FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage and the launch of the new Premier League season highlight this weekend’s list of live Tv sports telecasts.

The Women’s World Cup continues Saturday on Fox with quarter-final round action featuring the Australia-France and England-Colombia matches. The winners will join Sweden and Spain in the semi-final round next weekend. 

The 2023-24 Premiere League season kicks off with NBC, USA and Peacock offering eight live games throughout the weekend. 

In the boxing ring, ESPN on Saturday will televise the junior welterweight championship bout between titleholder Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez, while DAZN distributes the heavyweight fight between former champion Anthony Joshua and Robert Helenius. Also Saturday, Showtime will air the Emmanuel Rodriguez-Melvin Lopez bantamweight championship fight. 

In the octagon, ESPN will televise a UFC Fight Night card headlined by the Vincente Luque-Rafael Dos Anjos bout. 

On the track, USA on Saturday will televise the IndyCar Gallagher Grand Prix and the Xfinity Pennzoil 150 races. On Sunday, NBC will televise the NASCAR Cup Verizon 200 at the Brickyard race. 

On the links, CBS and the Golf Channel will provide weekend coverage of the PGA FedEx St. Jude Championship tournament, while USA offers coverage of the Women’s British Open tournament.  

On the basketball court, ESPN on Sunday will televise the WNBA matchup between the New York Liberty and the Indiana Fever, while CBS offers week eight action from the Big3 league. 

On the baseball field, Peacock on Sunday will stream the Detroit Tigers-Boston Red Sox game, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game features National League East rivals Atlanta Braves and New York Mets.

The Mother’s Day weekend lineup of live tv sports action begins on the pro football field as ABC airs in primetime the upstart XFL pro football league’s Championship game featuring the Arlington Renegades and the D.C. Defenders. 

The second round of the NBA Playoffs winds down as the Philadelphia 76’ers and the Boston Celtics meet Saturday on ABC in a pivotal Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. 

On the ice, ESPN on Saturday will air a Game 6 NHL Playoffs contest featuring the Dallas Stars, who will look to close out its second round series against Seattle Kraken. On Sunday ESPN will air Game 6 of the Edmonton Oilers-Vegas Golden Knights series, with the Golden Knights up three games to two.

On the racetrack, NBC on Saturday will televise the GMR Grand Prix IndyCar Series race and on Sunday will air the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Course de Monterey race. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock on Sunday morning will stream the L.A. Angels-Cleveland Guardians game, while ESPN will televise the St. Louis Cardinals-Boston Red Sox game as part of its Sunday Night Baseball telecast. 

On the links, CBS and Golf Channel will offer final round weekend coverage of the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic PGA tournament, while the CW offers live Saturday and Sunday coverage of the LIV golf tournament in Tulsa. 

Both ESPN and Showtime will feature boxing cards Saturday night, with ESPN offering the Janibek Alimkhanuly-Steven Butler WBO middleweight title fight and Showtime airing the Rolando Romero-Ismael Barroso WBA interim junior welterweight title bout. In the octagon, ABC will air a UFC heavyweight main event bout between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Jailton Almeida. 

Fox on Sunday will air final round coverage of the Professional Bowlers Association’s Players Championship. On the soccer field, USA and Peacock will air nine Premier League games throughout the weekend. 

 This weekend’s list of live TV sports events begins Saturday on the basketball court with the start of the NBA Playoffs. 

After a week of play-in games to determine the final four playoff teams, the NBA’s first round, best-of-seven post-season series begin Saturday afternoon on ESPN with the Brooklyn Nets against the Philadelphia 76’ers, the Atlanta Hawks facing the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks meeting the Cleveland Cavaliers. ABC will round out Saturday’s action with the Golden State Warriors-Sacramento Kings telecast.

On Sunday, ABC will televise the L.A. Lakers-Memphis Grizzlies contest, while TNT offers up a tripleheader beginning with the L.A. Clippers-Phoenix Suns clash. Also slated for Sunday on TNT is the Milwaukee Bucks game against the winner of Friday’s Chicago Bulls-Miami Heat play-in contest, and the Denver Nuggets matchup against Friday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Minnesota Timberwolves winner. 

Football fans will have two spring leagues to watch as the USFL kicks off its second season Saturday alongside week nine of the XFL's inaugural season. Fox on Saturday will televise USFL matches featuring the Philadelphia Stars and Memphis Showboats and the New Jersey Generals against the Birmingham Stallions, while NBC on Sunday will carry the Houston Gamblers-Michigan Panthers contest and FS1 will air the Pittsburgh Maulers-New Orleans Breakers game. 

On the XFL front, ABC on Saturday will televise the Vegas Vipers-Houston Roughnecks matchup while ESPN2 tackles the Orlando Guardians-San Antonio Brahmas game. On Sunday, ESPN will air the Arlington Renegades-D.C. Defenders game and the Seattle Sea Dragons-St. Louis Battlehawks contest.  

