NBC Sports Live Extra agreement?

Starting in August, English Premier League soccer will be aired in the US through NBC's collection of networks. A nice perk that they have is having all games available for viewing via an online service called NBC Sports Live Extra. It's come to my attention that Cox is not one of the providers which has an agreement with NBC to make this available for their users. (http://epltalk.com/2013/04/16/nbc-announces-details-of-premier-league-coverage-plans-for-2013-14/)

"If your TV provider isn’t one of the ones listed below that has an agreement with NBC Sports Live Extra — Comcast xFinity TV, Verizon FIOS, Cablevision or Suddenlink — you’ll need to contact them to urge them to add it before the season starts in August."

As Cox already carries the NBC Sports Network, Telemundo, and NBC free-to-air network I'm hoping that this issue will be something much more passable than whatever inaction there was to get beIN TV on board.

If this can't be rectified, I'm afraid there really won't be anything keeping me from going over to Verizon. Frankly, positive customer service experience is the only thing keeping me loyal at this point. So I hope there's some positive news on this.

Kraz77
11 years ago
BEST NEWS EVER FOR COX CUSTOMERS AND EPL FANS!

1) Cox is now a provider for the NBC Sports Live Extra App. I've already been on the app. Works perfect. Cox logo right there in list of providers. Throw in your user name and password and you're golden. Good to go.

ANNNDDD... (drum roll please - this one's a biggie)

2) Cox now also carries the Premiere League Extra Time overflow channels!!! Yes! So, in a nutshell. On both your TV and your tablet, you'll be able to watch all 380 EPL matches this coming season (You'll still need Fox for the Champions League, Europa League, and FA Cup matches).

Here's the confirmation: http://www.multichannel.com/content/four-more-providers-join-nbcsns-premier-league-extra-time-roster/144868

We'll have to wait and see if the overflow channels will be shown in HD. *fingers crossed* - SD viewing is unbearable.

We now have the two vital key components to watch all 380 EPL games this coming season! We're set! Once again, fingers crossed for HD viewing over Premier League Extra Time overflow channels!

THANK YOU, COX COMMUNICATIONS! You guys came through! You listened to your loyal fan base, and scored us what we needed!

Hats off to you guys! Job well done!

Cheers!

48 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion

ChrisL
Former Moderator
11 years ago
Thanks for sharing, I'll be sure to submit a request for this on your behalf.
Wicks
New Contributor
11 years ago
There should be no excuse for Cox not to offer this service as NBC is providing it for free. Can some one from Cox give us an update on this please?
ChrisL
Former Moderator
11 years ago
Just to clarify any misunderstandings, networks like NBC charge us fees to carry these services for our customers. We have to weigh customer demand against the asking rate to determine if adding such services will increase or decrease the value of our overall service offering.
Domino
Valued Contributor III
11 years ago
Wicks said:

There should be no excuse for Cox not to offer this service as NBC is providing it for free. Can some one from Cox give us an update on this please?

Free to you? Perhaps. Free to Cox? Don't think so.
Wicks
New Contributor
11 years ago
Your statement is not correct. From the NBC release:

Games not aired on a designated NBCUniversal channel will be made available to distributors via Premier League Extra Time, a package of overflow television channels available at no extra cost for each of their customers who receives NBC Sports Network

http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2013/04/16/nbc-sports-groups-2013-14-premier-league-programming-plans/

Premier League Extra Time is being offered to Cox for FREE and will cost you no additional money to offer to us customers who already subscribe to NBC Sports Network.
bwilliamsdc
New Contributor
11 years ago
Wicks, thank you for digging into this. I managed to miss that. This is definitely great news for me. Like I said, I'd really rather not leave Cox so this is the kind of news I wanted to hear. Ideally, it would be nice to have the web access since that would be the best option to pick the games you watch in real-time but this is a nice workaround if that is not feasible for Cox.

I do understand that nothing is free and if Cox is not providing something that Verizon does not it's probably because there is just more money a bigger corporation can throw around. It's an unfair world in that way. Normally, I would never hold a smaller company to ransom, but live sports and premier league in particular are the main reason I still purchase cable services.

Thank you again for finding this good news.
Wicks
New Contributor
11 years ago
No problem bwilliamsdc , sad thing is even thought these channels are being offered free to Cox we are still at their mercy because they have to agree to provide them. As you can see from their forums their customer service is less than ideal. It's very sad that Cox wishes to alienate a rather large customer base who want to follow world soccer by blocking access to the channels that provide the coverage.
ChrisL
Former Moderator
11 years ago
Wicks said:

Your statement is not correct. From the NBC release:

Games not aired on a designated NBCUniversal channel will be made available to distributors via Premier League Extra Time, a package of overflow television channels available at no extra cost for each of their customers who receives NBC Sports Network

http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2013/04/16/nbc-sports-groups-2013-14-premier-league-programming-plans/

Premier League Extra Time is being offered to Cox for FREE and will cost you no additional money to offer to us customers who already subscribe to NBC Sports Network.

Unfortunately this statement doesn't address the retransmission fees NBC is asking of the carriers like us. They're simply stating that the terms are that carriers not charge extra for access should they already subscribe to NBC Sports Network.
Wicks
New Contributor
11 years ago
Fair enough, just know that this service is very important to many of your customers and if you do not offer it we will be forced to switch to a provider who does.
iwstamp
New Contributor
11 years ago
I agree. That fact that Cox does not participate in this free service is pathetic... I'm out as well.