TSN commentator Luke Wileman will be the lead commentator for HBO's coverage of US national team (men and women) matches on HBO Max, TNT, and TBS. The 8 year deal went into effect at the beginning of 2023, with the first match being a women's match next week against New Zealand. Veteran TSN broadcaster Luke Wileman will be the lead play-by-play voice for U.S. women’s and men’s national team games under the new deal with HBO Max and TNT, he announced Tuesday. Details on HBO's TV coverage: Under the new agreement, “high-profile matches” will air on TNT or TBS and more than 20 matches in total (approximately half of which will also be on TV) will live stream on HBO Max each year. Bleacher Report, owned by Turner, has digital and highlight rights. Both Turner and HBO are under the Warner Media umbrella. The World Cup is not included in the U.S. media rights package. Those rights are held by Fox Sports for the 2023 women’s and 2026 men’s World Cups. Turner has the rights to U.S. Soccer properties, which include men’s and women’s national team friendlies, the SheBelieves Cup and U.S. men’s and women’s national team World Cup qualifiers. https://theathletic.com/4077203/2023/01/10/luke-wileman-us-soccer-hbo-max-tnt/
Not super excited about this. Is there a silver lining that I’m not seeing? To watch the major European leagues, Champions League, MLS, and USMNT it requires like 5 different subscriptions.
Fox doesn't have a streaming service, but US fans still require both Fox as well as cable for FS1/FS2. So now a US fan needs an antenna (at minimum), cable (for TNT, TBS, FS1, and FS2) and HBO Max. But the problem is that I don't think the Gold Cup, Nations League, or a theoretical Copa Americas will be covered by the HBO or Fox deals. If these TV rights start going somewhere other than HBO or Fox, then this will start getting really annoying for US fans.
USSF still hasn't put any broadcast info on the website schedule to let us know which ones are streaming exclusive and which are on TBS/TNT. The January games aren't "high profile" so I'm guessing HBO Max only for those. Also there was supposed to be a Spanish media deal but nothing has been said about that.
Nations League is CBS/Paramount+, though through last year the US group stage matches were carved out for the ESPN/Fox deal, so maybe the March matches will be on the Turner deal. The final stage should be on CBS platforms just like 2021. Gold Cup is on Fox.
Wileman is annoying. We’ve had to listen to him for at least 10 years in Canada. I see Americans TV execs are also prone to “give the job to an English accent guy bias” too.
I actually like the hire. Wileman definitely wasn’t the name I was expecting, but I enjoy his calls on the TSN MLS games I watch on ESPN+. I figured he was so ingrained with Canadian sports that he wouldn’t work south of the 49th parallel.
Bob Williams of Sports Business is reporting that HBO has hired a pundit team of Kyle Martino, Julie Foudy, DaMarcus Beasley, and Shannon Boxx. Additionally, they've hired Melissa Ortiz as a sideline reporter and Sara Walsh as a studio presenter. The big news here is the return of Kyle Martino, who received high marks for his work as a pundit on NBC for the Premier League. My only question is who will be joining Wileman in the commentary booth. https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/...t-year-domestic-rights-deal-with-warnermedia/
fyi rumor is USMNT january games will be on HBO Max (serbia) and TNT (colombia). fwiw i get HBO Max as part of my cable as i already do HBO. so while i think it's uncool to stick this behind a paywall -- not a fan of stream-only games which is about to be 90% of the MLS apple broadcast concept which seems to be a test of if anyone cares, which is particularly awkward if you're a houston dynamo fan who is barely willing to still watch much less pay for the privilege -- some people might have hidden access. i think the lead up to a home world cup is an idiotic time to put this behind a paywall, and am not a fan of that in general. i remember when you used to have to watch some games in spanish or some WCQ was PPV. some people's idea of progress is IMO regression. to me you want this on broadly available stations available to as many fans as possible on nothing more than basic cable, and where casual fans can follow or trip over. i don't think you can pay me enough money to hide my team and reduce its actual exposure and see that as contrary to USSF's mission. the mission is to promote the sport not make a buck. it's also a waste of an opportunity to narrowcast the team in the buildup to the world cup. there won't be any WCQ so asking about those rights is silly for 4 years. we will have 3-4 tournaments -- 2 GC, NL if we make it, and maybe copa america. we have a couple NL group games left. beyond that it's open. i would suggest putting together some ad hoc tournaments as we used to in the 1990s. i would suggest getting on FIFA to bring back confed cup. they will have plenty of friendlies but i would try to put some structure back in and some games that count somehow.
