The work these programmers have put into promoting the league have helped elevate the games' value as a TV commodity -- at a time when soccer's U.S. TV fortunes are on the rise with the improvements of the USA men's and women's teams in recent FIFA World Cups. One would expect that the bidding this time around for U.S. rights to the wealthy English league were spirited. TV-sports sources indicated there were two other rivals up against NBC this time around. ESPN, interestingly, did not bid. A bit of a surprise, given their executives' interest in the product, their openly expressed disappointment at losing FIFA World Cup rights to Fox (English language) and NBC (Spanish) and their network's recent not-so-hot streak that helped spark a big selloff of media stocks last week. ESPN would not comment but a source said the league would not entertain bids placed jointly by more than one media organization, and ESPN did not have the inventory to commit to showing every game due to its extensive college-football commitments. Fox did bid, according to sources, as did BeIN Sports, the Al Jazeera Media outlet that shows games here from top leagues in Spain and Italy among other soccer properties.

NBC has been a proper steward of the league, both in terms of marketing zeal (the pictured billboard from Times Square promoting the league's arrival being one example) and on-air commitment. Every league match is shown, either on TV by use of virtual overflow channels by some providers or via online streaming. NBC also imported the popular "Match of the Day" recap format from the United Kingdom and picked up the offbeat witty commentary of Roger Bennett and Michael Davies -- the Men In Blazers -- a program that originated on ESPN. NBC's Lazarus told reporters on a call that "our marketing and promotion and that we have emphasized all 20 teams, and that we are not just taking the top three or four" helped impress the Premier League overseers. "We are showing that this is a league of 20 teams and that they all have a chance to get going and that adds value to the league," he said, according to a transcript. 

Lazarus said the Premier League helps establish NBCSN as "a destination for live sports," also including the National Hockey League and motor sports (including Formula 1, another weekend morning staple that NBC acquired away from Fox). He said it's growing and has a "very young audience profile, a very affluent audience profile."

I'm a Premier League fan, if you haven't already guessed. I've enjoyed each step of the league's TV progression here. I watched my first pro soccer game at the CTAM Summit in Seattle 12 years ago -- Fox invited some attendees to see Manchester United play an exhibition against Celtic (of Glasgow). I celebrated when ESPN showed its first Sunday match. And I watch Saturdays and Sundays on NBCSN, with the iPad monitoring alternate games. As a fan of the league, I think NBC's performance merited a return, and look for more and better things with this six-year extension. 

That was Lazarus's message, too. "Having this now for seven more seasons, gives us the ability to continue to invest," he said. "In a three‑year cycle, the minute you sign, you sort of feel like you’re running for office again. We are in office for a little while now, so we can continue to invest."

Photo credit: NBC Sports Group.

NBC Sports Group reached a six-year renewal with Barclays Premier League, ensuring that the sports network will continue as the exclusive multi-platform home of the British soccer league in the U.S. through the 2021-22 season.

According to the deal, NBC Sports Group will continue to make all 380 Premier League matches available to fans – via NBCUniversal’s NBC, NBCSN, USA Network, Telemundo and NBC Universo linear channels, plus the Premier League Extra Time TV package – and via live stream on NBC Sports Live Extra, or other platforms.

“We are excited to continue our tremendous partnership with the Premier League, and we look forward to presenting the world’s finest soccer league to Americans for many years to come,” said NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus in a statement. “As sports fans, there’s nothing better than waking up on a weekend morning to live and relevant events, and we at NBC Sports are thrilled to continue to be this outlet for the fast-growing Premier League fan base.”

Premier League viewership on NBC and NBCSN averaged a record 479,000 viewers last season -- up 9% from the record NBC Sports Group set during its debut covering the Premier League in 2013-14 (438,000 viewers).  In addition, viewers consumed a record total of 317 million minutes of live Premier League action via NBC Sports Live Extra during the 2014-15 season – up 22% from the prior season.

“NBC Sports has done a fantastic job broadcasting the Barclays Premier League for the last two seasons and we are extremely pleased that they have invested in our U.S. rights for seasons 2016-17 to 2021-22,” said Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore in a statement. “Outstanding production, expert analysis, and wide audience reach have all been beyond expectations. First-rate creative marketing and promotional campaigns have driven interest in our clubs, and the competition as a whole, to unprecedented levels. NBC Sports has committed to extend partnership activation and promotion of clubs in future seasons – a significant factor in the awarding of these rights – and we look forward to continuing our excellent working relationship with them for the next seven years.”

Boxing Day coverage begins at 7 a.m. (ET) with Premier League Live on NBCSN followed by league-leaders Chelsea and forward Diego Costa (12 goals, second-most in BPL) hosting fourth-place West Ham United at 7:45 a.m. on NBCSN and mun2. At 10 a.m. the networks will televise coverage of Manchester United, unbeaten in their last seven league matches, versus Newcastle. Live match coverage wraps up at 12:30 p.m. with a showcase of  two of the Premier League’s top scorers when Arsenal and Alexis Sanchez

(nine goals, fourth-most in BPL) host Queens Park Rangers and Charlie Austin (11 goals, third-most in the circuit) on NBCSN.

On Dec. 28, NBCSN kicks off  with Tottenham v. third-place Manchester United at 7 a.m., followed by Southampton v. first-place Chelsea at 9:05 a.m., and capped by  Newcastle v. Everton at 11:15 a.m. mun2 will present Tottenham v. Manchester United, and Telemundo will air Newcastle v. Everton.

