More than one million viewers tuned into watch the last superbowl on Channel 4 this year. But why is this staunchly American franchise taking root in the UK?
Free-to-air television is the solution to getting NFL to a larger audience in the UK. This was the message from Head of Public Affairs for NFL UK and Europe, David Tossell on how the American sport can continue to spread across the UK.
The only reason NFL is coming to the UK is because of how successful it is in the United States. Jamie Aitchison, Channel 4's commissioning editor for sport says, "NFL is an absolute monster in America. One of the reasons they are coming to the UK is because the market is saturated".
In 2007, two NFL teams flew over from America to play the first ever regular season game on British soil. This fixture, which counted towards the two teams' progress towards the Super Bowl, generated a wave of popularity for the sport in the UK.
Tossell believes that the game, which took place at Wembley, "helped create a ripple of awareness of what we're doing and alongside that the second very important strand for us has been television".
Aitchison sees a difference in the style his coverage offers versus Sky's. He believes his output is "slightly more cheeky ס bit more irreverent in its presentation". Aitchison accepts that Sky's product is "more American" and "more traditional" than Channel 4's, however he thinks that his channel's coverage fits its brand.
Nat Coombs, left, and Mike Carson host Channel 4's NFL coverage (Picture from Channel 4)
Tossell's desire to reach a wider audience via free-to-air was backed-up by Channel 4's viewing figures for the Super Bowl in February. Over one million viewers stayed up into the early hours of Monday morning to see The Seattle Seahawks crush The Denver Broncos in the heaviest defeat a Super Bowl has seen since 1993.
"Our Super Bowl coverage saw a lot of young viewers and people who hadn't watched it before", said Aitchison.
Getting NFL games in the UK was the first step in boosting the number of British fans. Europe has attempted to sustain its own professional American Football leagues in the past, however even with support from the NFL, European teams didn't generate the revenue required to sustain the project.
It has become the official regular season NFL games played by American teams that have generated a new interest in the sport. Tossell emphasised: "They've created a lot of buzz and enabled us to generate a lot more awareness of what we're doing".
The advantage of free-to-air moving from BBC to Channel 4 last season was the increase in the number of programming hours for the NFL. For Tossell, the increase in time for free content "is hugely important for us in reaching a new audience and introducing more people to the sport. We know we are a sport that is very difficult to pick up and understand at first glance".
Vernon Kay presents a version of the NFL show to more casual UK fans (Picture from Channel 4)
Channel 4 offers viewers a number of different shows that are aimed at different demographics. Sports presenter, Nat Coombs, hosts the live games alongside pundit Mike Carlson who has previously worked for the BBC and Channel 5 covering the sport. Coombs says the style of the programme is, "at times slightly irreverent without ever overlooking the fact that it needs to be informative as well".
The American Football Show presented by Vernon Kay is aimed at the more casual fan who might know slightly less about the sport. The show has been compared "structurally to a Match of the day 2 style. We're quite careful about the language we use on that show and things we discuss. We don't want to be too technical" explains Coombs.
The future for the NFL in the UK looks bright. David Tossell believes "we should certainly see the growth increasing". It is still unclear just how big the NFL could become or precisely how the sport will grow in this country but there are a number of options, even including a potential team based in London. Chancellor George Osborne has spoken with the NFL indicating that the British government would support plans for London to host a team on a more permanent basis.
With more and more Brits tuning in to watch the sport, it seems NFL is another American TV import that is here to stay, whatever the platform.
Report by Alastair Ballantyne