Not too sure about that. Not because Fox will give some extra commitment to the Bundesliga but because there simply isn't much competition to Fox for it. GOL-TV in 4 years time will either be a strictly South American soccer channel or gone altogether. beINSport can always surprise due to deep pockets but I think they realize that their plate is full and they are having difficulty programming what they have now. Having said that, there is no guarantee beIN will have La Liga or Serie A in 4 years time which would definitely change things. ESPN and Fox have been working together as of late and I do not see ESPN trying to poke the Bundesliga away from them. Believe it or not, the biggest competition to Fox for the Bundesliga in 4 years time may be One World Sport. All indications are that they are seriously looking to be considered a national sports channel and while they have some European soccer programming (Bayern TV, Chelsea TV & Arsenal TV) they need an actual league to be considered a serious player. As for Fox, another argument in favor of them committing to the Bundesliga for the long term is the fact that they are taking over the next 2 World Cups and they simply need more weekend soccer programming as the part time FA cup, Scottish Premier League and likely addition of Eredivisie still leaves them woefully low on soccer inventory. SA www.soccertvblog.com
I don't think there's much interest in the Bundesliga other than Bayer Munich and even then I don't think Americans consider them a must see team. If baseball is struggling for ratings on FOX Sports 1 then I can't see the Bundesliga doing any better tbh
The BL is not helped by having its kickoff windows very similar to those of the EPL. Spain & Italy benefit from having a lot of their marquee games kicking off later in the afternoon
Italy has some later kickoffs, but the most common Serie A starting time is Sunday at 9:00 A.M. where it is normally competing with one EPL game. The Bundesliga competes with the set of EPL games on Saturday at 10:00 A.M.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/16/Franchises/Bayern-Munich.aspx Also: Bayern Munich Opens Office In NYC As Part Of Club's Long-Term U.S. Strategy
Not yet. I posted this in the Fox Soccer Era thread: http://worldsoccertalk.com/2015/03/...fox-sports-tv-coverage-beginning-next-season/
It should be obvious to anyone, including them, that beIN could do so much more with a second English-language channel.
It seems at times that beIN "believes" they already have a second English language channel in beisportsconnect.tv. If they retain the current rights they have for the next 3 years, I hope they use their resources to upgrade the streaming service to something close to what espn has or perhaps even better, the newly launched NGSN service. Getting another channel on any US providers is a very tough task these days. SA www.soccertvblog.com
This is really incorrect. The biggest Serie A matches are played at 2:45 est on saturday and sunday. The 9am serie a slot is like the 10am Prem League matches. The Bundesliga has 2 time slots on Saturdays (9:30 and 12:30) so the second match goes head to head with the big Saturday 12:30 prem match. Then 2 matches on Sunday 9:30 and 11:30 so again pretty close to both being head to head with prem matches. The Sunday matches are usually not as good as the Saturday matches in terms of Bayern, Dortmund, etc.
I said what the most common Serie A time was. I didn't claim that the best Serie A games were played at that time, and I don't appreciate being called "incorrect."
You appeared to be arguing that Serie A matches compete with EPL kickoff times as much as BL matches do which is "incorrect". Nobodys perfect.
Not sure if its just me but it seems like more and more 'big' Serie A matches are played at 9:00 et these days. Take Torino v Juve just yesterday. There was another match between two top 5 teams a couple of weeks ago in this time-slot and even Roma v Lazio kicked off at this time! That would never happen in England and, IIRC, didn't happen in Italy 10 years ago.
SA- correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the La Liga and Serie A contracts up at the end of this season? In other words, there is no guarantee that beIN will have those rights next season never mind 4 years from now. Their programming could be in GolTV territory sooner rather than later.
Not sure when I wrote that but you are correct. La Liga and Serie A rights expire at the end of this season. The next 3-year cycle should be announced shortly (I am guessing). SA www.soccertvblog.com
Praying someone will get La Liga next year other than Bein. I have nothing against them it's just not in HD and you have to pay extra on Comcast. All I want is to watch Real Madrid and Barca games it sucks sitting around on a weekend and seeing posts about the amazing things Ronaldo and Messi do week in and week out and not being able to see that
I doubt any network will match the price tag bid. But it would be interesting to see ESPN get La Liga again. They would probably just focus on aforementioned Barca and Madrid matches putting the rest on ESPN3 and throwing a bone to Deportes with simulcasts of the Barca, Madrid along with broadcasts of whoever else is in the top 5 positions that year. If NBC loses the EPL they could probably think about it but I don't think they would see La Liga as valuable.
If you're going to pray, why don't you pray for Comcast to add the HD feed? I wrote this elsewhere, beIN shows EVERY La Liga match. None of the other existing channels will do that. The problem isn't beIN as much as its the providers. More importantly, if beIN lose La Liga they will face the same fate as GOL-TV in that providers will start dropping them. Now imagine a world where beIN retains Serie A and Ligue-1 rights. We will be faced with a whole new set of problems. I try to keep an eye on the big picture and I truly hope (I don't pray) beIN retain the rights. If they retain the rights and you are truly stuck with Comcast, I would strongly recommend getting Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast, whatever. beIN is actually doing a good job getting themselves added to various services utilizing these products (via FuboTV, DishWorld, NexTV, etc.). Yes, its an additional $10 per month and that sucks but it is an option. SA www.soccertvblog.com
R.e. Bundesliga on Fox next season, I doubt we'll see many, if any, on broadcast tv. My guess, just based on how various networks have handled football rights in the past, is that you'll see all the BL games available on FS+ or Fox Soccer to Go. It doesn't help that Bayern is seemingly a team in transition now with Robben, Ribery, Schweinstieger, Lahm all either with injury problems, getting up there in age, or both. As a fan of Bayern & German football, I'm hoping as many games are on nationally as possible. But I doubt it - back in the Fall I looked at programming on FS1/FS2 during the BL timeslots - it was some combination of college football pregame, college football, nascar prerace, ufc, general highlight shows. Sadly, all of those would probably get more ratings than a BL soccer match...
I could see Bayern-Dortmund or Schalke, if at 12:30 slot, ending up on main Fox outside of college football season. If they can put arsenal-reading there, then bundesliga will work also.
I would say that the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 are my favorite leagues to watch as a neutral if I have time to watch after I've watched my favorite teams and various continental club cup competitions. But if the Bundesliga continues as is, I can't see the league attracting a huge following for new fans to the game. Bayern has basically had the league won by week 6 or 7 for the past 3 seasons. It's just not interesting when things are done and dusted so quickly. A friend I work with has been a Bayern fan for 40 years and even he says that he's torn by their success. He gets that they basically need to buy the best players from other Bundesliga clubs to truly compete in the CL but by making these purchases, Bayern weakens the competition, which makes the league a bit of a bore unless one is willing to watch for 2nd-6th place. That's not a sustainable model outside of Spain since Old Firm south has so many world class players and people will tune in to see these stars. EPL at least has a rotating 4th place finisher and the title also rotates. Again, I say all of this as a big fan of the Bundesliga, but I think that the tighter races that existed in the early part of this decade were much better for the league. Hopefully for the Bundesliga Uli Hesse's recurring theme that Bayern face a real challenge for a few years before the challenger drifts away (Bremen, Leverkusen, Dortmund, Schalke) will see a return of a challenger next season and Fox will have some reasons to try to promote what could be a growing league among US audiences.