On the links, CBS and Golf Channel will televise weekend final round coverage of the PGA RBC Heritage golf tournament, while on the bowling lanes Fox and FS1 will offer weekend coverage of  the PBA World Series of Bowling tournament.

USA, Peacock and NBC will continue its weekend Premier League coverage with a total of nine live games across Saturday and Sunday. Fox on Sunday will air an MLS contest between LAFC and LA Galaxy 

On the racetrack NBC on Sunday will televise the Grand Prix of Long Beach IndyCar race, while FS1 televises the NASCAR Cup NOCO 400 race. On the baseball diamond, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball contest will feature the Texas Rangers against the Houston Astros. 

The launch of the 2022-23 Premier League soccer season kicks off the lineup of live TV sports events slated for the first weekend of August. 

NBC Sports will mark its 10th year of Premier League coverage with eight live games on streaming service Peacock over the weekend, while USA Network will provide live coverage of the Chelsea-Everton matchup. 

Also on the soccer field, ABC on Saturday will air MLS action featuring Seattle at Atlanta, while Fox will televise the Dallas-Portland contest. 

On the links, USA Network and NBC will offer final round coverage of the LPGA British Open while CBS and the Golf Channel televise weekend coverage of the PGA Wyndham Championship.

ESPN will enter the octagon Saturday night for a UFC Fight Night telecast featuring a main event bout between light heavyweights Thiago Santos and Jamahal Hill. 

Peacock’s Sunday afternoon baseball game will feature an American League battle between the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Guardians, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will showcase National League West rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. 

ABC will hit the hardwood Sunday with WNBA doubleheader action, beginning with the Connecticut Sun-Chicago Sky contest, followed by the Las Vegas Aces-Seattle Storm game.■ 

This weekend’s schedule of TV sports events begins on the basketball court with second round coverage of the NBA Playoffs.

ABC on Sunday will televise Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics. Milwaukee enters the second round having defeated the Chicago Bulls four games to one, while Boston enters the series having swept the Brooklyn Nets.

In other sports, ESPN on Sunday will travel to New York for its Sunday Night Baseball telecast featuring the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets.

ESPN will step into the boxing ring Saturday with a primetime fight card featuring junior lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez. Also Saturday, DAZN will televise the women's lightweight unification bout between champion Katie Taylor and contender Amanda Serrano.

In the octagon, ESPN on Saturday will televise a UFC Fight Night main event bout featuring bantamweights Rob Font and Marlon Vera.

In pro football, ESPN and ABC will continue its coverage of the NFL Draft, while the USFL enters its third week with two games on Fox, including the Tampa Bay-Houston and Pittsburgh-Michigan matchups. On Sunday, USA Network will televise the Birmingham-New Orleans game.

The Golf Channel and CBS will offer final round coverage of the PGA Mexico Open pro golf tournament. On the auto racing track, NBC on Sunday will televise the IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

On the soccer field, USA, CNBC, NBC and Peacock will all feature Premier League games throughout the weekend.

Once again this weekend’s TV sports programming spotlight is on the March Madness college basketball tournament, as Saturday night’s games will determine who plays in Monday's finals.

TBS will carry both semi-final games, beginning with Villanova-Kansas followed by North Carolina-Duke. TBS will also air Monday’s finals matchup from New Orleans.

ESPN will televise the women's college basketball finals matchup on Sunday. The game will feature the winners of Friday's Final Four games featuring Louisville-South Carolina and Stanford-UConn. 

On the links, Golf Channel and NBC will offer the final rounds of the PGA Texas Open tournament, while the National Women’s Soccer League kicks off its 2022 campaign Saturday with the Challenge Cup tournament, from which CBS will air the Angel City-San Diego game.

Fox will provide Sunday afternoon coverage of the NASCAR Cup Toyota Owners 400 race, as well as coverage of the Pro Bowlers Association tour’s USBC Masters tournament. 

On the ice, ABC on Saturday will televise the Pittsburgh Penguins-Colorado Avalanche game while on Sunday TNT will televise the New York Islanders-New Jersey Devils contest.

ABC on Sunday will offer an NBA doubleheader featuring the Dallas Mavericks-Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets-L.A. Lakers contests. 

Also, USA Network will feature live weekend coverage of games from soccer’s Premier League. 

The leadup to March Madness dominates this weekend’s schedule of live TV sports events as the matchups for both the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments will be set on Sunday.  

March Madness selection weekend begins Saturday with a slew of men’s final round conference tournament games in such high-profile conferences as the Big Ten (CBS) Southeastern (ESPN2), ACC (ESPN2), Big East (Fox) and Pac-12 (Fox). On Sunday, the finals of the Ivy League (ESPN2), Atlantic 10 (CBS), Southeastern (ESPN), ACC (ESPN) and Big Ten (CBS) will all air prior to the live airing of the men's tournament selection show on CBS.  The women's college basketball tournament selection show will air on ESPN. 

