The National Football League announced on Sept. 13 a two-year agreement with the United Kingdom's BBC Sport designed to further enhance the global reach of America's most popular sport.
BBC Sport will broadcast the Super Bowl live for the next two years, having signed an exclusive freeto-air deal with the NFL.
The two-year agreement also will include exclusive free-to-air highlights of the Oct. 28 game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium, the first regular-season NFL game to be played outside of North America. It also would include highlights of any other NFL games in the United Kingdom that may be scheduled in 2008.
"We are thrilled to be announcing a partnership with the BBC," said Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of the NFL's UK office. "This represents a major landmark in the growth of our sport in the United Kingdom and will help us to establish the NFL as a significant part of the sporting landscape here. The BBC's reputation in the presentation of televised sport is unparalleled and we are very excited about working closely with them."
Super Bowl XLII will be broadcast live from University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008. Super Bowl XLIII will be played on Sunday, Feb. 1 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.
"The Super Bowl is one of the world's great sporting events and we are delighted that after many years of covering it on Five Live, we are now also going to be showing it on BBC Television," said Philip Bernie, head of BBC TV Sport editorial. "The Super Bowl always attracts great interest and we are really looking forward to providing a new showcase for this huge occasion."
Additional details on BBC scheduling and broadcasters will be announced at a later date.
"This agreement with the BBC completes a very exciting television package for the NFL in the UK, Kirkwood said. "We now have two terrestrial television partners in BBC and Five, which airs regular-season games, and a new deal with Sky Sports that offers daily NFL programming on a year-round basis and 130 live games. It is a mix that gives fans the best coverage they have ever had and offers us the chance to extend our reach to many new viewers."
