Cross-posted. After losing the rights to the Premier League to NBC, Fox is rebranding Fox Soccer Channel as FXX, a sister channel to FX. http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/fox...-fx-sister-channel-targeting-younger-viewers/
Hmm, I originally heard that it was gonna be Fox Sports 2. Oh well. If this is the case, then it's going to be interesting how Fox Sports 1 approaches it's soccer focus. They're going to be showing a fair amount of MLB too from what I hear. As long as they have the FA Cup and UEFA matches though, I think they will be sitting pretty.
WOW, that is really sad. Very good move by MLS to jump for greener pastures with NBC. I'm hoping NBC can also snag the rights to CCL games on the cheap. Maybe USOC too.
As long as the general progress is more international soccer being available for the average American viewer, I guess I'll deal. I would like it if they were to start moving more and more of that programming online, like FoxSoccer2Go did. Except cheaper. And with tons more games.
Yea saw this coming. There was no way they were going to survive without any of the top leagues. The article did say though there may be so some soccer action on their sports channel they're planning to launch.
Apparently, Fuel is going to be re-branded as Fox Sports 2 (FS2). I can only assume that Fox Soccer Plus is likely to disappear. FS1 (and FS2) will have a decent amount of content: MLB, college sports (Pac-12 and Big 12), Nascar, UEFA CL, MMA, plus FIFA stuff some years. I think FS1 will end up being a stronger network than NBC Sports Net, which would be an interesting thing when MLS' TV deal is up for bid.
Hasn't GOL TV been dropped from DirecTV in favor of BeIN Sport? I can't imagine it surviving much longer once the Bundesliga moves on.
I don't think GolTV has any expectations of survival. However, they hold some good things (like the USOC) hostage right now. Grumble.
So with two potential channels lined up? Hmm, interesting. They will have MLB, NASCAR, UFC, Big XII/Pac 12 AND soccer. Nice portfolio, they could actually compete with ESPN to an extent with that. FOX has upcoming World Cup action. And you know they aren't giving up the UEFA contests. Now what else are they likely to show? The FA Cup will be somewhat lucrative due to big time EPL squads facing off there. Do you think SPL will have a place? I am skeptical because unless I am mistaken SPL interest means mainly Celtic fandom here in the States. What I want to see is more attention towards the CONCACAF Champions League. It would be great for MLS and the tourney as a whole to have good coverage of the contest. Will it even be as big as Copa Lib? Not likely but if we have a good tourney here we won't need to worry about potentially getting an invite to that. Also do you think we might ever get English Copa Lib coverages in the states? FOX Sports en Latino America has the rights so it could be a natural crossover. Sure interest could be tempered due to demographics but because Latin America is such an incubator for wealthy teams abroad I think it could hold some interest.
Fox Deportes used to have a SAP option where Copa Lib games had english commentary. At least on my cable box.
This is way off. FSC is currently at about 47 million homes (it jumped up a touch this month after Direct TV moved it from the sports pack to a regular tier package).
ESPN has the rights to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. No one thought FOX would lose EPL rights, but that happened.
Yeah, BeIn killed FSC. It now has the North American rights to the Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, the English Championship (along with the English League Cup) and North and South America World Cup qualifying matches. Unfortunately, Canada has no access to BeIn because there is no cable provider that will carry that channel as yet.
Imo, beIN did not kill FSC. NBC did. All those properties you listed draw very few viewers. The two highest drawing English language leagues are the EPL and MLS. Losing these two, especially the EPL, to NBC is what killed the channel, not the smaller property losses, IMO.
This is a good point. You never know how bidding wars will go. But someone on the forums broke down popularity amongst Anglophones like this; 1. EPL 2. UEFA 3. La Liga 4. MLS, etc. (I think you can switch 3 and 4 when you take out Barca/Real though). Considering the fact that UEFA has gotten decent ratings on FOX/FX I doubt they will want to hand those over easily. The only other place that would likely get them is ESPN (wouldn't mind that though).
No, they couldn't. ESPN has NFL, every major conference football/basketball (including big prizes like SEC football, ACC basketball, and the Big Ten), baseball, golf, tennis, and SportsCenter. Fox will do better than NBCSN, but they're a long way from competing to any real extent.
Time Warner cable and Comcast signed up with Intel to implement their TV box technology. It makes sense for them since, once in wide use, it'd ease up their broadband traffic. BTW, with the HEVC codec approved, an Over-the-Air system can easily deliver over 100 (light) HD channels too.
OK, maybe instead of compete I should have said break up hegemony. LOL. Don't under estimate the appeal of live sports on TV. Not EVERYONE has good internet access and the established ad-revenue machine for TV while diminishing is still VERY POWERFUL. Sports will be the LAST thing networks will really want to cede great latitutde to the internet for and it will be after a long drawn out struggle where the nets see no other option.
OK, maybe instead of compete I should have said break up hegemony. LOL. Don't under estimate the appeal of live sports on TV. Not EVERYONE has good internet access and the established ad-revenue machine for TV while diminishing is still VERY POWERFUL. Sports will be the LAST thing networks will really want to cede great latitutde to the internet for and it will be after a long drawn out struggle where the nets see no other option.
A domestic Cup competition was on U.S. network TV last week, which iffin' you are older than 30 is amazing considering how we used to have to play f'n Nancy Drew to find ANY pro footy on the tube just 10 to 20 years ago. Copa Libertadores action should get more access to U.S. viewers however. It expands the average U.S. soccer fan's intimacy with club ball.
