John Miller, a leading executive at NBC Sports and an instrumental figure in negotiating the network’s multi-billion dollar media rights deal with the Premier League, says he will “continue to push for” the first English top-flight games to be played in the United States.

NBC have held the exclusive rights to broadcast the Premier League in the United States since 2013, overseeing dramatic growth in the audience and popularity of English football’s top-flight. NBC’s latest six-year contract began in 2022 and is worth $450million-per-season to the Premier League, which represents more than five times the first deal signed with NBC when they began broadcasting the Premier League in 2013. As such, NBC are among the Premier League’s most significant partners and they contribute hugely to the spending power and earning potential of top-flight clubs.

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Miller spoke to The Athletic as part of an in-depth, behind-the-scenes report into the relationship between the Premier League and NBC Sports, revealing the inner workings of a broadcaster that has delivered the six most-viewed Premier League games in US history over the past sixteen months, with the recent draw between Manchester City and Arsenal drawing a record 2.6m viewers across their English and Spanish language channels. Nearly 40 million people have watched the Premier League each season since NBC acquired the rights in 2013 and a study by Nielsen revealed that 48 per cent of all football fans in the US now describe a Premier League side as their favourite. As such, the interest and demand is clear.

The possibility of taking one-off domestic league fixtures abroad increased this month when world governing body FIFA were dropped from a landmark lawsuit by the U.S. events promoter Relevent, who in 2018 were thwarted in their attempts to take a La Liga fixture between Girona and Barcelona to Miami in the United States. A five-year court battle has seen Relevent, founded by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, accuse FIFA of acting as a monopoly and preventing fair competition. FIFA’s directive, issued in 2018, said that domestic games ought to be played in their home territory, but FIFA and Relevent settled on their case, with FIFA seemingly prepared to revisit its policies on this issue.

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The case was settled without prejudice, meaning Relevent reserve the right to reopen their litigation should FIFA not come up with a satisfactory reconsideration of their position. This has left many people within the football industry to believe that FIFA is stepping back from this struggle and leaving it to individual leagues, federations and confederations to tussle over the matter of whether domestic games can be played outside of a home territory.

In 2008, the Premier League previously tried and failed to introduce a 39th round of fixtures, which would have been played across the world, only to drop the plans in the face of a backlash from supporters and media. Last week, the Premier League’s chief executive Richard Masters acknowledged the door is “ajar” but said it is not currently in the Premier League’s plans.

In an interview with The Athletic, Miller, NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and sponsorship, was asked if he would be supportive of matches heading to the US to further connect English football with its American audience. He said: “Very much so. And this is a point that we’ve had conversations with the Premier League and they’ve been very open and receptive to listening to me. We did the Premier League Summer Series (in pre-season) last year where we had six teams come over; Fulham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford. We had nine games in seven days in five cities around America (and 265,000 fans were in attendance). It was great.

NBC view the Premier League Summer Series as a big success (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

“All the teams that came over did really well, had a great experience, and really were able to interact with the fan base. And the Premier League saw that it was very successful. At some point in the future, I would love to see a couple of Premier League games open the season here in big stadiums on our opening weekend. And I know that’s something that we’ll continue to push for because I think that there’s an American audience here that would like to see regular season games but in the meantime, we’ll continue to work with the Premier League to do everything we can to make the games available to as many people as possible.”

Miller, a formidable part of the team that negotiated the most recent contract with the Premier League, also revealed that in an ideal world, he would like to bring the viewer greater audio access and offer deeper insight into how coaches communicate with their players.

He said: “There are two things that really bring the viewer and the fan closer to the action: access and audio. So whenever you can increase your access and build your stars up, that’s great. And people love to hear what Jurgen Klopp is saying to his team or what he’s saying on the sidelines. I realize there’s got to be some protection against that. But I think that those are the kind of things that we’re continuing to push the envelope on. And the Premier League is responsive. They’re really good when we come to them with ideas. Far be it for me to try to tell the Premier League what makes a good product. Their product is spectacular. But much like we do with the NFL, and golf, we constantly have conversations with our partners and brainstorm on things that we can do to make the games better and more appealing to try to grow our audience.”

Miller also insisted that the current wave of investigations and points deductions impacting the Premier League’s clubs does not, in his eyes, alter the value of the Premier League to a broadcaster. Both Everton and Nottingham Forest have received points deductions this season due to financial breaches, while champions Manchester City have been charged by the Premier League with 115 alleged breaches.

“It doesn’t question the value at all,” Miller insists. “What it says to me is that the people who are leading the Premier League are hands-on and going to enforce their rules. It’s important that the league has has gotten their hands around this, and they’re not afraid to impose discipline where they think it’s needed. I actually applaud them for the stance that they’re taking, even if it might move a team into a relegation zone or out of a Champions League or Europa League place. I would rather make sure that the league is run on a fair basis, that everybody plays by the same rules.”

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