Fox Sports World will promote MLS

awesome, awesome, awesome!!!

great timing as I'm scheduled to have FSW hooked up Saturday! WOOOOHOOOO!!!

a whole new world will open up to me...my wife is not that excited for some reason.

 

Nothing but good will come of this.

Even the mere notion that MLS has a 2nd TV contract will get noticed.

 

really sherlock!

 

Have you checked out the schedule? Lots of appearances by DC and Columbus, including a lot of home games.

No games in Dallas.

 

They show Donovan on the FSW web site but there's only one regular season San Jose game being shown.

Any idea why?

(not that I'm being picky, this is great news regardless of which teams will be shown more than others)

 

Because it's Landon Donovan!!! Do you need more of a reason???

 

Exactly, Donovan sells MLS. So why not have more than 1 San Jose game on. I mean, come on, DC gets 10!!??

 

http://foxsportsworld.lycos.com/content/view?contentId=1021278

"The new agreement means that ALL PLAYOFF GAMES will be televised in the United States. Also, Fox Sports World will air a Saturday highlights package, an alternative for fans and league officials who have been long frustrated in their campaign to get more MLS coverage on ESPN's SportsCenter"

 

The scheduling of games by Fox Sports probably has two dependent factors that limits the ability to broadcast any one team.

1. Pre-existing contract between MLS and ABC/ESPN. First pick of games went to ABC/ESPN and hence some of the more choice games are already taken.

2. Probably more important, I don't think every team has a TV contract for home games and I think San Jose is one of them.

Some consideration may be given to ratings; but I too would like to see San Jose more often this season. Unfortunately there is an opportunity for only about a half dozen games outside the Shootout package. Oh well. Besides, theres always Kansas City (10 games on Fox alone).

 

I think it has more to do with FSW just piggybacking the feed from the local Fox Sports affiliate.

If a team isn't using a Fox Sports affiliate, then there is a less likely chance of their games being covered.

DC games are on Comcast Sports Net, aka a regional Fox Sports channel.

All FSW is going to do is show the local feed on a nationwide channel. Use the same announcers, same video feed. Just have 1 on the field reporter to do the lead ins/outs to different commercials.

Did people REALLY think FSW was going to set up cameras and bring a crew to the stadium to broadcas the games?

Fox Sports was already a part of the games they were showing, now all they are doing is not showing a rerun of a 6 month old Rugby match on Saturday night, instead showing live football that one of their affiliates was showing.

I'm not complaining, people just need to put it in perspective. FSW isn't laying out any capital to put this on.

 

They need to show United in regular season because they won't be able to in the playoff.

 

My favorite part of that is they highligted the "United" in "United States," with a link to Fox's DC United page. Kind of funny.

 

Interesting about the playoffs.

FSW says it will televise at least 8 Playoff games.

There are 10 total playoff matches, period.

So is ESPN2 going to pick up one or two, then?

 

Actually they are hiring their own announcers to call the game from the FSW studios (Which, to me, means it will be worse than the team's announcers on site). But otherwise you're right.

 

Bigsoccer.com: Where Good News Can Never Just Be Good News.

Put this into perspective Chayes:
-The number one soccer channel in America will now be broadcasting at least 25 regular season games a year and eight playoff games.
-MLS will now (once again after a two year wait) have a one hour highlight program so that fans across the country who may not get to see their favorite team in a full 90 minute game can at least see their team's highlights.
-MLS will now be seen on the various Fox Sports International channels, which could possibly see the international interest increase (even if only by 1%, it cannot hurt at all).
-MLS will be treated like a prized asset and not something taking up two hours of "quality" baseball highlight time every Saturday on ESPN2.
-Even if you cannot afford (or cable company will not carry) the Shootout package, you still can see two MLS games, almost all live, every Saturday from April 12th until the season is over.
-No Ty Keough. No Rob Stone.
-This is a four year deal, which shows a very good commitment on the part of FSI.

This is a fabulous annoucement any way you look at it. Who gives a flying fart if it's only regional broadcasts being picked up. Many of the regional teams are top notch and better then Stone & Keough on the Deuce. We fans will get to hear many different voices to MLS, and if one is annoying, you won't have to turn the volume off all the time because he won't be on the air every single week.

The only possible negative here is if Comcast boots FSW off of digital cable, but even then we Digies can get a dish.

So to hell with the Bigsoccer cynicism. Perspective is that this is a great deal for FSI, MLS, and the fans of soccer in America.

 

This is truly wonderful news!!!

 

Ok, I'll play your game.

And FSW is seen in how many households?

And FSW is seen in how many households?

Great, this produces how much revenue?

FSW is seen in how many households?

Yeah right, if you can't afford $49 for the shooutout, I seriously doubt you can afford the $20+ a month for Digital Cable plus the sports tier.

GREAT! Some guy sitting in a studio 3000 miles away watching it on TV just like me!

This worries me. Every MLS deal runs through 2006, and not past it. Kinda makes me worry about the long term stability of the league

Yep, perspective my friend. This "deal" doesn't expand MLS viewing one bit.