In pro hoops, ABC’s Saturday primetime NBA telecast features a matchup between defending league champion Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors. On Sunday, the network will televise the game between cross-town rivals New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. Also on Sunday, ESPN will air the Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns game. 

On the ice, ABC will air a Saturday afternoon NHL contest between the Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Panthers, while TNT on Sunday will televise the Toronto Maple Leafs-Buffalo Sabres game.

In other sports, Fox will rev up Saturday coverage of the NHRA’s Top Fuel All-Star Callout drag racing event, while FS1 telecasts the Xfinity United Rentals 200 auto race. On Sunday Fox will air the NASCAR Cup Ruoff Mortgage 500 race. 

On Sunday, Fox will air the Pro Bowlers Association’s World Championship tournament, while NBC airs the final round of the PGA Players Championship golf tournament. Also, USA Network  will air the closing ceremonies of the Paralympics Games. 

On the soccer field, Peacock will air two Premier League games on Saturday while USA Network on Sunday will air a Premier League doubleheader. Major League Soccer games will air Saturday on Fox and Sunday on FS1. ■ 

The TV sports landscape for penultimate weekend in January once again starts on the football field as the NFL launches its Divisional Playoffs round. 

On Saturday, CBS will televise an afternoon AFC playoff matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tennessee Titans, while Fox will air in primetime the NFC’s San Francisco 49’ers-Green Bay Packers playoffs contest. 

On Sunday, NBC will air the Los Angeles Rams-Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFC game, while CBS will telecast the Buffalo Bills-Kansas City Chiefs AFC game.

In the ring, Showtime will air a WBC featherweight title bout between champion Gary Russell Jr. and Mark Magsayo. From the octagon, ESPN Plus will distribute the UFC 270 pay-per-view event featuring the heavyweight title bout between champions Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.

ESPN will continue its live Australian Open coverage beginning Saturday and Sunday morning, while the Golf Channel will offer weekend coverage of the LPGA Tournament of Champions and the PGA American Express golf tournaments.

NBC will air an afternoon Premier League game between Manchester City and Southampton, while USA Network will air Premier League games on Saturday and Sunday.   

The Pro Bowlers Association and Fox Sports kick off the PBA Tour’s 2022 season on Saturday and Sunday with live, regional round coverage of the PBA Players Championship on FS1.

Also:  PBA's Tom Clark Rolls out Pro Bowlers Association's Media Plans for Upcoming Season (podcast)

The men’s college basketball schedule this weekend finds several top-ranked teams in action on national TV networks. On Saturday, second-ranked Auburn will take on 12th-ranked Kentucky on CBS, while fifth-ranked Baylor will battle Oklahoma on the Big Ten Network. Other games include No. 7 Kansas-Kansas State (Big 12 Network) and No. 10 Houston-East Carolina (ESPN 2).

On Sunday, Pac-12 Network will televise third-ranked Arizona’s matchup against California, and BTN will air the game between fourth-ranked Purdue and Northwestern.  

The Thanksgiving weekend lineup of live TV sports events starts Saturday on the gridiron as week 13 of the college football season features several high-profile games among NCAA-ranked teams, highlighted by second-ranked Ohio State against fifth-ranked Michigan on Fox. 

Other games featuring top 10-ranked teams include top-ranked Georgia against Georgia Tech on ABC, third-ranked Alabama against Auburn (CBS), sixth-ranked Notre Dame at Stanford (Fox), seventh-ranked Oklahoma State against 10th-ranked Oklahoma (ABC), and eighth-ranked Baylor and Texas Tech (FS1).

Week 12 of the NFL season features regional coverage on Fox and CBS, followed by an NBC Sunday Night Football contest between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. Also on Sunday, ESPN2 and ESPNews will feature live coverage of Canadian Football League playoffs games.

In the ring Showtime will televise the super bantamweight fight between champion Brandon Figueroa and Stephen Fulton Jr. 

NBCSN, USA Network and NBC will offer live Premier League soccer games on Saturday, while ABC and ESPN will offer Major League Soccer coverage on Sunday over the weekend. ■ 

The first weekend of November’s list of live TV sports events begins in the boxing ring Saturday as super middleweight boxing champions Canelo Alverez and Caleb Plant battle in a championship unification pay-per-view boxing event. Showtime will distribute the fight, which will retail at a suggested price of $79.99.

ESPN Plus on Saturday will distribute the UFC 268 pay-per-view mixed martial arts fight card featuring the Kamaru Usman-Colby Covington main event welterweight championship bout.

On the football field, eight of the top 10-rated college football teams will play Saturday on national television, beginning with top-ranked Georgia facing Missouri on ESPN. Second-ranked Cincinnati meets Tulsa on ESPN2, while third-ranked Alabama battles LSU on ESPN. The rest of the schedule features No. 5 Michigan State-Purdue (ABC), No. 6 Ohio State-Nebraska (Fox), No. 7 Oregon-Washington (ABC), No. 8 Notre Dame-Navy (NBC), No. 9 Michigan-Indiana (Fox) and No. 10 Wake Forest-North Carolina (ABC). 

