FOX to Show First Ever Live Free-to-air Premier League Match

FOX Broadcasting Company, the national broadcasting network, will televise the first ever live Premier League match on free-to-air television in the United States on Sunday, February 5, 2012, according to a source. The clash between Chelsea and Manchester United will be shown live on Super Bowl Sunday beginning at 10:30am ET.

In addition to FOX’s historic coverage of a live Premier League match, the national FOX network will air three Premier League matches on tape-delay during the 2011-12 NFL season.

The three tape-delay games will air adjacent to live NFL games. The tape-delayed games will be shown at either 2-4pm or 4:30-6:30pm ET depending on local NFL/FOX programming. Meanwhile, throughout the Premier League season, FOX Soccer and FOX Soccer Plus will continue to show the majority of games for viewers in the United States, while ESPN2 and FOXSoccer.tv will show many of the other games.

FOX Soccers ratings for their live coverage of Premier League games have continued to grow, while the national FOX Broadcasting Company are becoming more interested in live soccer coverage especially after considering the successful broadcast of the 2011 Champions League Final between Barcelona and Manchester United, which was the most watched Champions League Final in US history.

In previous years, the biggest Premier League match on Super Bowl Sunday had been shown on FOX Soccer. The 2011 game between Chelsea and Liverpool was the most-watched FOX Soccer broadcast of all time with 418,000 average viewers. The 2010 Super Bowl Sunday clash between  Chelsea and Arsenal garnered 403,000 average viewers, which was also shown on FOX Soccer.