We can now confirm earlier rumors that Fox has indeed won the US broadcast rights for Champions League matches starting with the 2010-11 season. Multiple sources have leaked the information and we have received confirmation from an anonymous source of the accuracy of the leaks. UF is now comfortable placing our considerable reputation [snicker] on the line and calling this deal done and dusted only awaiting official confirmation.
We are still awaiting confirmation of whether FSC will be upgrading to an HD broadcast in the near future.
It remains to be seen who will win the US EPL broadcast rights, but this should be seen as a significant blow to ESPN's recent soccer push.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Exclusive Update: US Champions League Rights to Fox
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10 comments:
I just traveled into the future 48 hours and EPL Talk is running an exclusive that FSC has won the rights to the Champions League, pretty astonishing development.
My own anonymous source told me that FSC is upgrading to HD in the fourth quarter of 09
Great Tyduffy...I'm glad you have confirmed that because I only have rumors on that. As for the broadcast rights, we have a source confirming it.
And Georger, we had this before EPL Talk on Thursday.
Why doesn't someone step up and buy US rights for the Colaship? We only get a combined 1-2 matches a week? You would think it would cost pennies compared to the EPL. I'd pay per view each week if I could watch Norwich.
"And Georger, we had this before EPL Talk on Thursday."
I know, and you guys actually said where the information came from too (that was my point)
I know it's been said in so many words elsewhere, but man... I don't know about this.
In the bigger picture, this is something of a blow to soccer's growth trajectory in the United States. Having the CL on ESPN allowed the sport to seep into the wider public consciousness in a way it won't do out in the FSC wilderness.
Just as one small example of what I'm getting at: Every decent bar in the country has a couple of TVs running ESPN and ESPN2 through the day, by default. FSC? Um, no.
Not to mention, the presence of Champions League has been another big engine behind ESPN's ever-increasing, across-the-board embrace of the game. When it comes to soccer on ESPN, the past decade has been a story of steady, crucial growth. This development throws gum in the gears.
Don't get me wrong: I like FSC. But I'm already a hard-core footie fan. If soccer's profile is going to continue to rise in this country, it needs to be in places where it can be seen. The CL is getting ghettoized, in a sense, and that's not a positive situation in the long view.
This is joyus news, maybe now ESPN can get the rights to the EPL and use their hype machine to build it up in the states.
Does anyone know if Fox might have one game per week or more or maybe the final on the local Fox Sports Net channels in addition to FSC? I imagine a lot of people will be upset if these games are only available on FSC.
I'd also like to add that I hope with all of my will power that FSC will either get new announcers or just use the worldwide English language feed rather than hearing Mex Bretos and Christopher Sullivan calling the real beautiful game.
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