Back in the UAE, we paid a significant amount of money to get English Premier League soccer, despite usually being limited to one game in English when as many as six were going on and getting little more than highlights in the games we didn’t see.

We figured the situation would be worse in California.

Instead, it’s far better than what Al Jazeera-owned BeIN Sports gave us in Abu Dhabi.

To wit:

Something called NBCSN has the U.S. rights to Premier League soccer.

I just assumed it was an exotic station, unlikely to be carried at the home of our relatives. But, no, our hosts have it because NBCSN also is the main purveyor of hockey in the U.S., and they are huge fans of the Anaheim Ducks.

The station has an eclectic history, having begun as a platform for outdoors sports like hunting and fishing, going through several name changes, including the period where it was known as “Versus” and best known for carrying the NHL — and not being widely available.

It picked up the Premier League two years ago, and extended its contract with the league for six seasons, though 2021-22, for about $1 billion. (Wrote the New York Times: “NBC’s winning bid suggests that it believes it has tapped into a growing, youthful, family-heavy fan base — but also that expected offers from rivals pushed it to the $1 billion threshold.”)

The Premier League is the world’s most popular, and most American sports fans of a certain age (sub-30, thereabouts) have a preferred Premier League team, and it is easy to imagine NBCSN will make money on this deal, before it expires.

And NBCSN is all over the English league, allowing me to see Manchester United and Chelsea struggle, live, to a 0-0 draw today (a 9:30 a.m. kickoff, in California), with Leicester City versus Manchester City tomorrow and Sunderland v Liverpool on Wednesday, each at 11:45 a.m.

NBCSN has long preview and review shows, with some interesting in-studio analysts, led by former U.S. national team player Kyle Martino, who is better at TV than he was in soccer.

It’s nice to have an American voice trusted enough to analyze the game … though NBCSN shifts to English voices for the matches.

They stick around long enough after matches to get live interviews from coaches and players, including those from games that were not the offering on the main feed.

Anyway, I expected pretty much nothing … and got far more than I expected. And I still think Leicester City is going to fade soon.