FOX Sports renews U.S. video rights to UEFA Champions League through May 2015

Good News. Fox does a nice job of airing the Champions League.

 

Yes, good news indeed. Much rather the games be on Fox than ESPN

 

Hopefully by the time this kicks in CSN Philadelphia will start to be able to air the games, seeing only half of the United games sucked, but seeing none of them would be even worse.

 

Love addding FSN in the mix for Wednesdays. Interesting about dumping FSN for FX for the semifinal tho. How would that work? there is only one semi per day. Would FX only show semis on Tuesdays? Does this mean more sports on FX? Does FX become more like TNT? Will any other FSN/Fox Sports properties be moved to FX?

Looking at FX's lineup for the next few weeks it seems a lot less robust than it did 5 years ago - the last time I looked at it. Lotsa infomercials and Two and a Half Men reruns.

 

This is my favorite part:

It seems to me that FOX really wants to build up it's sports section and become what NBC was in it's prime. A good move by FOX if they do bid and win!

 

Yes, when the world cup is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars they are worried about the nickel and dime MLS. It's one of those costs they will just eat, it's not that big of a deal.

 

huhe,

Does this mean that FOX Sports will continue to sublicense EPL matches to ESPN through 2015?

 

Does that mean FOX will have to broadcast MLS games or would they just air games on FSC? That wouldn't be a very ideal deal for MLS, in my opinion.

 

I'm confused.

Not that long ago you claimed to know that Fox wasn't going to bid or pay to be a tv partner with MLS/SUM beyond 2010.

Now you claim to know that they will, and you claim to know the minimum (or maximum) price as to what their annual deal with MLS will be worth in 2011 (and for the duration of their potential next deal with MLS/SUM).

How do you get your information and/or opinions?

from where does this "$2 million per year" figure you're throwing out there come?

 

I see some of the points you're trying to make, but your timelines are a bit out of whack and/or misaligned.

you weren't "skeptical" just a few weeks/months ago. you were downright certain FSI had no interest in MLS beyond 2010.

exactly. and there's no (established/known) link to FSI's potential interest in World Cup rights (for 2015-2022) and FSI's possible interest (or no interest) in renewing with MLS/SUM in 2011 and beyond.

FIFA doesn't set a "ticket" price for domestic league coverage.

FIFA (in Nov 2005) went with Disney/Univision for FIFA broadcast rights from 2007-2014 because they knew/suspected that Disney/Univision would be willing (or kinda forced via backroom dealings/agreements) to become paying tv partners with SUM/MLS.

FSI's contract with MLS for 2007-2010 had very little (if anything) to do with the FIFA rights deals for 2007-2014. Was FSI ever a serious bidder for the 2007-2014 FIFA broadcast rights in the US? (I thought NBC and Disney/Universal were the only serious/able bidders. Maybe I have the incorrect.)

Or FSI's potential ongoing business relationship with MLS/SUM will not be an indication of anything FIFA-related. it could just be FSI wanting to have FSC be "America's Soccer Channel" and a channel that presents the top domestic league here.

but yes, there is the angle that FSI will maintain their paying relationship with SUM/MLS in order to be seen as good stewards of the sport here and potentially looked favorably upon by FIFA whenever they get around to selling their next cycle(s) of FIFA broadcast rights in this market.

to me, there's no clear indication for 2011 MLS that it is either/or with FSI or Comcast. is there anything stopping MLS from having partnerships with both FSI and Comcast?

can't Comcast fill the "void" left by HDnet, and SUM can return to having 4 "national" broadcast partners for MLS?

and at that time in 2005 Disney and Univision hadn't paid anything to MLS either. MLS was doing time-buys and programing swaps. your alignment of history on this is a bit off.

it wasn't until after winning the FIFA rights (once Blazer had the ExCo pull the FIFA rug out from under NBCU) for 2007-2014 that Disney and Univision each committed to being paying broadcast partners (and producers) for MLS/SUM content (also for 2007-2014).

again, I can see the relationship triangle between each of Disney and Univision with FIFA and MLS/SUM (and the matching broadcast contract durations), but I do not know how FSI would/could potentially fit into any complex triangle of business/broadcast partnerships with FIFA and MLS/SUM.

I just see FSI doing what they'll always decide to do with MLS and that decision being relatively independent of their concerns about or plans for bidding on future FIFA rights.

So your "$2 million" figure seems not all that relevant or useful, imo.

 

according to this link:
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.preview&articleid=67602

it was $3 million/year. (not that I have any way of determining if the 2 or 3 million figure is the accurate and true figure.)

there could be a lot of inaccuracies in that article (and I admit I've only seen the brief preview of the article), and I'd be hesitant to fully believe those apparent "several sources" as I have a difficult time believing much of anything that is said "publicly" during this type of current private business negotiation period.

 

What happened in this year's CL final was a shame because, even though Bayern Munich and Internazionale are venerable names in the sport, in the States they don't have much name recognition. Even a Benfica in the final is not a sure ratings-winner because while they'd attract a lot of people of Portuguese background they're associated with a league that most Anglos don't care about. It would have to be a combo of either ManU/Arsenal/Liverpool with either AC Milan/Barça/Real Madrid/maybe Roma/maybe Celtic/possibly Juventus for it to start registering with casual viewers. FOX's plan probably was to immediately attract the general soccer nut but not enough of them tuned in.

Now that they've extended their rights they should start a massive education campaign about the CL and why it matters. Maybe around the semi-final round do a background story on the players involved, how they go there, etc.. Make a 30-second ad feat. several top players. An ad line would go like this, "Some of these players will be in the final. Find out who will make the final cut. Only on Fox, FX and Fox Soccer Channel." Market it like they would American Idol. Then show strategic ads featuring some of these same players celebrating advancing to the final and others dejected after losing, along the way showing clips of great plays. You gotta "turn the game" into a sort-of reality show because you have to convince people to care about these strangers, who may not show up on broadcast television for a long time after.

 

You said it's a shame that Inter Milan doesn't have much name recognition but then you named three other Serie A teams that would've registered with the casual viewer. Do you think AC Milan, Roma and Juventus are more popular than Roma in the US? I think Inter is just as big those three...maybe even bigger.

 

Where is that list from?

 

It's fairly close to a mirror of FSC and ESPN's channel assignments/priority for games. The ratings seem to bare it out, given what ESPN and FSC let slip about ratings from time-to-time.

 

Not sure how he adjusted for "in the U.S. market", but the basic list, which is somewhat different, can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte_Football_Money_League

 

The computer in his mom's basement.