FSC wins U.S. TV rights to Champions League

[BDB]

Not sure how I feel about this. the picture quality on ESPN/ESPN2 has been miles better than FSC. And I know it's not yet HD, but at least ESPN/2 are broadcasting in HD.

 

 

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/9398...hampions-League

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) - Fox Soccer Channel beat out ESPN for right to the European Champions League starting next season, adding the top club event to a lineup that already includes the English Premier League and Italy's Serie A.

 

FSC didn't make an immediate announcement, preferring to wait until documents were signed with the Union of European Football Associations. ESPN, which had held the rights since the 1994-95 season, confirmed the switch.

 

"We have been informed by UEFA that they are moving ahead with a new partner in the United States," ESPN said in a statement Monday. "We made a strong bid that we believe would have helped continue the year-to-year growth of the UEFA Champions League in the United States."

 

ESPN and ESPN2 are available in 98 million homes and have broadcast Champions League matches in high-definition this season, while FSC reaches 34 million households and has not yet started hi-def telecasts. Also, FSC allows many top Premier League games to be telecast by Setanta Sports, which is not available on many cable systems.

 

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, announced March 11 that Fox will replace ESPN as the Champions League pay broadcaster in Central and South America next season under a three-season agreement.

 

ESPN averaged 255,000 households for 27 telecasts last season. Manchester United's victory over Chelsea in last May's final was ESPN's most-watched Champions League telecast, with 798,000 homes and 1,097,000 viewers.

 

ESPN has rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups and U.S. national team games through 2014. It shares Major League Soccer rights with Fox and other networks.

[Nebraska Red]

great news, now the games will not be pre empted by a ridiculous baseball or basketball game and moved to one of the other ESPN channels.

 

hopefully, FSC can do a similar job to ESPN Deportes and show all the games over a few days.

 

now, if we can get the Setanta CL game on FSC, I can abandon my plans to go to satellite TV.

 

and, more importantly, no more Tommy Smyth and the old onion bag.

[John am Rhein]

Does this mean the kick-offs will all be at 2 am?

[BDB]

great news, now the games will not be pre empted by a ridiculous baseball or basketball game and moved to one of the other ESPN channels.

 

hopefully, FSC can do a similar job to ESPN Deportes and show all the games over a few days.

 

now, if we can get the Setanta CL game on FSC, I can abandon my plans to go to satellite TV.

 

and, more importantly, no more Tommy Smyth and the old onion bag.

 

FSC only has one channel, 2 if you count espanol. So there can only be 1 game on a CL day if I'm not mistaken

 

ESPN can have 2.. I'm guessing Setanta still have the 2nd game.

 

Also picture quality on FSC is horrible compared with ESPN

[Nebraska Red]

only 2 can be live, but they will be able to show the other games on delay like they do on ESPN Deportes, only with an English commentary and no more goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

 

the digital picture quality is great for most of the games on FSC, they'll go to HD in the future with a bit of luck. ESPN has never used HD for their live CL games as far as I can remember.

[BDB]

They had HD for 05 and 07 finals, but not for the individual matches, I guess it comes down to whether UEFA provide the HD Feed.

[SkippyjonJones]

FSC can only show one live because they only have one channel. In order for 2 to go live they’ll have to show another channel, let Setanta show one live or go to PPV… oh I wonder what they’ll pick.

 

 

The best thing that might come out of it is a decent highlights show.. and even espn finally saw the benefits of that.

 

 

I can’t stand ESPN but to give them their due they finally got to the position of showing one live game and one delayed on Classic each matchday and then a highlights show – and they didn’t deviate from that.

 

Maybe I’m being over cynical but I can’t see FSC being any improvement for the fans.

[Nebraska Red]

FSC may do what they do with the UEFA Cup, show a game live on FSC and Fox Sports en Espanol, then flip them after the first games end.

 

We should get to see all the games, or at least a good number on tape delay later in the week.

 

I don't see them going to PPV as there are no many who will pay for a soccer game in the middle of the day on a week day.

 

FSC are doing a decent job with the World Cup games, 4 live games today.

[New York Red]

Thank God. No more bumping the games for f*cking bullriding.

 

They need a second channel.

