In the US, both Turner Broadcasting and NBC will be offering live football on a mix of traditional linear channels and OTT.
Turner and UEFA have signed a three-year multi-platform rights agreement for the exclusive presentation of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League beginning with the 2018-19 season.
Timed to this multi-year rights agreement, Turner has also announced plans to launch a new standalone premium sports streaming video service as a direct to consumer offering. The new OTT sports platform will debut in 2018. Pricing is yet to be announced.
Meanwhile, NBC is launching its direct-to-consumer Premier League product with the start of the season this.The broadcaster still will air about 250 matches on its television networks, mostly NBCSN, NBC and CNBC. But 130 games are being moved to its OTT stream.
Priced at $49.99 as Premier League Pass, on NBC Sports Gold, those matches previously had been available to cable subscribers as Premier League Extra Time on overflow channels and as part of the regular NBC Sports app.
The two developments mean that football fans in the US will have to subscribe to both a libear cable/IPTV/DTH service and to the OTT service in order to be able to watch all matches.