On Sunday night, NBC’s NFL Sunday Night Football telecast will feature the Tennessee Titans against the Los Angeles Rams.

The NASCAR season will conclude this weekend with Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship on NBCSN and Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship on NBC. The broadcast network will also feature on Sunday coverage of motorcycle racing’s FIM MotoGP race.

ESPN2 Sunday morning will offer live coverage of the New York City Marathon. On the soccer field, NBCSN on Saturday will offer Premier League doubleheader coverage on Saturday and Sunday, while on Sunday ESPN and FS1 offer live Major League Soccer game coverage.

Read Also: Live Sports Content Helps Networks Score on October Ratings Charts 

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts focused his comments at the virtual Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference Wednesday on the future, adding that the company’s performance over the years is proof that “scale matters.”

“The last couple of years demonstrates we’re in good businesses, but also how scale matters,” Roberts said. “So if one business is going down with some temporary hit from COVID, we have others that are surging. We have a great team of people, a culture that has been decades in the making, and I think we execute at a high level.”  

That may or may not have been a reference to Comcast chief financial officer Mike Cavanagh’s warning at the Sept. 14 Bank of America Media, Communications & Entertainment conference that broadband growth appeared to slow “a little bit” faster than expected in August. That comment drove Comcast stock down 7.3% that day, costing the cable operator about $20 billion in market capitalization and driving down other stocks in the sector.

Roberts instead pointed to the success of the cable unit’s broadband business, which has grown to about 31 million subscribers, and its 60 million customer relationships. 

“We’re really a broadband company,” Roberts said, adding that the strategy is to deepen those broadband relationships with consumers through innovative products and new ways to distribute them. 

Roberts said the announcement Wednesday of its XiOne product  is the latest example of its “develop once, deploy everywhere” strategy, which includes whole-home WiFi via its Xfinity Pods, its Xfinity Flex broadband-only service, its Gigabit gateway and even a feature that tells Peloton owners via text message that their exercise bike needs to be closer to their WiFi pod for better reception.

Also Read: Comcast Introduces XiOne Streaming Device to Rule Its Entire Global Footprint

“We’re building a moat around the most important part of the company, and we’re innovating and we’ve shifted the whole technology focus to broadband in homes and I think it’s really paying off,” Roberts said. 

Comcast also is focusing on streaming, adding that its Peacock service has about 20 million monthly users and 54 million signups a little more than a year after launching the service nationally. Roberts noted that Comcast also has its eyes on international streaming, with Peacock coming to its Sky subscribers later this year, and its August partnership with ViacomCBS for streaming content in Europe.   

“We’re looking at other partnerships like that around the world,” Roberts said.

Regarding sports rights, Roberts said what NBC Sports does best are big events like NFL football and the Olympics. While Roberts conceded that the recent Tokyo Olympics was “tough,” he pointed to the 120 billion minutes of programming that were consumed by viewers and was optimistic about future games in Beijing (2022), Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028).

“It really makes our company super-relevant for those 17 days, and no one quite can compete with advertisers for attention in the way an Olympics can every two years,” Roberts said. “We’re not that far away from Beijing, and we’ll get right back at it, but we’ll get to a normal rhythm as we go out and we look forward to Paris and we look forward to LA. We love our association with the Olympics.” 

With other sports, Comcast and its Sky satellite unit have the ability to “pick and choose,” pointing to earlier decisions not to get into a bidding war with streaming sports service DAZN for rights to Italy’s Serie A league and last year’s deal for rights to Germany's Bundesliga that resulted in a reduced fee. Sky recently extended its rights deal with the Premier League to 2025.

“These are really hard calls,” Roberts said. “You don’t always want to prevail, and sometimes you’re right and sometimes you're wrong, but I think the sustainability of sports is a critical part of what our company does well.” 

This weekend’s list of live TV sports telecasts begins on the soccer field with the launch of the 2021-22 Premier League season. On Saturday USA Network will air the Everton-Southampton match while NBC telecasts the Norwich City-Liverpool game. NBCSN will air two live Premier League soccer matches each on Saturday and Sunday.

Also, Fox on Saturday will air the La Galaxy-Minnesota Major League Soccer game as well as the Liga MX contest between Pachuca and Monterrey. On Sunday ABC airs a La Liga league match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona. 

In other sports, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball's matchup showcases two longtime National League rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets.

Showtime will step into the boxing ring Saturday night with a bantamweight championship bout between John Riel Casimero and Guillermo Rigondeaux, while ESPN airs a super flyweight bout between champion Joshua Franco and Andrew Moloney. DAZN will also stream a fight card featuring a main event bout between welterweights Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Egidijus Kavalisauskas. 

On the golf links, CBS and Golf Channel will air final round coverage of the PGA Wyndham Championship, and NBC will air Saturday semifinal and Sunday championship coverage of the US Amateur tournament. 

ESPN2 and NBA TV will offer afternoon and evening coverage of NBA Summer League games on Saturday and Sunday, while ABC offers Sunday afternoon coverage of the WNBA game between Seattle and Chicago. 

