One season soon, there will be more people watching each Premier League match live in the USA than in Britain. That is the confident expectation of broadcasting titan NBC, who hold the live rights to show matches Stateside and have more than doubled US interest in England’s elite division in the past two years. In 2012-13, some 13 million different Americans watched at least one top-flight English game live. Last season that was 32 million — or more than one in 10 people in the US. This weekend, for the first time, reflecting their boom product, NBC have transported their entire Premier League production from their HQ in Stamford, Connecticut, to England. NBC host Rebecca Lowe has helped to improve coverage of the Premier League in America . Star anchor Lowe was at Turf Moor to present Burnley's Premier League match against Arsenal . Lowe was joined by former Wimbledon midfielder Robbie Earle and retired MLS star Kyle Martino . Lifelong Crystal Palace fan Lowe is married to former Cheltenham manager Paul Buckle . Star anchor Rebecca Lowe was at Turf Moor for Burnley against Arsenal, joined by former USA midfielder Kyle Martino — a pin-up at LA Galaxy just before David Beckham — and fellow pundit Robbie Earle, now based in Los Angeles. The trio, plus pitchside analysts Lee Dixon and Robbie Mustoe, will also be at the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday and at Anfield for Liverpool-Newcastle on Monday. ‘The Premier League sells itself with its drama,’ says Lowe, 34, a former BBC and ESPN journalist snapped up to be the face of the PL in the USA by NBC two years ago. ‘But you can always enhance your coverage and that’s why we’re here this weekend.’ Lowe herself is a lifelong Crystal Palace fan, and had one eye on their stunning 4-1 win at Sunderland. As she told the LA Times recently, tongue in cheek, her support of Palace is not a sign that she can’t recognise good football. ‘I hope that people look at me and say she actually knows football because to be a Crystal Palace fan, you have to really want to be in football,’ she said. ‘It’s not easy being a Crystal Palace fan. I could pick United or City or Chelsea or Arsenal and I probably would have had a much happier childhood.’ Lowe now finds herself helping to influence the footballing choices of young Americans. ‘When I first moved to the States two years ago I hardly saw a [replica] Premier League shirt,’ she says. ‘Now they’re all over the place, and not just the big teams.’ Lowe was at Turf Moor to see Arsenal claim all three points thanks to a goal by Aaron Ramsey . Lee Dixon provided pitchside analysis for NBC as his former side defeated relegation candidates Burnley . NBC transported their entire Premier League production from their HQ in Stamford, Connecticut, to England for this weekend's round of matches . Every match is shown live in the USA. At 7am eastern time on Saturday, midday in Britain, NBC’s weekend PL broadcasting opened with a long shot of Turf Moor set against the Lancashire hills and Lowe describing how football has been played at this ground since 1883. ‘This country is so rich in history, it’s part of the appeal,’ says Lowe, a Londoner who is married to football manager Paul Buckle, who recently parted company with Cheltenham. ‘It’s important that we do tell our audience about [smaller clubs like] Burnley because otherwise it could all be Arsenal, United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool,’ Lowe says. ‘We’re passionate about educating and informing our audience.’ Martino says that when NBC won the rights to show games — for the three-year period, 2013-16, for $250 million (£167m) — some critics feared that showing every match ‘was going to be overkill … [but] what we’ve found is there is a demand for that level of consumption of this product’. The USA is the third most lucrative market now for the League in rights terms, among 84 separate overseas contracts covering 212 territories. Only Thailand, where broadcasters are paying $320m for the current three years and the Middle East (both £213m), offer richer pickings, so far. With the Premier League having recently sealed their record £5bn domestic TV deal for 2016-19 with Sky and BT, attention will now turn to all the overseas deals, to be brokered over the next year. India will be a key market, with a surging middle-class interest, while Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil are seen as having room for growth, among others. All the overseas rights combined fetched £2.23bn for the League for the 2013-16 period (or £743m a year) with increases expected. The USA is high on the list of places the League want to continue building interest, not just to earn more TV cash but to provide the clubs with potentially lucrative markets. Burnley’s chief executive Lee Hoos, an American, told the Mail on Sunday on Saturday that his club’s merchandise sales in the USA have jumped 212 per cent this season simply by being in the League. Leaps of 150 per cent have been recorded in places as far flung as Korea and mainland Europe. Lowe would have been delighted with Crystal Palace's emphatic 4-1 league win over Sunderland . Burnley have benefitted from the American audience taking an interest in the Premier League, says Lee Hoos . Burnley chief Hoos, pictured withSportsmail's Nick Harris, insists his club's profile is high across the globe . Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has been impressed with NBC's coverage of the Premier League . ‘There are still people here in the UK who will say to me, “Where exactly is Burnley?”,’ he says. ‘Yet our profile has never been higher internationally.’ Arsenal’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who spent 16 years in MLS, said NBC’s coverage has been ‘transformative’ for the Premier League. He said in the recent past football was seen as ‘niche’ and ‘nerdy’ and ‘it was always cool to knock soccer … but when you get NBC coming into play you’re moving into the mainstream. It’s a sea change’. Three of the four most-watched Premier League games ever in the USA, including the No 1 match, Manchester United versus Arsenal in November, have been during NBC’s current deal. The biggest audience averaged 1.41m people — and that was before breakfast in many cities. The average audience in Britain for a Premier League match across Sky Sport and BT is little more than a million (and almost 500,000 in the US) and the biggest ever audience on Sky averaged below 3 million. United's win over Liverpool attracted 1.2 million on NBC cable and Spanish partner UNIVERSO combined . Manchester United's 2-1 win at the Emirates Stadium in November was the most-watched PL game in the US . Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester United last month had an average audience of 1.2 million on NBC cable and Spanish partner UNIVERSO combined. That made it the most-watched PL game screened before 10am in US history. The growth of the interest in America means numbers will swell there, with Martino believing phenomenal increases are likely. ‘NBC cover the Olympics, the NFL, they have been covering the big event for a very long time,’ he says. ‘It’s natural for them. It’s the same template [being used to market the Premier League]. ‘In the United States we talk about the NFL getting 19 million on a Monday night. That’s the bar set. And it’s not hyperbole to be ambitious — that’s what’s going to happen one day with the Premier League.’Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester United last month had an average audience of 1.2 million on NBC cable and Spanish partner UNIVERSO combined. That made it the most-watched PL game screened before 10am in US history. Jon Miller, NBC Sports’ president of programming, said: ‘The Premier League has a very passionate fan base here in the US. It’s also a youthful and affluent fan base as well, relative to other sports on television. ‘We have created a new “day part” in weekend morning television, where fans now come to our networks beginning at 7 in the morning and stay for 5-6 hours. It’s been a terrific partnership. ‘We believe that this is best soccer being played anywhere in the world and Americans gravitate towards the best when available.’
Rebecca Lowe has helped to enhance Premier League coverage in the US.
The NBC anchor insists 'the Premier League sells itself with its drama'
Manchester United recent win over Liverpool was the most-watched Premier League game screened before 10am in US history.
Man United's 2-1 win at Anfield had an average audience of 1.2 million on NBC cable and Spanish partner UNIVERSO combined.