Shouldn't FSC pick up the slack here? It shows a fair amount of friendlies...are the rights that expensive for the Gold Cup? By the way, WUTF-66 here in Boston. It's channel 50 on Comcast's digital cable package.
Slack? They could've always outbid Univision for the rights to the competition. And if Univision doesn't want to sell the rights to the games to FSC, there's nothing FSC can do. Frankly, I can see Univision using this to get a number of soccer fans to call their cable/satellite provider and demand that TeleFutura be added to the lineup.
By slack, I mean English language broadcasts. I expect all top tier US games are on ESPN. I would expect second tier stuff like the Gold Cup to be on FSC.
Yeah- I recently switched from Dish to Directv and I never saw telefutura available... boy this sucks. It definitely is not part of the local channels for Pittsburgh either.
The final will. The Semi-final that the US is most likely to be in will be on TF. Same with the Quarters.
I believe that Telefutura is affiliated with Univision. If you can see the WYC or Confed Cup in Espanol then you can see the Gold Cup. I am watching them on Direct TV. In LA it is channel 46 and 402 & 404.
Regarding the TV rights to the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the relationship to SUM (Soccer United Marketing) - also the relationships between Univision/Telefutura and FSC regarding rights to WYC and FIFA Confederations Cup: The first thing to remember is that the relationships are all complicated, and that everyone is only out for themselves, no one - repeat no one - is involved in this primarily for the benefit of the fans! For the CONCACAF Gold Cup (Copa D'Oro): The rights for this tournament are owned by CONCACAF (read Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer). In the jargon of TV sports this "property" has historically had little value except when the Mexican national team plays for the championship (91,255 in the L.A. Coliseum for Mexico/USA final in 1998, 6,197 in the L.A. Coliseum for the Canada/Colombia final in 2000). Therefore, there had historically been little interest in the Gold Cup among "traditional" sports marketers. As a result CONCACAF used Inter-Forever Sports to market the tournament. Inter-Forever was a terrible promoter (I remember well the anguished cries of the boards after the 1998 final!). However badly they may have run the venues, Inter-Forever did sell the TV rights to Univision for a number of years (I think the contract they sold in the 1990's goes through 2007?), and they sold the rights in all languages to Univision. Since then, Univision has launched TeleFutura as a second Spanish language over the air network (to better tie up the Hispanic TV market versus Telemundo), and as an addition to the Cable only Galavision. It's very clear that they are relegating the USA Gold Cup matches to Telefutura in an attempt to gain ratings for TeleFutura. Since Univision owns the rights in all languages, Fox Soccer Channel (or GolTV or ESPN) would have to buy the English rights from Univision. Univision sees no benefit in selling the rights to such entities, as they would only detract from the ratings that would otherwise go to Telefutura which is of course their goal in putting the games on TeleFutura in the first place. Soccer United Marketing (SUM) is not involved in the TV rights for the Gold Cup. They only took over the venue operations and marketing from Inter-Forever (I think Inter-Forever went Chapter 11, but I don't remember for certain). So SUM only benefits from the ticket sales and in-stadium signage, not from the TV. You can't blame SUM for not getting the Gold Cup on English TV (or on an a more readily available Spanish TV network). FIFA World Youth Championships and FIFA Confederations Cup: The TV rights for these "properties" are owned by FIFA. While FIFA sold the rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and the 2003 Women's World Cup to SUM (who then bartered them to ESPN for continued carriage of MLS by ESPN2), rights to the WYC and the Confederations Cup were not part of the deal. Univision bought the U.S. Spanish TV rights to those properties from FIFA, but not the English rights. FSC bought the English rights separately. That's why the tournaments have been on both channels. However, since Univision owns all language rights for the Gold Cup and they have no incentive to sell them, don't expect the Copa d'Oro on Englilsh TV (and don't blame SUM, they don't control it). George
Bingo. One thing to look out for, though, is that it is possible that local Univision affiliates in markets that don't have TeleFutura stations may carry certain games - likely as delayed broadcasts. I have DirecTV with Raleigh-Durham locals. I get the East and West coast Univision national feeds, the East Galavision national feed, and local WKFT-40 Univision affiliate. While I don't get TeleFutura, and I've heard of no such plans, I wouldn't be shocked if WKFT-40 picks up the USA games. I guess I should make a phone call!
While I do speak & understand Spanish (thanks to being Colombian) & I do prefer the spanish announcers sometimes (because of their passion), I can't figure out why ESPN & ESPN2 insist on not televising these kinds of tournaments??! They claim to be THE soccer network for US soccer, at least when it comes to WCQ. What about the Gold Cup, fellas??! I HOPE that Fox Soccer Channel takes the "bull by the horns" & decides to air the USMNT games!! ANY chance of that happening?? If not, I'll stick with Telefutura, begrudgingly!! ANY coverage is better than none!!
If Univision won't sell the rights, what are ESPN/ESPN2 and FSC supposed to do? If the contract is up after 2007 then they can bid but right now they have no options really.
I posted before I had all the details & now know that it all lies in Univision's hands, at least until 2007. It sucks but I'll be tuning in to Telefutura & just hope that WHEN we score, their passion is as high as when the freakin' mexies score.
One final point on English language TV for the Gold Cup: While Univision owns the English rights, and they're not likely to relinquish the rights to FSC (or any other entity), they might be prepared to relinquish the English rights for delayed broadcasts - they've done this before. The problem is that we won't know about any such arrangement (which is now only hypothetical) until after the live Spanish broadcast on TeleFutura is complete. That's because they don't want to detract from the live ratings (people might not watch live - in Spanish - if they know that it will be available in English three days later). So this is another thing to be on the watch for. George
If you know a modest amount of Spanish, or can fake it, the link to see if your area has Telefutura is here: http://www.univision.com/rdt.dyn?trt=17&et=40&requrl=http://gettf.cablesource.net Also, if my very poor Spanish is accurate, there's an automatic note at the end of the process that Telefutura will send to lobby your local cable operator to add the channel, if they don't already have it. And finally, for those in Minneapolis with TWCable, we don't get it. Guess there aren't enough Spanish speakers in this neck of the woods to justify the added cost to TWC.
George, Appreciate the insight, but these two sentences left me scratching my head... Ratings? For US Soccer? C'mon, really? Surely you jest. Does it make that big of a difference to go from a 0.2 rating to a 0.1? (Yeah, I know, 50% decrease, but still). Even if all 500 of us here on BS called our cable/sat operator it wouldn't make a difference.
Thanks so much for the clarification, George. What seems a bit odd to me is that not only are Jack Warner/CONCACAF only out for themselves but they also fail to take the long view about what is in CONCACAF's long term best interests. While, it would seem, allowing Univision to have exclusive English and Spanish rights to the broadcast so that they can up their pet networks ratings likely brings in a few more bucks, I wonder how that compares to bringing a broader audience (especially in the semis and finals) by having them available for an English based broadcast such as ESPN or FSC. Even if you give the English rights away, this may still be a more profitable long term answer as it develops viewership and interest in the sport.