Why NBC Doubled Down on the English Premier League's Small Audience

Athletes hate a tie—and so do media empires. After two years of broadcasting England's Premier League without any huge ratings wins or losses, NBC Universal hustled to stay in the game. A five-day bidding war with Fox and ESPN has ended with NBC paying an undisclosed sum for the exclusive rights to broadcast the imported soccer spectacle in the U.S. for an additional six years, starting in the 2016-2017 season.

What's puzzling about the bidding action is that the Premier League hasn’t exactly proven a ratings coup. Games on NBC and NBCSN averaged 479,000 viewers last season. (For perspective, American Ninja Warrior has been pulling in around 7 million viewers a week—and that's without the smooth stylings of Harry Kane and Alexis Sanchez.) NBC didn’t bother to mention how the English soccer games fared when they spilled over into its extended family of channels, including USA, SyFy, and Bravo.