Not sure where to best put this but probably here is as good as any. Fox and ESPN have reportedly dropped out of the EPL bid. Sports Business Journal is reporting that NBC will pay EPL $83 million a year for the rights. Fox currently pays $23 million.
Shocking turn events here that could reshape soccer on tv as we know it. Could mean that FSC will be switched to Fox Sports 2 in late 2013. No idea how this affects MLS which is the next big contract coming up. I was expecting Fox to hold the EPL and NBC to be the lead MLS provider but now I am confused to say the least. Grant Wahl and Rob Stone have to be saying "wait what happened". Meanwhile Arlo White could be positioned to be the most important soccer voice on tv in this country. BeIN is struggling to even get its two channels carried even when they are offering to pay the carriers. A third channel is going to be a nightmare for them. Fox has lost the rights to MLS, EPL, Serie A, and Ligue 1 all in a years time frame. Seems so counter productive after spending so much on the World Cup. Still think there may be another shoe to drop here.
This all sounds like some very interesting times for broadcast Soccer on US TV up ahead. And yeah, Arlo's going to be everywhere.
At $83m per year for three years, that's more than 3 times the $27m annually MLS currently is getting under its three national contracts ($10m from NBC, $9m from Univision and $8m from ESPN).
sounds like the viewer might be scrambling like mad to figure out if/how/where to access the content?
Wherever the content lands, the distribution is likely to follow. It won't always be immediate or smooth, but it should happen.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/2012/10/report-nbc-universal-front-runner-in-u-s-for-epl-tv-rights.html Ives is reporting that NBC Universal has positioned itself in the lead to acquire the US rights for EPL games. Assuming that the games are primarily shown on NBCSports, would this be a benefit or detriment to MLS? Some (possible) pros: NBC becomes a major player in the US soccer world? Increased viewership? Perhaps a move onto more basic tiers of programming? Cross-promotion of MLS throughout EPL games? Dedicated soccer show? Some (possible) cons: Will MLS be pushed aside, in terms of focus? Will MLS be given second priority in televising games? Less likely MLS will be given a nationally televised game on NBC? What are your thoughts?
The contract runs from 2013 to 2016. All of the current MLS TV contracts end in 2014. I'm guessing this means that MLS will try to get one single big money package from Fox or ESPN now.
This topic is already being discussed in the TV thread if you want to see some thoughts there. Also some discussion in the news thread.
Given that the Premier League games will show in the morning and most MLS games are in the evening, it doesn't seem that there'd be too much of a conflict at least as far as the game broadcasts go. They could still have EPL replays in the early afternoon like FSC if they choose. It seems like it could be helpful as you note.
According to Variety, it is NBC and NBCSN http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118061320 I'll wait until confirmation before commenting.
The US isn't a big enough market yet for EPL and perhaps never will be but it is possible that sometime in the future kick off times could be scheduled for Saturday or more likely Sunday night over here so that a live game can broadcast at a reasonable time in the US. I wonder what effect that would have on viewing figures or perhaps the competition is too strong for a Sunday afternoon broadcast to be worthwhile? There could even be the possibility of an EPL game being a lead in to an MLS game with a late EPL kick off and early MLS kick off. All in the future but who knows.
there's already a little thing called europe, you may or may not have heard of it in manchester england, where they play soccer games on saturday and sunday nights.
I don't see the unreasonable part of 8-12 kickoffs. Sure, we get some 0630 or 0730, but there are as many, and more in the 8-12 time frame. NFL
Why should it ..Most of EPL games are in the morning but things might get crowded if and when hockey comes back.
To me, this is an issue of Comcast's looking for content for NBCSN. The NFL and NBA are locked up for the foreseeable future. They've already got the NHL and MLS. ESPN and Fox have already locked up the major college sports conferences. The BPL was out there and it was relatively inexpensive, so it was a good move for them.
Plus, they missed out on MLB earlier this year. They are apparently negotiating with the Big East for content, which would help fill some time in the winter with basketball, but would be only marginal for football. The next big deal on the table is IIRC the Big Ten, but I'm skeptical they'd jump to Comcast/NBC instead of sticking with their current partners of ESPN and Fox. I agree that the EPL was an easy pickup at a relatively low cost and would compliment their MLS coverage. It's a little ironic because Comcast just picked up Formula 1 racing recently, so there will be some conflicts there in the early morning of weekends; we'll have to see if Comcast subleases content (I think ESPN might be interested for EPL games still, if the price is right).
This is good. Short term lots of promotion for MLS which fox and espn have proven they don't do. In 2014 MLS will have a body of work from NBC to assess whether to stick with them full time or divide up rights perhaps
No they don't. You may get an evening kick off on a Saturday, say 5.30PM and the latest on a Sunday is usually 4.0 PM which I guess aren't too bad for US viewing times but I was thinking more 8 or 9 PM so it was a late afternoon kick off in the US. Currently the only kick off's near that later time here take place in midweek and 8PM is the latest.