Misters Richard Fleming and Sasu Sigelbaum previously warned about the NBC's new acquisition for broadcast rights in getting the English Premier League, and how it could negatively impact Major League Soccer. Particularly on the latter, he heavily faced negative feedback from the readers on this issue. NBC's English Premier League broadcasts at what cost to MLS? [April 19, 2013] http://www.denverpost.com/rapids/ci_23058796/nbc-bringing-epl-action-america Richard Fleming http://www.coloradorapids.com/club/fleming Why NBC’s Purchase of EPL TV Rights Could Be Bad for US Soccer [October 30, 2012] http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1389661-nbcs-purchase-of-epl-tv-rights-could-be-bad-for-us-soccer
the best thing that MLS has going for it is the general fact that there are no shortage of potential bidders with all four broadcast networks now having major sports networks (this doesn't even count the specialty networks that generally aren't a factor for MLS). So, even though they don't even have a soccer section on their website, it's not inconceivable that someone like CBSSN could be a fallback option. The bad thing is that MLS ratings are terrible and aren't showing any signs of growth. (They're actually declining on ESPN2, but that's probably mainly because ESPN has largely given up and just puts them in dead spots like Sunday afternoons.) It doesn't help that MLS has had some pretty dreadful games receive national TV coverage, but that probably doesn't really matter since no one was watching to start with in those games.
FSC is already dead. The Fox Sports 1 starts in August. I'll be searching for a new soccer channel after August so I'd like to see a channel other than GOLTV consolidating coverage. That said, I don't want MLS to be part of another project. NHL can greater afford to do that than MLS.
It's not what you want, if NBCSN gets lousy ratings with MLS and it continues they will drop MLS in a heartbeat.
Not necessarily since NBC really is just looking to diversify their product and fill space. Unless NBC get's an MLB contract, dropping MLS outright is unlikely. They may lowball them on their next contract which means that MLS will still have a decision to make. Alot of these decisions are relative. It's similar to the reason that Parks and Recreation (a show I like) is still on the air despite never having stellar ratings. NBC Sports is a growing and young product and they're still in the process of building their identity, filling timeslots, and appealing to certain sectors of viewership which are likely to skew younger. There are no absolutes involved in what will sway MLS' future on the network.
Just to be clear, Fox Sports 1 is not replacing FSC. Fox Sports 1 is replacing Speed. The new channel Fxx will replace FSC. Fuel will also be renamed, possibly as Fox Sports 2.
MLB contracts are all locked up through 2021 with 3 networks: ESPN, Fox and TBS. Deals were signed last August (ESPN) and last September (TBS, Fox).
The next MLB contract isn't until after the 2021 season. MLB re-upped with Turner, Fox and ESPN with their deals. NBC was supposedly involved (this was late 2012), but did not make a strong offer. There's really no summer programming out there for Comcast to pursue for NBCSN. If they are disappointed with the ratings for MLS, I could easily see them going with a low offer, but I can't imagine that they'd blow off MLS entirely considering how desperate they are for programming on the channel.
Being on FS1 (and perhaps FS2 depending on how that shakes out in terms of distribution and programming) would certainly be equivalent to NBCSN. Fox has actually amassed a pretty good collection of sports properties for their networks (NASCAR, MLB, college football and basketball [Pac-12, Big 12, Big East, Conf-USA], UFC, UEFA CL and Europa).
Other than the tour de France that does pretty well on their channel, there is really not much else out there for them, I guess they could go after women sports like the WNBA (if ESPN allows) or the NWSL (very small ratings I imagine).
For playoffs (arguably the only profitable part), but during the regular season is not like they show many games on ESPN, they could sell some of the games not on ESPN. But as I said if ESPN allows because they probably have an exclusive deal with the league.
I think the new WNBA ESPN deal calls for showing more games per season than the current MLS ESPN deal does. I agree that this deal is almost certainly exclusive as ESPN committed some decent money (rumored to be around $12 million a year)
http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...begins-monday-with-memorial-day-doubleheader/ Each teams plays 32 games per season I believe so 14 is not that many. It looks like most games will not be televised during the regular season. But the playoffs will all be on ESPN, so not sure if any TV carrier would want any of the other Regular season games with out having any chance on getting playoff games. So yes BeIn will probably not going to be showing WNBA any time soon. Edit: or NBCSN since that is what initially we were talking about.
Technically, yes. But, in actual practice, Fox Sports 1 (the rebrand of Speed) will have programming that would have originally been on FSC, had it continued (along with a bunch of other stuff). In that respect, one could certainly and realistically say it had "replaced" FSC, even if FXX takes its spot as the new name and new coat of paint. It's a semantic difference that makes no difference. Programming-wise, Fox Sports 1 supplants FSC as Fox's sports channel.
I was talking number of games total, not just regular season games. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/wnba-espn-extend-tv-contract-through-2022 "Up to 30 games will be aired yearly on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2." If they do show up to 30 games a year, I believe that is more than ESPN shows for MLS (last year ESPN showed 27 MLS games (regular season, all star, playoff and MLS Cup).
I know we have to wait out the process but I don't see Fox Sports 1 showing 100% of what FSC will have left over, at least over the longer term. My guess is that UCL and FA Cup will be on Fox Sports 1, and most other soccer items will be shown on Fox Sports 2 (which is what most assume Fuel will be re-branded to sometime in 2013).
That's not really accurate either though. It's more like "Programming-wise, Fox Sports 1 replaces Speed, Fuel, FSC and FX as Fox's sports channel". Only a small part of FS1 and FS2's content was previously on FSC.