The opposing forces of hating cable providers while also loving sports just got a little friendlier. NBCUniversal has announced that it will offer a "Premier League Pass" subscription service for those who don't have a cable subscription but want to keep up with the English Premier League. The subscription, which will be available in August as a part of the "NBC Sports Gold" platform, will cost $50 for the 17/18 EPL season and give subscribers access to 130 live matches and pre- and post-match studio programming.
Previously in order to watch EPL matches in the U.S. you had to have a cable subscription that included NBC Sports Network, where NBC broadcasts a majority of the big matches, while streaming every match online. The amazing part about NBC's deal for EPL is that it actually makes more matches available in the U.S. than those in the UK even get access to. NBC has been particularly good about making the content available across multiple platforms, supporting the web, Android, Chromecast, Roku and more.
This is a huge deal for cord cutters who love sports.
So with Premier League Pass, a phone and a Cast-enabled device, you'll have access to more EPL matches than you could possibly watch live for $50. If you're a Premier League junkie living stateside you'll find this to be a pretty sweet deal. While there are other subscription services of this ilk, such as MLS Live for the U.S. domestic league and Fox Soccer 2GO for more obscure competitions, nothing on the level of streaming the EPL has been offered before. The one catch, it seems, is that some of the big headline matches will be reserved for NBC proper — which thankfully is a channel most people will have access to with an over-the-air antenna via their local NBC affiliate.
Importantly for those who do have cable subscriptions, there isn't a huge downside here. NBC's announcement claims "There will be no decrease in matches on NBC and NBCSN compared to prior seasons" and additional EPL matches will still remain available on NBC Sports Live Extra through its website and app when you authenticate with a cable provider. But cord cutters don't care about any of that — they're happy they now have an option to follow the EPL without jumping through cable provider hoops.