Coverage continues on Monday, Dec. 29, with Liverpool sqauring off against Swansea City on NBCSN.

On New Year’s Day, NBCSN presents the first-ever Premier League Breakaway, a special two-hour show featuring RedZone-like live look-ins on the best action from all eight Premier League matches in the 10 a.m. window.

New Year’s Day matches kick off on NBCSN with Stoke City v. Manchester United at 7:45 a.m., with Tottenham v. Chelsea (also on Telemundo) at 12:30 p.m.

All matches not on NBCSN in multiple-match television windows – Fri., Dec. 26 at 10 a.m.; Sun., Dec. 28 at 10 a.m. and New Year’s Day at 10 a.m. – will be available on Premier League Extra Time, the ad hoc platform through which  MVPDs, at no extra cost, can make the matches available to their subscribers that receive NBCSN.

Additionally, all Premier League games will bestreamed on NBC Sports Live Extra, NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices and tablets.

Below is the schedule for NBCUniversal’s soccer coverage for Match Days 18-20 (all times ET, subject to change):

New York – As streaming video and TV Everywhere make up an increasingly large part of total traffic on the web, managing internal and user expectations continues to be the biggest challenge for the service, according to a panel at the Business of Live TV Summit here today.

Online video is growing, according to research from Cisco Systems, making up about 66% of Internet traffic and is expected to rise to 79% by 2018. At the same time Ultra HD video, currently accounting for less than 1% of traffic should rise to 11% by 2018 while standard definition video (64%) and HD video (36%), should reverse roles by 2018, with HD video making up about 52% of IP video traffic.

But as traffic demands increase, so does the cry for better quality and innovative uses for the technology on both the consumer and network side, said panelists at the Live TV Summit’s Streaming Live Productions Online panel.

NBC Sports Group vice president of technology Eric Black pointed to NBC’s Barclays Premier League soccer coverage, which included the use of a tactical camera that showed the action from a perch above the field (pictured). Black added that technology spurred questions on how much more could the network do.

NeuLion executive vice president and co-founder Chris Wagner said how much is usually answered by the type of sport and the costs associated with it. However, he added that advances in technology allow for good quality even on a low budget. For example, he said Cablevision Systems’ MSG Varsity network can spend as little as $500 per high school sports match for that network, while the costs rises considerably for college and professional sports.

Fox Sports senior vice president mobile and advanced platforms Clark Pierce said that managing user expectations also is a challenge, especially with TV Everywhere. Fox’s TV Everywhere offering is authenticated – as are most – which sometimes presents challenges for viewers who believe they shouldn’t have to sign in with a password and user name just to get service that they already pay for. While tentpole events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup have helped drive awareness for TV Everywhere, even those events presented a challenge for the network. And Pierce noted that Fox's streaming rights for NFL games don't include mobile rights. That, he said, immediately caused viewers to ask why they couldn’t watch the same matches on their phones that they were watching on their desktop computers and tablets.

“Managing to that, marketing to that is a huge challenge,” Pierce said.

NBCSN will turn 70 pubs nationwide into the venues for Premier League viewing party extravaganzas that will bring fans together May 11 on the final day of the circuit’s season, Championship Sunday.

Top soccer pubs throughout New York City, Washington D.C., Seattle, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami will present NBCUniversal's most extensive and comprehensive Championship Sunday coverage ever in U.S. history, as patrons will be able to watch all 10 matches live simultaneously on 10 of the programmer’s networks. This will mark the first time in U.S. history that all Championship Sunday matches, kicking off at 10 a.m. (ET), will be available on linear networks.

As the exclusive home for the Premier League, NBCSN netted significant Nielsen advances averaging 395,000 viewers with its first-year coverage, up 80% from the 220,000 watchers during last year's full-season cable average on the former Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN2. Nine of the 10 most-watched Premier League games ever on cable have screened on NBCSN this season.

The Championship Sunday matches will air on NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, Esquire Network and Syfy. In addition, Spanish-language networks Telemundo and mun2 will each televise one match. (see matchups and announce-teams below)

"We started the season in soccer bars greeting the fans with the chant - every week, every game, on TV and streaming live," said John Miller, chief marketing officer, NBC Sports Group. "They liked what they heard so we decided to end the season back in the bars to thank our loyal fans for a great season."

Click here to see a city-by-city list of NBCSN's official Premier League viewing party pubs throughout the country.

With the league title still up for grabs between Manchester City and Liverpool,  Champions and Europa Leagues spots available, and relegation at stake, NBCU will set the stage at 9 a.m., with an exclusive Premier League Live pregame show on CNBC, featuring Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Mustoe, Robbie Earle and Kyle Martino. Check out some of the key scenarios here.

Lowe, Mustoe, Earle and Martino will return following the matches for a special Goal Zone season wrap-up postgame show on NBC at 12 Noon ET.  NBCSN will simulcast Goal Zone. At 2 p.m. ET, NBCSN wraps up the day’s coverage with a special look back at the newly crowned champions’ path to the title on Premier League Live: The Champions.

The following are the broadcast teams for Premier League “Championship Sunday” matches on Sunday, May 11th at 10 a.m. ET:

*Spanish-language telecast