At its heart, Ted Lasso is less about football and more about relationships, friendship and camaraderie. But why has the Apple TV sensation failed to gain significant traction in the U.K.? EliasBurke investigates:
When NBC gained the Premier League’s U.S. broadcast rights in 2013, you could forgive the broadcaster for using familiar American soccer tropes to ensure the $250 million deal did not fall flat.
Assisted by the gentle hand of NBC’s informative coverage, the Premier League has grown exponentially in the States over the past 20 years. In 2022, England’s top flight announced a new six-year rights deal with NBC worth $2.7 billion. The increase in American eyes on football certainly hasn’t been hindered by those early Ted Lasso commercials, which proved a big hit, and its Apple TV+ adaptation, which has become a cultural phenomenon in the US.
At its heart, the show is less about football and more about relationships, friendship and camaraderie. Throughout its first two seasons, fans have grown closer to the characters as they deal with personal and professional issues, from Dani Rojas overcoming a case of the “yips” to Roy Kent — a character based on Manchester United legend Roy Keane — navigating the insecurities of a footballer post-retirement.
But while Ted Lasso billboards decorate the skylines across New York City and Los Angeles, there is nothing more than a niche audience in the United Kingdom, even though social commentary involving football remains the easiest way to capture the cultural zeitgeist — just ask the producers of BBC’s Match of the Day, where presenter Gary Lineker often uses the show and his personal platforms to highlight social injustices, afterAccording to data from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board ,...
While Apple TV+’s target demographic is probably not the flag-bearing, Stella Artois-drinking, “resist modern football” brigade, there is a middle-ground where most British football fans sit between that and Ted Lasso. The success of American sitcoms across the pond demonstrates a significant market for inoffensive American humor, but Lasso strays too far into the ridiculous too often.
But seven years after Brits mocked Bradley for referencing “PKs” and “road games” in press conferences, the integration of America into the global football discussion has continued to grow. Jesse Marsch became the second American head coach in the Premier League after replacing Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United, and addressed the inevitable upcoming mockery and“I think there’s probably a stigma,” Marsch said, in reference to the British view on football in the States.
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