I bring this up for two reasons: 1) Does it seem logical that there isn't enough interest that a full 16 game schedule for the World Cup qualifiers couldn't have been picked up by any of the major networks? There is no way that BeIn Sports, a channel that is only in 15% of homes, was able to outbid other networks for the away qualifying games unless the major networks weren't interested. This despite the fact that the U.S. men's national team was able to draw over 40,000 people to a baseball stadium last week to watch them play against Caribbean minnows. So is the lack of interest from the fans or from the media? 2) Is it coincidence that generally U.S. sports media only bring up soccer when there's some negative story surrounding the sport? A few months back there was the FIFA scandal and I understand that it's a big story. But now soccer is in the media spotlight again regarding concussions and the proposed heading ban by U.S. Soccer. Again I understand that this is a big story but I decided to do a little research to find out how prevalent concussions are in soccer compared to other sports. Well, according to the statistics, which I'll post at the end of this, even though concussions are higher in girls's soccer, boy's soccer has roughly as many concussions percentage-wise as boy's basketball. And football is off the charts. Looking at the numbers, you'd think there would be talk of an outright ban on tackle football. You would think with the amount of air time that basketball and football receive they would bring this issue up a little more in those sports. http://www.headcasecompany.com/concussion_info/stats_on_concussions_sports Issues like the ones I described make it seem like there's a media bias to me but that's just my opinion. I think soccer is way under reported for the increased interest it's gotten from general sports fans. Maybe the sports writers and the sports media personalities don't want to cover it because they didn't grow up following the sport and don't feel comfortable enough talking about it. So even though there's a demand for it, they just ignore it altogether or talk about the sport being boring. Which is probably why soccer specific shows were created. The major networks also have a lot of money tied up in long-term contracts with college and pro football and basketball so it's also in their best interests to preserve interest in those sports.
The TV rights for road games are controlled by the home teams' FA, which usually sells off the rights with the help of some middle-man organization. The major networks don't buy the full 16-game schedule because the product is not available in that form. The home games are taken care of through USSF's contracts, and then the road games have to be handled on a case-by-case basis, each with a different seller who may or may not be operating with good business sense and in many cases may be a front for a graft operation.
The TV rights for the home World Cup qualifiers for most CONCACAF countries were sold to Traffic. Traffic then shops the games to broadcasters in each country. The U.S. broadcast rights to all those games were then sold to beIN Sports. That included all the games, not just the USA games. If this cycle is like the last one then ESPN and FOX looked into buying the rights to just the USA games but BeIN wouldn't sell. The only way that ESPN or FOX could make sure of getting the away USA games would be to outbid BeIN for the entire package. That would give them a bunch of games that they would have trouble fitting into their schedules.
I understand that it's not a straight-forward process to get the away games but the bottom line is that the games are available. Somehow ESPN, Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS were all outbid by BeIN Sports. Although looking at the TV schedule NBC Deportes did acquire the rights to the games with Central American teams. I happen to believe that if 'The Worldwide Leader in Sports' wanted the rights to the games, they would've gotten them.
Is Traffic still involved this time? Even if not, I wouldn't be surprised if whoever is handling it now is just as dirty. I know what you describe is what happened in the last cycle, but I haven't seen it reported that beIN has the entire package again this time. NBC also has the Spanish rights to tonight's game against a Caribbean team. As for the others, maybe they were outbid, maybe there was never a fair bidding process in the first place. It's all very shady.
Not "somehow". I just explained the process. beIN bought all the games. NBC/Telemundo got the Spanish language rights in the US to all qualifiers other than those played in Mexico and the US. Those are sold separately from the English language rights in the U.S. NBC Universo has the U.S.A. game tonight in Spanish. You can believe what you want. ESPN would have bought the English rights to the U.S. games if they could. They show a lot of soccer. There is no conspiracy by ESPN or FOX to keep soccer down.
I'm pretty sure that is the case. The deal went down before Traffic got exposed. I'll see if I can find confirmation.
That's why I brought it up. I do think that there's an effort to keep the sport down but it's all a matter of opinion. I have no direct proof. But I do know that in 1989 ESPN aired the U.S. WCQ away game against Trinidad: But of course ESPN has alot more options nowadays even though I would assume that the popularity of soccer has gone up considerably since 1989. I also look at general sports talk shows and talk of soccer is non-existent. Watch shows like Mike and Mike, First Take, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, The Herd, Boomer and Carton, Doug Gottlieb Show, Russillo and Kanell, Dan LeBatard Show, etc. and you will not hear any soccer talk. Not even before or after a World Cup qualifier. Some openly talk of their dislike for soccer like Mike Greenberg and Tony Kornheiser. So how could soccer ever have any crossover appeal when soccer is relegated to soccer specific forums and soccer specific shows?
