto the app. Even B/R Live was able to figure that out for the CL.
BD
July 16, 2020 at 7:45 pm
Totally agree, why didn’t Peacock add NBC (local) and NBCSN like CBS all Access. And make it available on Amazon and Roku. Living on the West Coast I’m not fully awake when EPL starts at the weekend. Only having to go to one app would be a blessing.
Carl Armour
July 15, 2020 at 7:18 am
I see no Gold content available on Peacock at launch today. No shoulder programming, no replays.
Christopher Harris
July 15, 2020 at 9:09 am
That content won’t start being available until next season.
Brendan
July 12, 2020 at 9:08 pm
Peacock will replace NBC at the 12:30pm slot on Saturdays Instead of changing over to NBC it will be Peacock Premium that will be needed to watch these games . Also don’t be surprised if the Monday night games are on Peacock that is their plan u cannot have one without the other
nosferatu
July 13, 2020 at 1:19 pm
I was thinking the Monday/Friday games could be included in the higher number of streamed games, but hadn’t considered the NBC games. I don’t know–that seems like important for the visibility of getting the Premier League on broadcast once a week. But who knows, really. Maybe they could throw some of the early games on there.
Oval23
July 11, 2020 at 8:00 pm
In terms of sports it is only premier league? What about rugby, golf and cycling?
BD
July 11, 2020 at 11:07 am
Will the EPL games be ad-feee or is that option going to be an additional $5/mo-$50/yr?
nosferatu
July 11, 2020 at 2:22 pm
They already get ads in there when you watch replays of games that were on NBC/NBCSN, so I’m sure they won’t be exempt from ads in the cheaper Premium package.
The question I have is how they’ll fit the ads in, at least for live broadcasts, because the world feed broadcasts that air on Gold now don’t have any natural commercial breaks. Not that the halftime content is can’t-miss or anything, but you just don’t want to see ads pop up in the middle of a live game and make you miss the action.
BD
July 11, 2020 at 6:55 pm
I’m guessing the mid-half water breaks will become a feature next season
Alex
July 11, 2020 at 8:14 am
not an extra $ for greedy NBC
plenty of free streams out there
Jesus
July 11, 2020 at 7:37 am
I have NBC Sports Gold on Roku. I wish NBC Sports would send out an announcement to all its subscribers as to what their plans are for next season and what the options are for accessing Premier league matches. It’s very bad customer relations that subscribers have to read about changes elsewhere.
James
July 11, 2020 at 12:35 am
Just signed up for their pre-order. At $29.99 for 1 year if you sign before 15th July, you can’t really go wrong.
Mark S
July 11, 2020 at 11:45 am
I just did the same thing. My family watches a lot of the other programs that are going to be available through Peacock, so it really was a no-brainer. I appreciate World Soccer Talk keeping us informed about what is taking place because I haven’t heard a peep out of NBC. I’ve subscribed to NBC Sports Gold Premier League Pass for the last couple of seasons, and I haven’t seen any communication on whether or not my account was going to be auto-renewed or cancelled. I went ahead and cancelled the “auto-renew option” today.
Greg C
July 10, 2020 at 7:55 pm
I have to say that I’m going off NBC. Arlo White, Graeme Le Saux, Gold, Peacock, #MyPLMornings… The grass isn’t always greener but I’m hoping for something different
DT
July 10, 2020 at 6:35 pm
I hate Comcast/Xfinity with a passion but they have a monopoly in my city so I still had to keep them for internet after I dumped their television service years ago.. Got the free flex streaming device when I heard about Premier League and overall it’s not bad. It has a clunky interface like most Comcast devices but once you are in the Peacock app the links to the games are displayed on the main home screen. I have had no problems so far and the picture is great. There is also a huge amount of programming/films on there outside of soccer. I’d be pissed if I wasn’t a Comcast customer but there is a bunch of programming on there that will probably interest non-football watchers in your household.
Azer
July 10, 2020 at 4:53 pm
I have been with Comcast for a long time. My equipment works well, no issues. I don’t feel like upgrading to Xfinity X1 or install Flex. I understand it’s free but why replace something that’s not broken. Why can’t I go to the Peacock website, log in with my credentials and watch it like that? I’m tired of talking about the Premier League on NBC anymore. They’ve never impressed me from day one. NBC was given a chance to shine and they failed miserably, may their lights dim soon.
Jeff
July 10, 2020 at 9:34 pm
“Why can’t I go to the Peacock website, log in with my credentials and watch it like that?”