Read Also: ESPN to Cover NBA Summer League Games 

From the racetrack, NBC on Sunday will air live coverage of the NASCAR Cup Verizon 200 at the Brickyard race, and Fox will televise the NHRA Menards Nationals race. 

With the ad-supported version of its HBO Max product only a few days old, HBO Max executive VP and general manager Andy Forssell told an industry audience that the product and others like it could open up a whole new market for streaming, and eventually help to push the TV universe past 100 million homes. 

WarnerMedia launched its ad-supported version of HBO Max on June 2, priced at $9.99 per month and geared toward more cost-conscious consumers.  At the Barclays virtual Future of Media conference Thursday, Forssell said that the potential for ad-supported streaming is huge.   

“You’re going to get to a larger market. The total addressable market is larger,” Forssell said. “Netflix is probably defining the ceiling on what full penetration in the U.S. market is and they’re riding that up and in some cases they are propelling that wave. I think with ad supported, you add 20% to that."

Currently there are about 85 million pay TV customers in the U.S., but Forssell predicted ad-supported streaming could help push that total higher. 

“We should get back to [the] 100 million-plus homes that we served during the heyday of cable,” he continued. “I think SVOD and some ad-supported SVOD versions should get back to that.”

HBO Max said that it will keep ad loads low on the service -- a maximum of 4 minutes per hour -- and Forssell said that won’t change. 

“Our hypothesis there is message recall, brand recall will be higher the fewer ads you have,” Forssell said. “They’ll be worth more and we'll get to monetize that, ad partners will agree that they are worth more. That’s the experiment we have to prove out in the next year and make it reality and not flip back into what many providers have done in maybe starting with a similar thesis, but saying let’s add another ad to this break because that's the easiest way to increase revenue.”  

Forssell also talked about sports rights, adding that the old way of selling sports rights -- offering what he called “odd little slices” of rights to cable networks -- probably won’t work in a streaming world. 

“I don’t think that [sports] rights landscape is going to be nearly as successful in SVOD,” he said. 

He pointed to Turner Networks’ agreement with the National Hockey League, which also has an HBO Max component.

“Hockey primarily was a vote of confidence and investment in the Turner Networks,” Forssell said. “To add a major sport there was a statement we wanted to make. Will we experiment with that on HBO Max? Sure.” 

But he added that sports brings new challenges to streaming, especially on how they are presented. Providers should also be thinking about things like shoulder programming around games, and whether talent connected with that content should be different in the digital and linear worlds. 

For news operations like CNN, he said the linear relationship will continue as the company looks for streaming complements. 

CNN is said to be readying a streaming service called CNN Plus, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. 

“We will look at what you can do direct-to-consumer,” Forssell said. “We don’t think it’s just repurposing all of that and putting it online in some IP directed format. We think it’s going to change, some of the content needs to change. There is a lot of work going on as to what that will look like.”

Still, Forssell said he was optimistic about the fit between streaming news and entertainment. “They [have] different needs, but I’m optimistic," he said. “Sports, I’m not pessimistic, but it’s going to take some experimentation on what works in SVOD, because what works in cable doesn’t necessarily translate.” 

 Sunday's Super Bowl LV game overshadows a busy weekend live sports event  calendar.

The game between the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, will air live on CBS starting at 6:30 pm (ET). Last year’s Chiefs-San Francisco 49’ers Super Bowl telecast on Fox averaged 100 million viewers. 

Read Also: A Look at NFL Social Video Trends Ahead of the Super Bowl 

Along with CBS' broadcast TV coverage, the Super Bowl will also stream for free on the CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports app, as well as Verizon properties including Yahoo Sports and NFL digital properties. ESPN Deportes and ESPN digital platforms will offer the game in Spanish. 

Read Also: Super Bowl to Stream on Multiple Platforms

Beyond the big game on Sunday, Golf Channel and NBC will team to present final round coverage of the PGA’s Phoenix Open golf tournament. NBC will also hit the ice for a NHL game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals, while sister sports channel NBCSN will air five Premier League soccer game throughout the day. 

College basketball has a huge slate of games this weekend featuring a number of top 10 teams. Saturday afternoon games include sixth-ranked Texas battling Oklahoma State on ABC and ninth-ranked Oklahoma hosting Iowa State on ESPN2. On Sunday Fox will telecast third-ranked Villanova’s game against conference rival Georgetown and eighth-ranked Iowa’s game with Indiana.

ABC will lace up for a primetime NBA telecast featuring the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks, while CBS airs the NFL Honors event. 

Also Saturday, ESPN+ will feature a UFC Fight Night card featuring the Alistair Overeem-Alexander Volkov heavyweight main event bout. 

Amazon Prime Video attracted more than 635,000 new customers in the UK in the fourth quarter, driven by demand for live Premier League football matches on the platform, according to research company Kantar. 

