They announced that IN ADDITION to the games they will already show on UniMas this year (formerly Telefutura) they have just inked a contract to broadcast 23 more MLS games that they will show exclusively on Univision Deportes Network. This is significant considering a few years ago the league barely got anyone on spanish tv interested in MLS. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/univision-deportes-adds-23-mls-151435630--mls.html Diego Balado is Boss!!
Which is all well and good, but if I can't actually watch my team's games, I don't care how much revenue the league is bringing in.
In the MLSsoccer article it says that this deal has no effect on MLS Live matches. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...deportes-adds-23-mls-games-broadcast-schedule So that's good.
The UDN matches will still be offered by local broadcast partners and to DK/MLSLive subscribes. UDN is available in HD on DishNetwork (and via other providers, it would seem).
Excellent idea! We also shouldn't have them tied down to one city or region IMO. They can be <team name> America! or USA! That way they'll be all inclusive!
The only thing that bugs me about watching games on Univision/UniMas is that they take about Mexican soccer and the Mexican League any chance they get. I'm almost certain the Mexican commentator don't talk about our league..
This is actually no different than FSC's obsession with the EPL back when they still had the rights to show MLS games. But to be fair when the MLS games are shown on tv the commentators do not as a matter of habit discuss what is going on in Liga MX--they keep it pretty professional. Of course there may be a Liga MX update at halftime.
Contrary to whose beliefs? What rights are you referring to? U.S. broadcasters use the public airwaves to transmit all kinds of things. Whoever said that broadcasting is supposed to benefit a U.S. organization like MLS? This whole post is very strange.
Yeah, contrary to the belief of generation z, broadcasters using the public airwaves are only required to broadcast in the public benefit a few hours a week, like 5% of the time. Usually, this means either children's or religious programming on Saturday or Sunday morning. Other than that, they can get away with just about whatever they want, as long as it doesn't violate whatever our decency laws are at that juncture in time. (There does seem to be some unspoken rule about airing a foreign-based scripted program [as in, not sports] in big four network prime time, which is why Downton Abbey falls to PBS, but I don't think there's any actual law about it AFAIK.)
I got introduced to MLS by free public Spanish TV over an antenna. It was 1996 and I had no cable or Internet. The Sunday afternoon games on Univision with Cantor/Longo was my only access to MLS. Sure the production was weak but the service they provided was invaluable to me Even today there are tons of people that only watch Spanish TV. Lots of them are soccer fans. MLS will never reach them through NBC or ESPN.
This has absolutely nothing to do with anything--but, since the thread has taken a weird turn, might as well post something funny. Practice scoring a goal while you pee......
Not true - I remember they had Guille Barros Schelotto call several Mexican League games last season. They would speak about his time in MLS and recognized him as a former MVP of the league on several occasions.
1. Not true, the first 8 million per year deal MLS had was with Univision 2. Before Univision proper used to show MLS games, but little by little Univision has moved away from showing soccer on its main channel and moved them to Telefutura/Unimas/Galavision/UDN 3. So Spanish language fans have always been important to MLS, if you look at the ratings for Spanish TV you will see a big drop because Univision dropped MLS from Telefutura to Galavision, moving MLS back to Unimas was a big step up this year. https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/mls-2013-tv-ratings.1980451/#post-26988856 Compare 2007 Spanish ratings to last year Galavision ratings. MLS being back on Unimas (Former Telefutura) is very good. Funny because many fans of Liga MX get upset that Univision pimps MLS games they will be showing during their broadcast of Liga MX games.