Is beIN Sport the Inevitable US TV Home of Major League Soccer? Yahoo! Sports If MLS have to stoop to beINSport they might as well make a deal with Fox Soccer Channel if they're still around .
This is not a knock on the the writer, the source, or Fiosfan, but is that site another Bleacher Report (now part of SI) style site that is becoming more common as a branch of a credible news site (e.g. Forbes)? I wouldn't have much of a problem with beIN being one of the channels (I wouldn't have a problem with the return to a neutered AXS or whatever HDNet is now), but I would only hope it wasn't an exclusive and that is very unlikely. Of course FOX Soccer won't be around for long since it will become FXX so any chance of a contract with FOX is with FOX Sports (1/2). //I have no problem with the creation of FXX, but I'm afraid they may be ruining something that is sometimes good and diluting FX with FXX
This would be really catastrophic to MLS if this happens. MLS is so easy to find on tv. NBCSN has been great. Never has MLB, NBA,NHL and especially NFL not been on a mainstream network (cable or network). And all of those sports have Network partners as does MLS with NBC. This would be really bush league if it happens. With that said, it's definitly all speculative. And do you really think the ratings could be that bad? Whenever a game is on National TV, it's always trending on Twitter in one way or the other. So people are watching.
That would be terrible. Actually, I think anything aside from NBCSN and ESPN would be a step down. I know some are excited about the new Fox1 channel or whatever it's going to be called, but if it's anything like FSC was, it's terrible production. The production has to be at least as good as NBCSN has been or the actual telecast will look amateurish, which won't do MLS any favors. And Fox is terrible regarding soccer, just look at Gus Johnson announcing and murdering every telecast he touches and Fox thinking it's a good idea for that idiot to announce some of the biggest UCL games. I have zero confidence anything related to Fox would be good for MLS.
MLS isn't stupid; it'd have to take one hell of a contract offer to get them to "take a step back" and sign exclusively with such a small carrier. The league is still desperate to get as many eyeballs as possible to view their games, so there'd need to be a massive cash intake to offset the loss of exposure. That said, count me as one of those that don't want to see the league sign an exclusive contract with just one provider.
It was certainly becoming that before it had its name changed. There were multiple times working at the bar where people would come in and specifically ask me to change it to Versus once they were showing hockey and UFC. Anyway, NBCSN is definitely catching on. Its on in bars and restaurants all over the place down in Houston and I think they do a great job with MLS.
And that is the point, not sure if MLS would do the same for BeIn sports as the NHL did for versus but that would be a reason for them to consider a bid. I mean thanks to BeIn the USA away matches are not on PPV this cycle.
In answer to the original question: I ********ing hope not as it's barely on the radar of the three major carriers.
BTW The US Open Cup 1st round was trending on twitter on Tuesday, I guarantee that not that many people were watching Also I know GOLTV has the rights for the next 2 Open Cup finals, but that is something I would like BeIn Sports getting rights for in the future.
Part of me thinks if MLS is unable to secure a huge deal this go around - they should sign a shorter deal and move toward their own network. For MLB and NFL it makes no sense (as an example) to go that route exclusively because of the right fees they pull in, but in MLS cannot garner a huge increase the ROI on a stand alone network is likely very short.
Consider me naive but didn't MLS just recently move to NBCSN as their primary provider? And by all accounts it seems to be a good thing. Looks like NBCSN is dedicated to MLS, good production, a lot of matches, and now with them getting the English Premiere League rights it seems like they are attaching themselves to soccer. Plus NBCSN is widely available. Assuming it's a non-starter.
ESPN has the primary contract; NBCSN came on last year as the #2 partner, replacing Fox Soccer. Both contracts end after the 2014 season.
What part of NBCSN not needing MLS is a non starter? NBC the whole time was vying for the EPL and they got it. There is zero incentive for them to carry MLS games anymore.
Maybe I didn't explain myself. To me it seems like MLS moving to BEIN away from NBC seems a non-starter. It looks to me like NBCSN is a natural home for MLS, and makes a lot more sense then BEIN sports because of the wider distribution and Prem games leading into MLS games.
uhh yeah if your MLS. If your NBC, you may not care about MLS in two years. MLS cannot make anyone give them an offer and they certainly cannot make the offer good.
Let's not go overboard. The running average is 99k viewers on NBCSN right now. The last game was 51k. 100k is still lower than one would like conceivably, but also not without an opportunity to salvage over the next 18 months. The NHL just averaged 392k on NBCSN, but that was also the highest number on any network in 9 years. The running average over the past few years for the NHL is around 310k. If MLS gets to half of that or 155k in the next year I don't think that poses an issue not too mention it shows some good growth.
We are talking about slightly more than one MLS game a week on NBCSN right now. And a third of those MLS games are during the off-season for the EPL. Close to 2/3 of those of those games are during the off-season of the NHL. NBC Sports Network having the EPL & NHL does not conflict very much with their MLS coverage.
To me this is sort of similar to what the NHL did after the locked out season in 04-05... they signed on for bigger, more guaranteed money to a channel that few people know and even fewer subscribe to. Short term it works for the NHL, they got guaranteed money and lots of it.. OLN was able to build up the channel.. but man did it sort of blacken the reputation of the NHL.. casuals sort of would laugh at me when I said "Oh the game will be on OLN..." I'd have to explain what OLN was. This was after a crippling lockout too.. On the flip side the NHL helped build OLN into Versus and eventually NBC Sports but still that has issues. In my area Charter only has NBC Sports on digital and not on basic.. that's actually a recent move too... so viewership probably isn't as good as it could be. I don't really see it being exclusive though, BEIN doesn't have much to gain, they've already got a large subsection of soccer fans in the US already thanks to their European coverage and the US away games. I can't say I'm a fan of the idea, the MLS should be pushing for more coverage rather than less, even if the bottom line is less.