NBC Sports Gold

NBC Sports Gold is a suite of over-the-top subscription streaming television services operated by NBC Sports Group.

NBC Sports Gold
Type of site
Video on demand, OTT, Live streaming
Available inEnglish
Predecessor(s)Tour de France Live
Headquarters
United States
Area servedVaries by package
OwnerNBC Sports Group
ServicesStreaming service
URLnbcsportsgold.com
RegistrationAnnual passes for various sports
LaunchedJune 9, 2016 (2016-06-09)

The service consists of multiple a la carte "passes" featuring expanded and overflow coverage of sports properties broadcast by NBC Sports properties.

History

On June 9, 2016, it was announced that the "NBC Sports Tour de France Live" app would be relaunched as NBC Sports Gold ahead of the 2016 edition of the race. The rebranded service would also provide live, commercial free streaming coverage of several other cycling events for which NBC Sports was the rights holder including the Vuelta A Espana and Paris-Roubaix. The service was initially priced at $29.99 for a year-long pass.[1]

In March 2017, a separate "Rugby Pass" was announced. This pass provides live coverage of every Premiership Rugby match.[2] The service was further expanded in April 2017 with a new "Track and Field Pass" which provided access to 25 track and field events including the Boston Marathon and Diamond League events.[3] An additional "Pro Motocross Pass" was announced later that month providing access to every AMA Pro Motocross event. This was the first pass made available to users outside the United States.[4]

A second season of the cycling pass was announced on June 6, 2017, with the addition of new events including the UCI Road World Championships, Colorado Classic, and Volta a Catalunya.[5] The pass also included 30 hours of 2017 Tour de France coverage exclusive to the platform.[6]

The platform expanded once again in June 2017 with the announcement of "Premier League Pass." Priced at $50, the pass includes 130 exclusive live Premier League matches, a minimum of three per club, as well as match replays and original programming from NBC Sports and Premier League Productions.[7] The matches had previously been available at no additional charge to subscribers of participating cable and satellite providers as part of NBC's now defunct "Premier League Extra Time" package.[8]

In August 2017, NBC Sports Gold introduced "Notre Dame Football Season Pass." This was the first pass made available exclusively to customers outside the United States. Among the eligible countries were the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Spain, and Japan. The purchase price was announced as $49.99 for a full season or $9.99 per individual game.[9]

On October 5, 2017, NBC announced an agreement to air the Six Nations Rugby Championship. As part of the agreement, all 15 matches will be available as part of the NBC Sports Gold "Rugby Pass."[10]

December 2017 saw a regional expansion to the platform with the addition of "Blazers Pass." Blazers Pass allows viewers in NBA-designated Portland Trail Blazers territory to access 15 Trail Blazers games without a subscription to NBC Sports Northwest. The first game aired as part of the package was the Trail Blazers December 11, 2017 game against the Golden State Warriors.[11]

In March 2018, NBC announced a rights agreement to air the European Rugby Champions Cup. Under the agreement, NBC Sports Gold will air all matches from the competition as part of its Rugby pass.[12]

In April 2018, NBC announced NBC Sports Gold would begin offering "IndyCar Pass" in 2019, as part of a broader agreement to extend its existing cable rights to the series from NBCSN to include NBC. NBC Sports Gold airs practice and qualifying sessions, Carb Day at the Indianapolis 500, and Indy Lights races.[13]

In May 2018, new passes for figure skating and speed skating were announced, in partnership with U.S. Figure Skating as part of an extension to its media rights.[14][15]

On July 31, 2018, the PGA Tour announced that its PGA Tour Live service would move under NBC Sports Gold beginning in the 2019 season under a three-year deal (as "Golf Pass"); this includes featured groups coverage of early rounds prior to Golf Channel television coverage, and featured holes coverage during Golf Channel's window, as well as other supplemental content.[16]

In October 2018, the "Snow Pass" was introduced, focusing on skiing and snowboard events (including International Ski Federation events).[17]

For the 2019-20 season, Premier League Pass was split into two tiers, with the cheaper "MatchDay Pass" offering streaming of Premier League matches not shown on TV, and the more expensive "Premier League Pass" adding same-day streaming of televised matches, as well as select Premier League studio programs from Sky Sports (such as Soccer Saturday and Goals on Sunday).[18][19]

In November 2019, the service also introduced "TrackPass", which primarily includes coverage of NASCAR's regional ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West series and selected practice and qualifying sessions for events, IMSA events, and American Flat Track events. The service succeeds FansChoice.tv, and is also divided into sub-packages (AFT, IMSA, and "NASCAR Roots") for individual components.[20]

On July 31, 2020, NBC phased out Premier League Pass with its content merged into the premium tier of NBCUniversal's new streaming platform Peacock.[21]