Anyone who has FSW has the ability to buy the shootout package, and probably does.

If anything, this deal will cause LESS Shootout packages to be sold, decreasing the chances that it is offered in the future!

 

Oh, yeah Baby

ITSSSSSSSS A SSSSSOCCER NIGHT IN AMERICA!

 

True, but FSW is using in-studio announcers and Christian Miles (you think Ty Keough is bad? Get a load of this guy) live at the matches..

So basically, FSW is paying for hotel and air fair for Miles and that is about it..

 

16 million.

We may never know.

Who cares? Does that take away from your enjoyment of watching the game? What % of teh audience will actually be aware of it anyhow?

Me too. a little. But deals like this actually make it more likely we live to see a 2007.

Wrong. Anyone? I know lots of folks (soem even who like soccer) with digital cable who get FSW and watch the occasional MLS game on ESPN2 but will NEVER buy the Shootout. Avid MLS fans may buy the shootout - what was the number tossed out recently, 10,000 subscribers nationwide?? 16 million who get FSW. Probably not is the answer I think.

Wrong again, I think. The NFL ticket is popular in large part due to a large portion of fans who buy it watch a particular team all season. In the past, many MLS shootout folks bought it to watch the entire league, but as the fan base matures we will buy it to follow a particular team, not just hope our team's games show up on ESPN or FSW. Especially as fans move around the country for jobs or whatever.

I'll wager anything you like that MLS sells more shootout packages in 2004 than 2003.

Hartbeat may again bleat out I am stating the obvious (I guess he wasn't counting on you, Chayes) but this deal is nothing but good for MLS. It exposes MLS to many hardcore soccer fans, many who don't give MLS the effort. Now it will be in their face as they chase glory with their Man U and Arsenal jerseys on. Some will start to follow the league after they see it.

 

Just because FSW is in 16 million households, doesn't mean 16 million people watch it.

MLS games on ESPN2, which has approx. 72 million subscribers averaged a .19 rating last year (according to http://www.kenn.com/soccer/mlstv.html)
This translated in to around 160,000 households.

Now, FSW gets around 20% of the subscribers as ESPN2, yielding roughly 40,000 viewers. (And this is probably high since most of those viewers will be AT MLS games on Saturday nights.)

Now the Shootout...

If you have FSW, you will be getting at least 2, sometimes 3 games a week (if you get a local game as well). If I can already get 3 out of 5 games there is not much incentive for the additional 2.

Having more games broadcast nationally decreases the need for a Shootout package.

Now, the Shootout may sell more this year, mainly due to Dish and DirecTV covering more games and Cable actually not missing the begining of the season.

Either way, the FSW package is a DISINCENTIVE to buy the Shootout.
In my by no means scientific survey, I already know of a couple of people who said they probably wouldn't buy it this year because they can already get 3 games a week.

So 1 out of every 4 FSW watcher is going to buy the Shootout as well?
I doubt it.

 

Chayes,



FSW is one of the ten most requested new cable channels out there. Yeah, only 20 million homes get it (according to ESPN.com article I read today) but how many got it three years ago? It's growing (like MLS). Just because ABC hasn't decided to devote a two hour primetime live slot we should be disappointed? And you can slot in any channel bigger then FSW for ABC if you wish, the message is the same. If MLS can contribute to FSW numbers growing, it will get noticed by people out there. Our league now has a channel that is happy to have them. Did the NASCAR people bitch when TNN bought rights even though at the time it was small beans?

Second, (and here's some perspective for you) one would have to be blind to think that if MLS continues to grow as it has over the last two seasons that The Big Three investors will pull the plug. Does anyone think Hunt would spend the time and effort into getting a stadium built in Dallas that opens in 2005 if he was going to pull out in 2006? Or St. Phil, who continues to look to build in Harrison and seems to be serious about getting D.C. a home relatively soon, would toss all this money out when they might not even open until after the league folds. With more SSS coming and much better leases in the cities (plus expansion which will not happen until 2005), the league is not that far off from becoming a money making venture (or, at the worst, a break even venture). 2006 shouldn't cause anyone a sleepless night.

This deal does expand MLS viewing. If FSW is in 20 million homes (not 16 million if ESPN.com is correct), that is 20 million homes that enjoy soccer and are more likely to watch it then ESPN2 audience. If only 40,000 (as you guess with what can best be described as dubious thinking) fans tune in to watch MLS, chances are good that some of them will be new viewers. Say 5,000 are new viewers. That 5,000 (however small in proportion) are still new MLS viewers and will become new MLS fans. That's a good thing.

As for the announcer situation: did it bother you that all but two of the announcers of last summer's World Cup were in studio? Did it hurt those broadcasts at all?

NFL fans can see three to four live games a week and still buy their package. MLB fans can see who knows how many live games a week (probably more then a dozen depending on your market) and still buy. Same goes for NBA and NHL. Two live national games a week (one on ESPN2 & one on FSW) is not a threat to the Shootout for the serious fan.

You are really reaching to find something bad here. Don't worry about 2006, worry about how a MLS fan sees bad in our league getting more coverage (and better support from that network