In total, Amazon captured 49% of the 1.3 million new UK subscription OTT customers in Q4, outpacing Netflix, which controlled a 17% share of these new subscribers. 

In Q4, hit series The Boys drew audience share for Amazon, as did Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” film sequel. But Kagan credits the 20 Premier League English football games carried by the streaming company during the three-month period. Amazon was in the second season of a three-year deal to stream Premier League matches in the UK.

“Amazon’s increasing focus on live sports continues to pay big dividends,” said Dominic Sunnebo, senior VP at Kantar’s Worldpanel operation, quoted in The Guardian newspaper. 

This has implications for the U.S. market, as well, where Amazon has aggressively pursued rights to sports leagues including the NFL. 

On Dec. 26, for example, Amazon had exclusive national “broadcast” rights to the final regular season matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers. And it streamed an NFC Wild Card game between the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears on Jan. 10.

The TV sports lineup for the first weekend of December will feature some of the top ranked college football and basketball teams as well as a major pay-per-view boxing event. 

College football will enter the final leg of its regular season with several key matchups, including a primetime matchup between top-ranked Alabama and LSU (CBS) and afternoon games featuring fifth-ranked Texas A&M at Auburn (ESPN), fourth-ranked Ohio State (pictured) at Michigan State (ABC), and third-ranked Clemson at Virginia Tech (ABC).

Boxing will once again take center stage in the pay-per-view combat sports ring with Fox Sports’ Errol Spence-Danny Garcia welterweight championship fight. The fight, which will retail at $74.95, will pit two of the top welterweight fighters in the sport.

The NFL will look to complete its week 13 Sunday schedule without any major COVID-19-related postponements outside of moving its Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys Dec. 3 Thursday Night Football game to Tuesday (Dec. 8) and Sunday's Washington Team-Pittsburgh Steelers games to Monday (Dec. 7.)  NBC’s primetime Sunday Night Football game features an AFC West matchup between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.

College basketball will feature an early matchup of top-ranked teams as number one Gonzaga plays second-ranked Baylor Saturday afternoon (CBS), while 12th-ranked Villanova travels to play 17th-ranked Texas (ESPN). 

NBC and NBCSN will continue its coverage of Premier League soccer games on Saturday and Sunday, while ESPN on Sunday will televise the Sakhir Grand Prix Formula One auto racing event.

England’s Premier League soccer action resumes June 17. Aston Villa plays Sheffield United that day, and Manchester City battles Arsenal.

NBC Sports Network has Premier League Live at noon ET on June 17, hosted by Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Earle and Robbie Musto. It will be the first in-studio show since March from NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn.

The Premier League suspended its matches in mid March due to the pandemic.

NBC Sports Network has Aston Villa and Sheffield United at 1 p.m. ET June 17, then Manchester City versus Arsenal at 3:15 p.m. Telemundo has Aston Villa-Sheffield on the Telemundo Deportes app, and Manchester City-Arsenal on Universo and the Deportes app.

June 19, it’s Premier League Live at noon on NBCSN, then Norwich City versus Southampton at 1 p.m. ET. At 3:15 that day, NBCSN and Universo have Tottenham against Manchester City.

June 20, it’s Watford against Leicester City at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN, and Brighton against Arsenal at 10 a.m. on NBCSN and Universo. After Premier League Live on NBC at noon, West Ham and Wolverhampton face off at 12:30 on NBC and Telemundo.

At 2:45 on June 20, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace air on Peacock and NBC Sports Gold.

June 21, it’s Newcastle against Sheffield United at 9 a.m. on NBCSN, then Aston Villa versus Chelsea at 11:15 a.m. on NBCSN and Telemundo. American Christian Pulisic plays for Chelsea.

NBC airs Premier League Live at 1:30 June 21, then NBC and Telemundo have Everton versus Liverpool at 2 p.m. for bragging rights in the city of Liverpool.

Liverpool is a beast this season, its record standing at 27-1-1.

Manchester City and Burnley face off June 22 at 3 p.m. on NBCSN and Universo. 

DirecTV will continue its 4K live sports telecasts this Thursday with the broadcast of both a Major League Baseball and Premier League soccer game, the satellite service said Wednesday.

DirecTV will offer in 4K the Manchester City-Manchester United soccer match tomorrow afternoon, followed by the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox baseball telecast Thursday night. This telecasts mark the first time DirecTV has aired two live sporting events back-to-back on the same day in 4K, said company officials.

In the past 12 months the satellite TV service has offered several sports events in 4K including The Masters golf tournament, NCAA College Basketball and NBA games, UFC fights, PGA tournaments, Notre Dame football games, the Rio Olympics and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 

One World Sports said it has extended its multi-year licensing deal with Arsenal FC TV, the British soccer club’s official TV channel, for multi-platform use in the U.S. and Canada.

 “The renewal of our partnership with Arsenal enables One World Sports to offer premium soccer content with full access to one of the most popular global sports brands to our North American audience,” said One World executive vice president, programming & production Joel Feld in a statement. “What sets our coverage apart from other networks is the intense match day action combined with the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Arsenal club that fans in the United States and Canada can’t find anywhere else.”

