• by Wayne Friedman , June 30, 2017

Now a year old, the NBC Sports Gold app continues to monetize “underserved” sports with new content for its mostly ad-free subscription service.

Recently, NBC Sports Gold announced it was adding the “Premier League Pass,” which features 130 additional English Premier League soccer matches it doesn’t carry on broadcast or cable. (NBC airs some 250 matches on TV.)

The new pass for the sport costs $49.99 for the entire season, which runs from August to May. This adds to existing sports on the NBC Sports Gold app -- cycling, track and field, rugby and pro motocross.

“I see them as global sports. A fan base that is passionate but underserved,” says Portia Archer, vice president of direct-to-consumer for NBC Sports. “We are basically making content that typically wasn’t available. We intend to super-serve.”

NBC Sports is considering adding other sports, she says.

In April, NBC Sports started “Track and Field Pass” at $69.99 for events running from April to December. This includes two different feeds: a nonadvertising stream and one that includes advertising.

Archer says the advertising option is offered for viewers who want to see the stream with NBC Sports on-air talent for play-by-play and analysis versus the nonadvertising stream, which has other on-air talent.

Two other sports also started in recent months -- “Rugby Pass” ($59.99 for June 2017 to August 2018) and “Pro Motocross Pass” ($49.99 for April 2017 to May 2018).

Starting this weekend, the original NBC Sports Gold sport, cycling, has its biggest event of the year: the Tour de France. It is the second year the app has streamed the event.

The ad-free, three-week cycling event streams on the app. For the first time, it features every stage of the race live from start to finish.

The “Cycling Pass” costs $39.99 for a year -- July 2017 through June 2018 -- airing 25 live races. The NBC Sports Group will also air some 280 hours of live, prime time and encore Tour de France coverage, across NBC, NBCSN and the NBC Sports Gold app.

TV advertising for the Tour de France on NBCSN, the cable sports channel, and the NBC Television Network, pulled in $10.4 million in 2015 -- versus $11.9 million in 2014, according to iSpot.tv.