How to watch the Premier League when its soccer season resumes on June 17
- The Premier League, England's top-tier soccer league, is set to resume its season with two matches on June 17.
- NBC is the exclusive broadcaster of the English Premier League in the United States, and it will broadcast games on its NBC Sports and NBC channels, as well as through the NBC Sports Gold streaming service.
The English Premier League's restart commences on Wednesday, June 17, with two soccer matches fans have been anticipating: Aston Villa vs. Sheffield United, and Manchester City vs. Arsenal. Both games have been on hold since March 13 when the Premier League decided to postpone its season due to the coronavirus pandemic. Following these first two games, a new "Matchday" will begin on June 19. Over the course of these initial 12 matches, all 24 Premier League teams will play. In all, there are 92 matches left in this Premier League season.
With its restart on June 17, the English Premier League is the third of Europe's "big five" soccer leagues to resume play. The German Bundesliga began playing games almost a month earlier on May 16. La Liga, which houses Spanish clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid, restarted its season on June 11. The Premier League will be followed by the Italian Serie A, which has decided to resume its season on June 20. Meanwhile, French Ligue 1 made the decision to cancel its season on April 28 and will not resume this year.
Getting to the point where the Premier League season could resume did not come without a number of hurdles. The league and its participating teams needed to work out several issues, including game venues, promotion and relegation, revised broadcasting agreements, responsible team training, gameday protocol and, most importantly, getting coronavirus infections and monitoring under control.
The league began testing players and club staff for the virus on May 17. In all, the league conducted eight preliminary rounds of testing in which 8,687 tests were administered. Sixteen of these tests came back positive. The low number of coronavirus cases throughout testing was reassuring enough for the Premier League to continue with its restart plans. Players and staff will continue to be tested twice weekly throughout the remainder of the season.
When does the Premier League start?
Following a three-month suspension, the 2019-20 Premier League season will resume on June 17 at 1 p.m. ET. The season was previously halted on March 13 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the league has now been given approval to continue with its remaining matches.
The 2019-20 Premier League season originally began on August 9, 2019, and the season is now expected to conclude on July 26, 2020.
Major storylines
During his introductory press conference in 2015, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp spoke about winning the Premier League within four years of taking over the club. Well, maybe the only thing more impressive than the nuanced tactics he's implemented with Liverpool, is this near-perfect prediction. Racing ahead to one of the best seasons in Premier League history, the Reds of Liverpool are on the verge of winning their first ever Premier League crown. Klopp was just a year off, as this is his fifth year as Liverpool's head coach.
With a 25 point lead on second-placed Manchester City, Liverpool has all but won the Premier League title. However, there are still battles to be fought elsewhere in the league table. The top four teams in the Premier League all qualify for the Champions League group stage. The Champions League is the top Europe-wide competition, and with qualification comes significant financial benefits.
The current top of the table sees Liverpool in first place with Manchester City, Leicester City, and Chelsea rounding out the top four in that order. However, that arrangement is far from set in stone. Resurgent Manchester United are just three points behind Chelsea, with Wolverhamption Wanderers and Sheffield United only five points out. In an unusual turn of events, perennial top four contenders Tottenham and Arsenal currently occupy the eighth and ninth positions in the standings.
How to watch the Premier League
NBC recently released its schedule for the first four "Matchdays" of the Premier League season. The Premier League attempted to stagger the start times of its games so that viewers could watch every minute of every game. While the league was partially able to do this, the condensed nature of the schedule makes giving each game its own time slot impossible.
Of the 32 games that have been announced, 26 sit in unique time slots. This means that only six of the opening 32 games will be played at the same time as other games.
The games are spread across the NBC and NBC Sports channels, as well as the NBC Sports Gold streaming service. Per NBC's initial schedule, 25 of the games are on either NBC or NBC Sports. For those interested in having access to every minute of Premier League play, or whose favorite team has a game not scheduled on TV, an NBC Sports Gold subscription is the best streaming option.
If you have a supported cable or satellite package, you can watch NBC and NBC Sports' selection of games on TV or via the NBCSports app. In addition to cable and satellite providers, there are a number of streaming services that carry the NBCSports package. These include AT&T TV, FuboTV, Hulu+ Live TV, and Sling Blue. You can access these services on most mobile devices, media players, and connected TVs, including Amazon Fire, Apple, Android, Chromecast, PS4, Xbox One, Roku, Samsung smart TVs, and more.
At $30 per month, Sling Blue is the cheapest live TV streaming service with access to NBC and NBCSports. New customers can now receive a free three-day trial.
NBC's broadcast of the English Premier League begins on Wednesday, June 17, at 1 p.m. ET with Aston Villa versus Sheffield United.