Passes Sold
Current NBC Sports Gold Passes
Name Sport Year Debuted Location Available
Cycling Pass Cycling 2016 United States
Rugby Pass Rugby union 2017 United States
Track and Field Pass Track and field 2017 United States
Pro Motocross Pass Motocross 2017 United States
Notre Dame Football Season Pass Football 2017 Select international locations
Blazers Pass Basketball 2017 NBA designated Portland Trail Blazers Territory
Figure Skating Pass Figure skating 2018 United States and select international locations
Speed Skating Pass Speed skating 2018 United States
Snow Pass Skiing and snowboarding 2018 United States
Philly Pass Studio Shows- Various Sports 2018 United States
IndyCar Pass Auto racing 2019 United States
PGA Tour Live Golf 2019 United States
Pro Supercross and Motocross Pass Motocross 2019 United States
Supercross Pass Supercross 2019 United States
TrackPass Auto racing 2020 United States
Former NBC Sports Gold Passes
Name Sport Year Debuted Year Ended Location Available
Premier League Pass Soccer 2017 2020 United States
Premier League MatchDay Pass Soccer 2019 2020 United States

Criticism

The creation of "Premier League Pass" was met with disappointment in the soccer community, with prominent soccer website World Soccer Talk describing it as "a giant step backward." The website further noted that the move was particularly harmful to fans of league's smaller clubs.[22] The package was also criticized for not going far enough with 250 Premier League matches remaining exclusive to cable.[23] World Soccer Talk expressed renewed concern following the 2019 update to the offering, due to the removal of match replays for authenticated cable and satellite subscribers. The website also criticized the decision not to make the new Gold replays available until hours after match completion.[24]

NBC Sports Gold suffered serious outages on September 23, 2017, during a set of matches which included Manchester United against Southampton. The matches were moved to the NBC Sports App amid complaints on social media. NBC apologized for the outage, and offered refunds or credit to those affected.[25]

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References
  1. "“NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA” TO BE RE-BRANDED AS THE NBC SPORTS APP", NBC Sports Group Pressbox
  2. "NBC Sports Gold Provides Fans With ‘Rugby Pass’" sportsvideo.org
  3. "Are NBC’s over-the-top packages, including the new $70 track one, a vision of the future?" Awful Announcing
  4. "DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER LIVE STREAMING PRODUCT NBC SPORTS GOLD INTRODUCES “PRO MOTOCROSS PASS” WITH ACCESS TO ENTIRE LUCAS OIL PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON" NBC Sports Group Pressbox
  5. "NBC Sports Gold adds 15 races to streaming service", "Velo News"
  6. "NBC Sports Gold Launches 2017-18 'Cycling Pass' Including Coverage of TOUR DE FRANCE", "broadwayworld.com"
  7. , "multichannel.com"
  8. "NBC to launch paid subscription English Premier League soccer streaming service"
  9. "NBC Sports to Launch Internationally-Targeted Notre Dame College Football OTT Package" "multichannel.com"
  10. "NBC Sports Group Acquires U.S. Rights to Six Nations Rugby Championship" "Broadcasting & Cable"
  11. "NBC Sports “Blazers Pass” Lets Viewers Stream Trail Blazers Games Inside the Blackout Area" "Blazers Edge"
  12. "NBC Acquires Champions Cup Rights" "This Is American Rugby"
  13. "U.S. Figure Skating Moving OTT Offerings To NBC Sports Gold" "Sports Business Daily"
  14. Umstead, R. Thomas. "NBC Sports Gold Launches 'Figure Skating Pass' Service". Multichannel. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  15. Staff, S. V. G. "U.S. Figure Skating, NBC Sports Group Launch 'Figure Skating Pass' On NBC Sports Gold". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  16. Spangler, Todd (2018-07-31). "NBC Sports, PGA Tour Ink Three-Year Deal for Live-Streaming Golf Subscription Package (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  17. NBC Sports adds ‘Snow Pass’ to its hyper-specific streaming options - Kristen Bobst, Engadget, 22 October 2018
  18. "NBC's Premier League Pass now includes some Sky programming, other shoulder coverage". Awful Announcing. 2019-07-09. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  19. Harris, Christopher (2019-07-09). "NBC makes big changes to NBC Sports Gold Premier League packages". World Soccer Talk. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  20. "NASCAR Fans To Enjoy Extra Helping of Racing on NBC Sports' TrackPass". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  21. Spangler, Todd (2020-07-09). "NBCU's Peacock to Stream 175-Plus Premier League Soccer Games Exclusively Next Season". Variety. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  22. "Premier League Pass marks a giant step backward for NBC’s coverage of EPL" "World Soccer Talk"
  23. "NBC Sports: Premier League Pass needs to feature all 380 games to be relevant", "World Soccer Talk"
  24. "NBC remove EPL replays from NBC Sports App to coerce fans into paying for NBC Sports Gold", "World Soccer Talk"
  25. "NBC Sports Gold subscribers receive apology after Premier League Pass outages" "World Soccer Talk"
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