[Nebraska Red]

Thank God. No more bumping the games for f*cking bullriding.

 

They need a second channel.

 

 

they have one, it's the Spanish speaking FSC, but with SAP, you get all the games in English.

 

same thing with GolTV.

 

now if ESPN Deportes would do the same thing, it would be heaven.

[mally]

on balance, it's not worth living abroad is it?

[Nebraska Red]

Fox plans expanded Champions League TV coverage

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer

6 hours, 0 minutes ago

 

Fox plans expanded coverage of the European Champions League next season, with matches appearing on Fox Sports Net and FX in addition to the Fox Soccer Channel.

 

After beating out ESPN for rights to the world’s most-followed club competition, Fox will broadcast 31 live and 79 delayed matches on FSC next season. Sixteen games will air on Fox Sports Net on Tuesdays, and the final from Madrid on May 22, 2010, will be on FX as the Union of European Football Association switches the championship to Saturday from its traditional Wednesday.

 

In addition, Fox Sports en Espanol will broadcast 31 matches live and 63 on delay.

 

“Hopefully, with this acquisition we can see some acceleration with our network’s distribution,” David Sternberg, executive vice president and general manager of Fox Soccer Channel, said Wednesday. “Frustration with that was obviously one of the strategic objectives with this acquisition.”

 

 

 

ESPN and ESPN2, which have televised the Champions League since the 1994-95 season, are available in 98 million homes and have broadcast Champions League matches in high-definition this season. FSC, which reaches 34 million households, plans to launch HD telecasts at the end of this year.

“We’re looking at ways to accelerate,” Sternberg said. “That’s going to be big a big topic of conversation with all our distributors.”

 

FSC is known primarily for its broadcasts of England’s Premier League, which began in 1998. The network’s EPL rights run through the 2009-10 season, and it took over all U.S. rights to Italy’s Serie A starting in 2007-8 under a three-season agreement.

 

Sternberg said five years ago that midweek afternoon Champions League matches were “a tough square” to circle, but that attitude changed when Nielsen began to measure FSC’s audience last October. Seeking to attract new advertisers, FSC began examining its viewers.

 

A top match, such as when Manchester United played Chelsea on Jan. 11, received a 0.43 rating in the network’s universe. While that’s relatively small — about 146,000 homes—it was tied for second among male viewers 18-34 watching ad-supported cable TV at the time.

 

ESPN says its 27 Champions League telecasts last season were watched by an average of 255,000 households, and Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea in last May’s final was ESPN’s most-watched Champions League telecast, with 798,000 homes and 1,097,000 viewers.

 

FSC hopes the Champions League will expand the network’s reach.

 

“We would like to see if we can get the network positioned onto more broadly distributed tiers and packages,” he said.

 

Its coverage will start with the new playoff round on Aug. 18-19 and Aug. 25-26. FSC also plans to air pregame and highlights shows.

 

While ESPN announcers called the games from its studios in Bristol, Conn., FSC may take the international English audio feeds provided by UEFA.

 

Setanta will continue its U.S. Champions League coverage under a separate agreement with UEFA that Sternberg said will include 94 matches. He said FSC will get to televise the top games, as ESPN did.

 

“Hopefully, we’ll do as good a job as possible and impress upon UEFA we’re a valuable partner for the long-term,” he said.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylt=Asz8...p&type=lgns

 

great news as this means that more people with regular cable will get to see the games. FSC is usually only on digital cable.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Nebraska Red

[BDB]

That doesn't sound too bad then. I'll reserve judgement though.

 

Glad Setanta are still in the mix.,

[New York Red]

Cracking.

[Stevie H]

i'm watching united - villa on the fox soccer channel now and the adverts at half time make me want to kill someone. they've just had ozzy osbourne advertising world of warcraft and they keep talking about the prem ear league.

[anfield]

MADNESSS! My cable provider dropped Fox soccer last month because of "contract renegotiation issues"!

[John am Rhein]

i'm watching united - villa on the fox soccer channel now and the adverts at half time make me want to kill someone. they've just had ozzy osbourne advertising world of warcraft and they keep talking about the prem ear league.

 

Outrageous bias! Osbourne supports Aston Villa!!!