Under the agreement, with international media rights agency MP & Silva, One World Sports will deliver Arsenal’s games throughout the 10-month season, including those within the English Premier League (EPL), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Championship and Football Association (FA) Cup.  In addition to the matches, One World Sports’ Arsenal FC programming on both its network and mobile platforms includes pre- and post-match interviews, features and analyses.  One World Sports will also provide an insider’s view of the club with exclusive player and coach profiles, historical reviews and engaging insights with top players.

“We’re delighted that One World Sports has renewed its contract to partner with Arsenal and its continued commitment to delivering Arsenal TV across North America,” said Arsenal Football Club general manager Ben Ladkin in a statement.  “It’s a great opportunity for all our fans to watch Arsenal programming and get closer to the club and we’re looking forward to working with them to deliver more great content." 

London-based Arsenal FC is among the most storied soccer clubs in the U.K, with 13 titles in the top English tiers – First Division and Premier League – and a joint record 11 Football Association (FA) Challenge Cups including its most recent 4-0 victory in 2014 over Aston Villa.  Arsenal kicks off their season against West Ham United at home on Aug. 9.

 “We have a long-term strategic media partnership with Arsenal FC with a record distribution of the Arsenal Media Channel to 130 territories, in five continents and 30 million supporters around the world,” said MP & Silva’s CEO, Marco Auletta in a statement. “The following of soccer in the United States and Canada has proven to be one of our key growing markets and we continue to build a strong reputation for Arsenal – one of the world’s most successful and best-known clubs.”

NBCSN's coverage of Manchester United's 2-1 win over Liverpool on March 22 was the most-watched early morning Premier League match in U.S. TV history.

The game, highlighted by Juan Matta's(pictured) pair of goals, averaged 950,000 watchers, the most for a Premier League contest that kicked off Stateside before 10 a.m. (ET), according to officials at the programmer.

Viewership topped out in the 10:45 p.m. (a.m.) quarter hour with 1.2 million watchers.

NBC Universo averaged 146,000 viewers for Liverpool-Manchester United, bringing the combined English- and Spanish-language viewership for the match to nearly 1.2 million viewers.

Season to date, NBC Sports Group’s Premier League viewership has grown 10% to an average of 485,000 viewers, and is up 19% among adults 18 to 49.

NBCSN has televised four of the five most-watched Premier League matches in U.S. cable history.

Most-Viewed Premier League Matches on Cable (on record):

NBC Sports Group will kick off its 2015 coverage of the Premier League by going Red Zone.

NBCSN on Jan. 1 for the first time will present eight of the circuit's matches in wrap-around fashion -- a la NFL Red Zone -- during the 10 a.m. (ET) window. The inaugural Premier League Breakaway will supply live look-ins of the best action, so viewers won't miss a single score or any of the circuit's top action.

Rebecca Lowe will guide the program as it cuts from match to match to follow the most important stories with minimal interruption.

New Year’s Day coverage begins on NBCSN at 7 a.m.  with Premier League Live followed by Stoke City facing third-place Manchester Unitedat 7:45 a.m. Live match coverage concludes with Tottenham against the league-leaders Chelsea at 12:30 p.m. on NBCSN and Telemundo.

At 5:30 p.m., NBCSN will debut a new Premier League Download. Hosted by The Men in Blazers’ Roger Bennett, TheSouthampton Way investigates how a small club can compete with Premier League giants.

Below is the schedule for NBCUniversal’s soccer coverage on New Year’s Day (all times ET):

DishLatino, Dish Network’s Spanish language programming tier, has expanded its sports coverage, adding soccer-focused sports network beIN Sports en Español.

In a statement, Dish said BeIN Sports en Español will be available across all DishLatino packages, and offers a wide variety of sports in addition to its extensive soccer coverage, including motorcross, cycling, rugby and boxing. The network is launching on channel 873 in standard definition, is also available in Dish's America's Top 250, Everything and Multi-Sport Packs.

The parent network – beIN Sports –  first came on the scene in 2012, backed by Al Jazeera Sports and other investors, and has gained steam in the wake of the FIFA 2014 World Cup this summer, when it aired several qualifying matches.

"DishLatino is building on this summer's fútbol fever with the launch of beIN Sports en Español," said DishLatino vice president Alfredo Rodriguez in a statement. "Our subscribers will find beIN Sports en Español is a unique addition to our sports lineup, especially in time for the channel's coverage of this fall's many upcoming international sports events."

While beIN Sports mainly focuses on soccer leagues in Europe, Africa and the Middle East – including La Liga in Spain (featuring top players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta), Italy’s Serie A (featuring matchups between powerhouses like Juventus, AC Milan, Roma and Inter Milan) and the French Ligue 1 (featuring free-flowing teams like Paris St. Germain, Olympique Marseille and Lyon) – it also has exclusive rights to the 2015 Copa America in Chile and the Copa del Rey tournament for Spanish League teams, and England’s  second division Football League Championship, where the top three teams win promotion to the lucrative Premier League.

