It isn’t baseball, but it isn’t curling either. From Richard Sandomir of the New York Times:

Fox and ESPN jointly bid for the three-year contract starting in 2013 to show E.P.L. games, but they appear to have been outbid by the NBC Sports Group, which has been eager to find must-see sports shows for its recently rebranded NBC Sports Network.

Fox has broadcast the E.P.L. in the United States for nearly two decades, growing along with the world’s most popular league. ESPN broadcast about 80 of Fox’s E.P.L. games each year under license.

But NBC has bid about $85 million a year for the new E.P.L. rights, just under four times more than Fox currently pays for the rights, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. Greg Hughes, a spokesman for NBC Sports Group, declined to comment.

If NBCSN wins the E.P.L. rights, which will be announced in the coming days, it would boost their struggling lineup. NBCSN wildly exceeded all its past records during the London Summer Olympics, but it is without any N.H.L. games because of the ongoing lockout. Its other programming includes Major League Soccer, cycling, boxing, college sports, bull-riding, hunting and fishing, as well as a variety of studio shows.