ESPN's coverage has been awesome, just like 2010. Soccer's natural growth has led to the huge jump in attention and TV ratings...but no mistake, ESPN's hype machine has a lot to do with it. It's waaaay early to speculate how Fox's coverage will compare, but they have massive shoes to fill. I shudder to think of this call for the US's first game in Russia..."coming to you live from Moscow, Gus Johnson, Eric Wynalda annnnnnd.....Joe Buck". Thoughts?
Hopefully there will be an option to mute commentary and only listen to the crowd option on our TVs by then.
Fox could turn into a nightmare. They're shown zero ability to do anything aside from throw around big money and buy tv rights. The actual production, analysis and choice of tv personalities is firmly stuck in the past and largely lacks respect for the US fan base.
Yea I was disappointing when FOX won the rights over ESPN, but I think they will do fine worse comes to worse there's always illegal BBC streams online
Fox has 4 years to improve themselves. Hopefully they used them wisely. And it would help if their Fox Sports Go streaming site became more like ESPN3.
I think the biggest problem is going to be the casual fan finding the games, everyone turns to ESPN for sports, is Fox going to put the World Cup on Fox Sports One? No one watches that at least not now. What time will the games come on in Russia? Early mornings Eastern time? Bad for ratings. But if the team plays well and everyone is excited again, it wont matter.
The Majority of the matches should be on Fox Sports 1 and 2 but Simpsons Fox could also get some major matches. Maybe even more than we saw on ABC this cycle. As for the times, they will probably be 9AM EST, 12 Noon and 3PM EST for the most part.
Well you better find out soon for the Gold Cup, Under 20 World Cup, Under 17 World Cup, Women's World Cup, etc.
Due to work I don't get to watch Champions League, but in fairness to FOX I thought they did fairly well with the Gold Cup last summer, and I bet they're going to put a hell of a lot more effort into this. They have the next 2 Gold Cups, half the USMNT games and a 2nd chance at MLS. Let's see how they do
i don't know for sure, but i could of sworn i heard that the matches would be at like midnight pacific.
Same here. Fox's coverage will suck, I'm bummed already. They need to start by getting rid of Wynalda.
A 5 PM match Moscow time is 6 AM Pacific. A 1 PM match Moscow time is 2 AM Pacific. It's going to be pretty rough. This won't be as bad as 2002 but it'll be close.