ESPN lost the rights to the Prem to British Telecom who outbid them & made the decision to exit the UK market because they didn't feel the public would subscribe the channel to make it profitable enough to stay on the air. The FA Cup is too infrequent, soccer from Italy and Scotland doesn't sell subscriptions, and the American sports programming is of not enough interest for enough people to plunk down 10 to 20 dollars for the ESPN package. The Prem TV rights are king and w/o them people will always keep their SKY Sports and will get the package of the other broadcaster that has the TV rights which is BT for this coming 3 year TV cycle. The price for Sports TV rights is out of whack everywhere around the world and ESPN is making business decisions on where they can make the most money and where the effort isn't worth the money coming in.
For the 50 billionth time, you are wrong. Just because the numbers don't work for ESPN in the UK or Asia does not mean ESPN has decided soccer isn't "worth it." Soccer, like any other property, is "worth it" to ESPN when the numbers make sense. Have you ever run a business? Even a paper route?
They only want soccer at a certain price. I understand that. They have put a price on soccer. Ok. Someone in the market put a different price on it. So ESPN has decided that at a certain price - soccer isn't worth it. Ok. If they aren't willing to pay market price, fine. Just say so. Why does everyone defend ESPN?
Soccer TV rights are different than most other sports properties because of the lack of commercial inventory during the broadcast where the networks traditionally make their money. TV broadcasters have to sell cable packages to recoup the money they spend because of the lack of commercials during a game. Without the Premier League games ESPN decided they weren't going to be profitable enough because they wont be able to sell ESPN TV packages and have decided to exit the marketplace. People are defending ESPN because they're making sound business decisions. ESPN realized that other bidders are going to continue to jack the prices up on soccer properties and have decided to get out of business in those countries which makes sense since soccer is the most popular sport around the world.
ESPN is an american television outlet, and in order to have their sports they need it to become more commercialized for sale. Football is not like that, you don't have TV timeouts for Football, you do for all other american sports. The day they allow TV timeouts to be part of the game of football is the day you'll see ESPN outbidding everyone for the rights of football. It's not that they don't think football is worth it, they know it's worth it, they just don't think it's commercial.
The market is what the market is. Even in rights. So you are saying British Telecom made a poor business decision. I guess that remains to be seen. Same thing with beIn Sports. Whenever the rights for US home qualifiers go up for bid.don't think beIN won't be there waiting. BeIN Sports has had several commercials promoting the game on Wednesday. Nice to see an outlet promote games like that. Plus,they will show another game in the Hex as well. Don't remember ESPN ever doing that. (I know - they are showing Mexico Jamaica).
You are kidding yourself if you think US Soccer will sell the home qualifiers to beIN. That would completely ruin the growth of the game in the US because beIN isn't easily available to many people. They may throw them a bone like they used to throw Fox Soccer where they get a Camp Cupcake friendly or something along those lines.
They have 38 games a season of which 18 of the games are first choice games. My guess is that they will pick up the rights to properties that ESPN gives up as they exit the market and Sky doesn't have room for or need. We'll see where BT stands in 3 years when the next TV contract cycle is up. I don't know the UK market that well but my guess it will be 3 and out and someone else will come in and replace them.
Here is an article from a few weeks back about BT and their sports broadcasting plans for the future. It certainly reads as though they intend on being major players for the long haul but time will tell if the craziness of bidding on rights for various leagues/sports will take its toll or if their vision and business plan will pan out for them. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/10/bt-gauntlet-sky-sports-coverage
They sold the away rights to them didn't they. Having the away games - wouldn't that ruin the growth of soccer?ESPN used to televise road qualifiers. Everyone has their price.
Schapes has shown himself to be more than a bit confused on the basics. Repeatedly. But he doesn't let that stop him from displaying his ignorance on a daily basis.
I understand that. They do control rights to the games played in the US right? So, theycan threaten not to sell rights to Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica and anyone else in CONCACAF if they don't play ball so to speak. Wouldn't it be better for the game of soccer if the games were on ESPN as opposed to beIN?
My bad. Doesn't beIN having the away games and fewer people being able to see away games stunt the growth of soccer?
Doesn't selling the game to ESPN at a lower price than BeIN stunt the growth of soccer in Honduras? Because that's who was doing the selling.
No way, Fox has done so much more, putting games on the actual network, putting games in replay on regional Fox, Premier league review on regional fox, Not pre-empting matches, I don't ever recall watching the second half of a Champions League match starting at min. 60 because Fox showed commercials for the entire half-time and first 15mins of the second half. I don't recall hearing any Fox "personalities" bashing the sport, I do recall having the main NFL studio guy on certain broadcasts on the main network though.
Yes, 100% correct. And i think the reason why ESPN has improved their coverage of soccer since 2006 is because of the work Fox Soccer has done. ESPN's coverage 2006 and before was just embarrassing. You won't see a Champions League Tie being pre-empted by a Cheerleading competition which has happened on ESPN.
It has more to do with who is in charge at ESPN than what Fox has done. Skipper took over his current level of control in either 2005 or 2006 and has pushed ESPN's better coverage of soccer.
Does anyone care if selling the game to ESPN at a lower price stunts the growth of soccer. No one has answered if having today's game on beIN stunts the growth of soccer in US.