You’ll be able to do that when Peacock ‘properly’ launches next Wednesday
Kien
July 10, 2020 at 3:23 pm
Do we have any idea on how many devices per Peacock subscription?
Yespage
July 10, 2020 at 3:16 pm
This really isn’t a big issue. They show a lot of games on NBCSN, and then they’ll show the rest of a streaming service, like they already had been. And now you get a lot of bonus content with it. It is actually an improvement.
I think people got way too used to getting everything via NBCSN for a year or two. You can’t do that with any sport, why people demand it with the EPL is silly. If NBCSN strips off content like Turner did with Champions League, then we have a problem!
Nelson P Arblaster
July 10, 2020 at 12:27 pm
Can a cord cutter with no cable/satellite/Streaming TV subscription buy Peacock and watch every premier league game after 9pm?
Ritchie
July 10, 2020 at 12:41 pm
Yes
Nelson P Arblaster
July 10, 2020 at 1:19 pm
Thanks. Considering I’m paying $65 a month for YouTube TV and the only thing I really use it for is EPL, I’m going to give Peacock a shot. At $2.50 a month ($30 a year promo) I’ll be saving about $60 a month for the next year. The extra shoulder programming I’ve enjoyed will be missed . Also, waiting till 9pm will suck but I can’t pass this up.
Carl Armour
July 10, 2020 at 11:15 am
Comcast is working on adding more providers who will get Peacock Premium (with ads) included in their tv or internet subscription. Right now it’s just Cox and their own Xfinity platform. If the sign up more providers, many more will have access to what was on Gold for “free”. This will end up being a cost savings for many, but just how many remains to be seen.
nosferatu
July 10, 2020 at 12:43 pm
It would be nice to know this answer soon–the $30 deal for signing up by Tuesday is relatively appealing, but obviously I’d be pretty chapped if the next day Spectrum announced it would be free for all their customers.
I’ll probably just sign up at $30 for the year, though, because knowing Spectrum, them doing something like this to benefit their customers would be a first. (I could see them offering their special Spectrum Originals offerings in exchange to Comcast–you know, the Mad About You revival and a couple other shows–and just getting hung up on immediately.)
Carl Armour
July 10, 2020 at 2:42 pm
I agree but sadly these types deals tend to be made at the last minute, like it was for the HBO Max launch last month. I’m waiting until Tuesday night to make a decision.
Barry
July 10, 2020 at 9:55 am
Chris,
Any word on whether games shown on Peacock will be available on demand before 9 PM? As I remember NBC made a similar statement about 9 PM availability in their original Sports Gold announcement, leading to some confusion about it on here and on other forums. As it turned out the only games that were not available before 9 PM were the games broadcast on NBCSN. I am hoping that will be the case again.
For guys like me who purchased Gold this is quite an upgrade. $30 for a year with a lot of additional non soccer programming thrown in.
Edward
July 10, 2020 at 8:32 am
great news if you are an XFinity internet customer
Rich
July 10, 2020 at 7:07 am
Remember, you get an entire year of peacock for $30 if you pre order.
Efrain
July 10, 2020 at 7:00 am
It is what it is. BUT, if we’re being forced to pay for cable and Peacock premium, then matches should be available to be viewed shortly after the live event is over. Having to wait until 9pm is crazy! Offer on demand games immediately after live event OR create a DVR function (heck, they need the money then charge us another $5 like Sling does).
nosferatu
July 10, 2020 at 12:56 pm
My assumption is that the 9 p.m. rule will be for the non-Peacock games, when they’ll be available on Peacock, and others will be available soon after, as they are now.
My hope, though, is that replays of NBC/NBCSN games will actually be available before 9 p.m. on the NBC Sports app, like they used to be, since Gold won’t be a part of that. It feels wrong to be paying for a cable subscription and then not being able to watch a replay of a game on the app, whether because I’m at work late or upstairs without the DVR or if my DVR fails to record a game, as it often does (only really Premier League games!–though sometimes they do show up if you reset the DVR).
Rich
July 10, 2020 at 6:57 am
Peacock will show all replays, correct?
Rich
July 10, 2020 at 7:04 am
Never mind…you said above that peacock will have all replays.
Me
July 10, 2020 at 3:37 am
I’m sure this has been said time and time again but viewers in the US might feel angered at having content placed “behind a paywall” but when compared to most other countries around the world, the US is the one place I actually envy in terms of sports coverage.
For most other countries “behind a paywall” means a sports subscription on top of the basic TV subscription. I can’t think of a single country other than the US that has Premier League games on a basic cable type channel – everywhere else has them on dedicated subscription channels.