My guess is that ESPN didn't even have to pay anything to get the rights to that game in 1989. No one even bid on the U.S. English rights for the World Cup itself in 2002 and 2004. That's when SUM was created by the MLS owners. They got the rights from FIFA and paid all the production costs, sold commercials, and then gave the games to ESPN/ABC basically for free to get them on TV. That was ;less than 15 years ago. No one was willing to pay anything for the games. Oh, sure, there is lots of anti-soccer attitude out there. I thought you mean an institutional bias that was leading to USA games not being broadcast. I don't see that. I'm 54. There is a lot more soccer coverage even on Sports Center and the talk shows than I could have dreamed of as a teenager back in the 70s when all I got was Soccer Made in Germany on PBS and an occasional game on Wide World of Sports. Things are much, much better and getting better all the time. I don't watch or listen to many of those shows but I do watch PTI. You bring up Tony Kornheiser. He might not like soccer but he talks about it on PTI. They talked about the game against St. Vincent last Friday on the show. Why do you think that is? I'd bet it is because ESPN tells him to talk about it. If ESPN was trying to keep soccer down then it wouldn't be on the show at all.
Well basically the only thing you hear on ESPN radio is NFL, NBA, College football/basketball (depending on the season) and sometimes baseball so your question really should be is there a anti-Soccer, Hockey, Cycling, Track, Lacrosse, Motorsports, Tennis, Wrestling, Karate, Sailing, Cricket and every other sport on the planet bias? And of course the answer is no. As always it's about money not some conspiracy to kill soccer.
This was on a Friday night that had college football plus the opening night for men's college basketball. The ESPN2 #'s for USA-VIN were also respectable going against MBB, despite the match also airing on UniMas/UDN and airing against Brazil-Argentina on beIN. .@UniMas ranked as the No. 1 network on Friday night among young Adults 18-34 pic.twitter.com/RQBMUHDG9R— TelevisaUnivision Public Relations (@TeleUniPRTeam) November 17, 2015 Mexico-El Salvador combined for 2.821 million viewers Friday on Unimás/Univision Deportes— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) November 16, 2015 Not every higher-up at ESPN, Fox, NBC, etc. might be pro-soccer, but I doubt they're stupid enough to pass up those kind of demo #s. Any sports network that wants to pretend soccer doesn't matter in 2015 will pay the price in the long run--that's why NBC, Fox and ESPN all have soccer rights locked down going into the 2020s. It would be nice if we had more soccer-savvy SportsCenter anchors who didn't treat doing soccer highlights like such a chore, but their treatment of the sport was MUCH worse 10-15 years ago.
From what I have picked up through the media I actually think a lot of them are pro-soccer. Purely anecdotal but Colin Cowherd said on his show that the only time he saw ESPN execs angry about being outbid was when they lost the W.C. to Fox.
John Skipper is a soccer guy (even if some of his ESPN employees might not feel the same way). Helps to have allies in high places, especially with the uncertain future of cable sports. ESPN locking up the Euros, Nations League and UEFA WC qualifiers through 2022 is a sign of encouragement, at a time where they've scaled back on all TV rights not tied to football, basketball or baseball.
The Baby Boomers and older generations are the biggest source of anti-soccer bias still left in American society. They are determined to sabotage and ultimately destroy any progress soccer can make here. America's sports media is a reflection of that deeply entrenched cultural mindset. Baby Boomers and older generations regard soccer as a sport for Communists, homosexuals, little kids and those who they do not deem "American" enough to be part of the US. They are also secretly jealous and afraid of soccer's worldwide popularity, so they will mock and put soccer down at every opportunity possible. There are, of course, Baby Boomers, who do not fit the above mindset, but their overall generation thinks this way.
Everyone here realizes that beIN is Al Jazeera Sport's European and American arm, right? Al Jazeera Sport is a massive organization with basically as much money as the Emir of Qatar wants to give it. Not too many people capable of outbidding a petro-state.
Most boomers I know are far more worried about how their IRAs are doing, how to pay for health care once they retire, and helping out with grandchildren than they are about whether or not soccer becomes more popular.
That's fine. You can decide not to believe me, but it's obvious by the way the sports media in America has treated soccer for decades. They have resorted to every tactic imaginable to discredit the sport.
So judging by that logic they should've won the rights to the World Cup. How did lowly Fox Sports get the rights? They weren't even capable of getting the Gold Cup let alone the World Cup.
I'm guessing outright graft, like practically everyone expects. That or FIFA actually thought about the potential advertising bonanza that beIN cannot provide because of their low household penetration. There is more than one factor, especially for something as important as the actual World Cup proper. Qualifiers are far, far less goldmin-ey w.r.t. advertising, which is painfully obvious.