• by Wayne Friedman , May 29, 2015

While scandal rocks overall FIFA leadership -- and the business of the global game of football -- NBC Sports claims some positive results as it relates to the strong U.K. Premier League viewership for the season just completed.Now in its second season, broadcast network NBC and cable network NBCSN pulled in 9% higher viewers to average 479,000 during the 2014-2015.

NBC also touts that these results are more than double that of the Premier League obtained two years ago -- some 220,000 from a combination of airings on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer channel.

Looking at the key 18-49 viewing group -- NBC and NBCSN averaged a record 280,000 viewers -- up 16% from a year ago, and more that of the 2012-2013 season on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer, which took in 128,000.

NBC Sports aired a combined 380 matches. NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language networks Telemundo and NBCUniverso aired 120 matches.

Digital platform video consumption was also higher. NBC says viewers took in 317 million minutes of live Premier League video from NBC Sports Live Extra app during the 2014-15 season -- up 22% from last season.