Sky enhances NFL coverage with Sunday Night Football deal

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has expanded its coverage of the NFL American football league by agreeing a two-year deal for its Sunday Night Football package.

The agreement, running across the 2015 and 2016 seasons in the UK and Ireland, brings viewers an additional game a week and takes the schedule to more than 100 live matches a season.

It means that the Sky Sports channels will offer at least five games a week across the regular season, along with every playoff clash, the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl.

Also new for the forthcoming 2015 season is Monday Night Football. This was a new addition as Sky in September 2014 extended and expanded its NFL rights deal by signing a five-year contract, from 2015 until 2019. Sky Sports is also preparing to show exclusively live pre-season coverage for the first time in seven years, as New Orleans Saints host the Houston Texans on August 30.

Sky added that in the final six weeks of the regular season Sunday Night Football will also be simulcast live on its general entertainment channel, Sky 1.

Sky will open its 2015 regular season coverage with the Thursday Night Football clash between the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers on September 10.