Each season for the past few years the NFL has played one or more preseason and regular games in Europe, and apparently the marketing is paying off. Sky Sports, a part of DBS firm BSkyB, has been showing NFL games live and in HD, and is growing its offerings to subs in the U.K. during the current season.
Along with more regular-season games (or "matches") this fall and winter, Sky Sports said it plans to provide HD coverage of the playoffs, followed by Super Bowl XLIII early next year in Tampa Bay.
Some of the expanded schedule of NFL games being provided within the U.K. right now in HD include several Thursday night games (starting Nov. 6), all three contests on tap on for Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27 (which, of course, is not celebrated in Britain!), along with Monday Night Football (which has been airing in HD in recent years). In all, Sky Sports said it will air more than 125 NFL games—live and in HD—this season.
Because of the time difference, all Sunday afternoon contests in the United States are "nighttime matches" throughout the U.K.
