NFL TV Deal Still to Be Completed in United Kingdom

As Monday rolls around and Americans wake up to the joyous knowledge that they are just days away from the start of the new NFL, their British counterparts 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean are still in the dark over whether they will get to see the majority of the action happen at all.

NFLUK has successfully struck a deal with Channel 4 to show the Sunday night games, and the Super Bowl will be shown on the BBC, but the rest of the coverage is still up in the air.

A statement from the company suggests that there are several deals in the making with last year's broadcasters. Sky television provided the Sunday Afternoon double-header and had access to NFL Network's 'Total Access', while ESPN held the Monday night game and provided both their Sunday and Monday night countdown shows, but the deal looks unlikely to be completed until Tuesday at the latest.

The lack of communication that all sides of this discussion have had with the British NFL community is reproachable, and has left many fans feeling undervalued.

This was the worst possible time for such a conflict between the NFL and the broadcasters to occur, considering that the NFL has had its highest growth in UK viewership and participation over the past five years since the first boom back in the early 80s.

This growth was already damaged by the St Louis Rams pulling out of their three-year deal to play at Wembley stadium in February.

The international game has been a great success, with near sell-outs over the past five years, but confusion over the Rams' ability to play and several postponements of ticket sales has shaken consumer confidence that the event will go ahead.

Replacing the Rams with the Jacksonville Jaguars did little to stop this concern as most fans, rightly or wrongly, see this as a deal with the NFL as a whole rather than the individual organization.

Loss of interest is palpable now, especially as missed advertising opportunities have meant that the NFL build-up has been engulfed by the prevalence of the Olympic and Paralympics coverage alongside the beginnings of the soccer and rugby seasons.

Although a small market, the United Kingdom is often seen as the bridge into European markets, so this damage to the NFL's profile could have wide-ranging effects on their international development schemes.

Hopefully the television deal will be completed in time for the opening game of the season, but the damage done already will take some time to fix.