"The DishLatino content team has just scored another coup for its customers by bringing our spanish language network to its customers," said deputy CEO of beIN Media Group Yousef Al-Obaidly in a statement. "DishLatino customers are passionate and knowledgeable fans, and beIN Sports en Español will offer them more soccer and top flight international competition than any other channel."

Following a record-breaking initial campaign and futbol fever inspired by the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, NBC Sports Group will kick off its complete 380-match coverage of the 2014-15 Premier League season on Aug. 16.

Coverage begins at 7 a.m. (ET) on NBCSN with Premier League Live followed by Manchester United (pictued) versus Swansea City on NBCSN and mun2, and continues throughout the season on the networks of NBCUniversal, on the Premier League Extra Time bonus TV package, and streamed live on NBC Sports Live Extra.

Last season, a record 31.5 million Americans tuned in to NBC Sports Group’s Premier League coverage – more than doubling the 13.3 million who watched the 2012-13 campaign on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer, according to Nielsen data.

NBC and NBCSN combined to average 438,000 viewers per match, a 99% jump from last season’s combined average of 220,000 ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer. Gauged on a cable-only basis, NBCSN averaged 395,000 viewers, 80% amelioration over the aforementioned network trio.

This season, NBC Sports Group will once again make all 380 Premier League matches available in the U.S., with every MVPD holding the option to present all of the contests on live television and via live streaming at no additional cost to consumers. All games will be preceded and followed by Premier League Live pre- and post-match shows from the NBC Sports Group International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn.

Coverage on NBC, NBCSN, mun2 and Telemundo aside, the programmer is presenting the other matches that can be televised via ad hoc channels under the “Extra Time” banners. Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cox, Mediacom, AT&T U-verse, Cablevision’s Optimum, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, DirecTV, Suddenlink, and members of the National Cable Television Cooperative are all slated to again present matches via the Premier League Extra Time package, with Verizon FiOS coming on board shortly after the start of the season.

Meanwhile, NBC Sports Live Extra, which makes all contests available on computer, tablet and mobile devices to authenticated video subscribers of NBCSN, is again on the pitch with Cox, AT&T U-verse, Cablevision’s Optimum, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, DirecTV, Dish, Suddenlink, Verizon FiOS and NCTC members. Time Warner Cable is new to Premier League TVE games this season.

NBC Sports Group’s top Premier League play-by-play announcer Arlo White will be joined by Lee Dixon on-site at Emirates Stadium to call Arsenal against Crystal Palace on Aug. 16 at 12:30 p.m. (ET) on NBC. White will pair with Graeme Le Saux to call Sunday’s Liverpool-Southampton contest at 8:30 a.m. on NBCSN.

All matches will be preceded and followed by Premier League Live pre- and post-match shows from the NBC Sports Group International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn. Rebecca Lowe hosts Premier League Live alongside former Jamaican national team player Robbie Earle and former Premier League footballer Robbie Mustoe.

Sunday’s coverage kicks off at 7 a.m. ET with a new episode of Premier League Download, featuring an exclusive interview with Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, who speaks openly about how it felt to come so close to the Premier League title last season, the summer sale of Luis Suarez, and what he thinks would be the ideal ending to his time at the club.

Imported from ESPN and their World Cup break-through, Men in Blazers’ Michael Davies and Roger Bennett will make their NBC Sports Group debuts on Goal Zone on Sunday at 1 p.m. on NBCSN. Sunday’s Goal Zone, hosted by Lowe who will be joined by Earle and Mustoe, will also feature BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker.

The full schedule for week one, including matches broadcast by the Premier League using the World Feed:

U.S. men's national team netminder Tim Howard again will be doing double-duty in the Barclays Premier League this season.

Howard, who was the United States best player in FIFA World Cup from Brazil and plays for BPL side Everton, has been hired by NBC Sports Group to be part of the programmer's upcoming coverage of the U.K.'s top soccer circuit this season. During the 2013-14 BPL campaign, Howard worked six matches as an analyst and appeared in NBC's studio for another contest.

Howard's assignments will be scheduled around Everton's matches. The game plan calls for him to work up to 10 Premier League matches this season, serving as game analyst in the booth or in the on-site studio for the pre-game, halftime and post-game shows.

“Tim had an impressive debut on our telecasts last season and we are excited to have him join our Premier League team on a more extensive basis,” said Pierre Moossa, coordinating producer of NBC Sports Group's Premier League coverage. “As an active Premier League player, he contributes unique perspective and insight to our broadcasts.”

Howard (pictured) served as the goalkeeper for Team USA during both the 2014 and 2010 World Cups and has been a Premier League member for 11 years, joining first with Manchester United before switching to Everton in 2006.

Following the most successful season ever from a Nielsen perspective, NBC Sports kicks off its second year of expansive Premier League coverage on Saturday, August 16.