Yes, you might now have to pay $4.99 extra and you quip in the above that some might say it’s “no big deal”. For you it may be a big deal but trust me – the vast majority, if not all people, from outside the US looking in would take that deal in a split second.
NaBUru38
July 10, 2020 at 6:07 pm
European public broadcasters air several major sports, although less than a decade ago. Also people with TV sets must pay licence fees.
me
July 11, 2020 at 1:14 pm
We have to pay a licence fee in the UK. As far as public broadcaster sports coverage – that’s very few and far between in the UK and across Europe when it comes to football as most of it is on pay TV.
In the UK, to watch the Premier League it costs:
TV Licence – £13.13
Sky subscription – £30
Sky Sports subscription – £30
BT Sport subscription – £25
HD – £6
UHD – £4
+ an Amazon Prime subscription in December.
That’s around $136 per month… and that’s with 180 of the matches not shown live.
If you want to watch things like Serie A or LaLiga, that’s an extra £11.99 per month on top.
Then you have to add broadband on top of that etc. etc.
At least you get most of your sports on US TV in basic to mid-tier cable packages.
nosferatu
July 11, 2020 at 2:13 pm
That’s some really great info for comparison purposes. Those monthly subscription fees are crazy! How does non-sports programming fit into the picture then? Similar to the cable packages we pay for here?
Me
July 12, 2020 at 10:32 am
All general entertainment and box sets are included as part of the basic Sky subscription, as is Netflix. The only thing other than sports we have to pay separately for are movie channels – that costs an extra £19 a month if you’re out of contract. It’s currently £11 a month if you sign up for 18 months.
TV and broadband is an expensive game when you also want live Premier League matches over here.
Christopher Davis
July 16, 2020 at 11:55 am
Apps! Apps! We don’t need no stinking apps! The peacock experience was awful, did not work at all. After 20 minutes trying to sign in I gave up. I want my games on my TV not on an app on my computer or cell phone! I pay a bucket load of money to my TV provider, and now I don’t even get my Premier League soccer games anymore! I want to get home from work and turn my TV on, push a button and watch the game that I had set a record, not have to mess around for 15 minutes to try to find a game on an app that shows me every score while I try to find how to stream that game! I want to pause my DVR, walk away for a minute, an hour, a day, or a week, and come back and push a button and watch the rest of the game! NBC, you bought the TV rights, put the games on TV!
Freddy
September 20, 2020 at 12:37 pm
And that’s how it will eventually become here stateside. So you’re comparison is meaningless since it never started like that in the UK did it.
g
July 12, 2020 at 12:32 pm
NBCSN is not on Basic cable, first you have to pay for satellite or cable, an expense I would otherwise not incur, than you have to pay more than the minimum basic cost to get to a tier high enough to carry it (not available ala carte) another 40-50 dollars + so $80-100 a month I would not incur but for the PL, then to add insult to injuries they want even more for Gold or Peacock and the inconvenience of needing another platform, and especially switching or PIPing simultaneous matches, and may not be available on my Roku TV or Amazon fire stick both hugely in use.
What is especially grating is when I and minions of others committed to 2 year deals with providers there were nonstop promotion every match on ever device days before they announced Gold bs.
And coverage should get better and more efficient as technology vastly improves not the opposite, and the World progresses by improving not comparing and striving to, and telling people to stay content with the worst common denominator.
I would be happy to pay even more to my provider for every match or to one streaming service for every match.
Tom3
July 9, 2020 at 11:15 pm
They’d better get Peacock on Roku stat or I drop their additional services. What a sh&t show.
John J Costello
July 9, 2020 at 8:37 pm
NBC better figure it out quick.
Largest users are via Amazon and then the Ruku outlets.
90% of pubs would be on Amazon too. Disastrous next year otherwise.
Daniel
July 9, 2020 at 6:37 pm
Exclusively on Peacock? The NBC Sports website and app state that the 7/15 games are also on Gold. Not true?
Christopher Harris
July 9, 2020 at 6:42 pm
Correct. 7/15 games are on NBC Sports Gold and Peacock.
Liam Donaldson
July 14, 2020 at 1:40 pm
I tried to find how to record soccer games thru Peacock – is that possible?
Apart from the tedious slowdown in the Peacock “Guide” it was not user friendly at all.
I do not want to see any other sport listings.
Anyone managed to set Record for soccer Premier League games for Wednesday 7/15?
They have made this a real mess to navigate.