personally i think we're pawns for stupid internecine media warfare that's not concerned what's standing at the end. people keep speaking of the death of antenna TV but they are being deliberately starved of content shifted to cable and streaming. in theory yellowstone could be on CBS, so to speak. i have recently heard talk of cable in decline with streaming supposedly ascendant, which advocates use to promote these kind of deals. but i thought cable was making the money and understood streaming for many fora is a loss leader that was propped up by borrowed money which is no longer cheap in the inflation era. i know the creative destruction sorts want the new to end the old but those sorts i don't know if they care if they wipe each other out having gone for each others' achilles. cable was starving network but now we're going to have streaming starve cable even though streaming in some forms loses money. personally i think with inflation and shaky streaming economics this is not the brightest time to be pushing further out that way. they might be offering cash to join up with content but it's expensive borrowed money trying to encourage people to adopt while losing money for the time being. meanwhile the people who might have been cutting cords before may be cutting expenses now. HBO/turner have been cutting way back on content to save a buck. i would not assume that is the financially sound place to land, ie, the place ending all manner of programs and killing off some of the movies on the shelf about to come out. at minimum i would have waited until after the next home world cup to get cute. now is when you want to be on ESPN or Fox. obvious, out in the open, build the bandwagon, basic cable everyone can find or trip over. save cute for 2027 and see what media form is financially stable at that point. right now streaming and even some cable feels like the internet c. 2000 before enron and the tech bubble. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hbo-lost-3-billion-dollars-in-2021/1100-6509195/
This is the initial deal reported by the Athletic: Under the new agreement, “high-profile matches” will air on TNT or TBS and more than 20 matches in total (approximately half of which will also be on TV) will live stream on HBO Max each year. Bleacher Report, owned by Turner, has digital and highlight rights. Both Turner and HBO are under the Warner Media umbrella. 20 matches are split between the men and women, but the phrasing is vague. My guess is that US Soccer and HBO are leaving room for interpretation, likely because of the differences in tournaments and TV rights for both teams every year. The math suggests to me that we're going to be seeing a lot of US friendly matches in 2023 on HBO and TNT/TBS. As mentioned above, the Gold Cup is apparently on Fox. Nations League in June 2022 had one match on ESPN and the other on FS1, so I'm not sure how that will go. Outside of the Gold Cup and Nations League, the US has 2 matches in January, probably 2 matches in June, 2 matches in September, 2 matches in October, and 2 matches in November... which adds up to 10 matches. So US fans may need more consistent access to HBO Max later in the year.
well, now i have a possibly stupid question- are you saving yourself from typing max over and over or are you saying matches will air on hbo hbo (cable /tv)? does hbo max give you access to that? and does tnt/tbs have a premium streaming platform (yet)? my understanding was i still have directv so pending how available, er, "alternative" streams are hbo max is the only added expense/service needed (replacing paramount+ and bein before it) to be able to see all matches. cause im for sure not paying for apple tv and the mls package on top of that, so im curious if we are at the point us soccer is intentionally pushing lifelong supporters out of the game?
Good timing. HBO Max just raised their rates. New #HBOMax pricing announced...here's how it stacks up against other subscription streamers https://t.co/P8z295cJxe pic.twitter.com/G6p1d5VYE0— Andrew Wallenstein (@awallenstein) January 12, 2023
The lunacy of US soccer 'leadership' rolls on. I am done with any more subscription services. I'll do their 'free one week trial' when that game happens.
HBO Max was arguably the best deal in streaming until mid-2022. It's only rival in the amount of content on the service was Netflix. But then new ownership (Discovery) took over Warner, and the new ownership has started removing properties that Warner/Discovery already own from HBO Max left and right. The long-term plan seems to be producing new content that is basically reality/Discovery TV garbage, and perhaps maybe buying and showing alternative content like sports. It will be interesting to see the US national teams tied to this service! It's HBO Max, with some matches on Cable TV instead (TNT or TBS). The reporting for the initial deal that I've quoted earlier in this thread suggests that HBO Max would air all matches, even the ones that are also on Cable TV, but I think Tannenwald's reporting this week indicates that they are going to be split. So US matches will be on either HBO Max or Cable TV, not both at the same time.
Was just about to post that. Telemundo/Universo/Telemundo Deportes App/Peacock is much better than what Turner is doing.
Sweet. Thanks. Not a Spanish speaker but enjoy the occasional game in Espanol (Cantor is a bonus too). Plenty of options now.
Wileman and Foudy are providing match commentary for the US Women's match tonight, while Walsh, Boxx, and Beasley are providing the studio coverage. The halftime coverage seemed much more extensive than Fox. After discussing the match itself, they switched to discuss the Men's team for a bit in the context of the recent 2022 US Soccer player awards. That aspect of HBO Max's coverage could be promising in that they seem to be aiming for a general balance in focusing on both teams. The above suggests to me that Wileman and Martino will be the commentary team for Men's matches.