is the deal with fsw a time buy?

I'm thinking its going to be an even swap plus the weekly show. But what do I know. Maybe we'll find out Tues.

 

Fox Sports World pay. That's rich.

Partner maybe. Pay, I doubt it. But that's what Tuesday is for.

 

How does everything else work on FSW? Obviously, none of the euro soccer would be a time buy, but what about the A-league, Open Cup, and MISL? Do you think that they all pay FSW much money to be on the air? There should be very little cost associated with this. Getting onto FSW while staying on ESPN2 would seem to be one of the league's better moves. The only downside would be if people skipped the shootout because of FSW, but I doubt if you'd see a lot of that. If we can build up a better following due to increased exposure, or have some success on FSW, we should be in at least a slightly better bargaining position when our contract with disney needs to be renewed.

 

Is Fox Sports World aired only in the USA or is it available in other countries as well?

 

well, there is fox sports world canada, fox sports world, and fox sports espanol (might be world espanol)


so...

 

I understand that a-league team owners paid something like $15,000 dollars a match to have their team on the TV. FSW will be picking up the tab for the playoff and championship matches.

Mikey

 

The Open Cup is allegedly a $1 rights fee in order for the exposure. My guess would be that they split everything.

The USL is a partnership where FSW carries something produced by Sportsio. Their involvement, from everything I have read on the deal, is little more than the place where it is shown. The league and Sportsio have the financial stake.

No idea about the MISL.

If you get the Emerald City Gazette - and you should if you don't - there is a great interview by (this pains me to say it ) Dan Loney with an FSW exec. I can sum up my impression of his comments on American soccer this way:

If they come to us and make it easy for us, we'll do it. But we're not big enough to go out and make any significant financial commitment.

As for anyone abandoning the Shootout because FSW will show a bunch of games that will already be available on the Shootout, I have some land to sell those people.

The FSW deal is a way to get 12 million or so people who might not see a whole lot of MLS a chance to see week-in, week-out play. I look for two things to come out of this whole deal:

1. The use of the word "partnership" a lot. A lot.

2. Relentless hawking of the Shootout within those games and the highlight show.

The deal is a good thing, don't get me wrong. But FSW could have had the whole kit and caboodle last year when the rights were up. Now, they seem to try and be catching up and getting whatever seat at the table they can without a lot of financial risk. And MLS, with a growing marketing and broadcast arm, is more than happy to make a deal.

 

Moving this to the FSW forum. Should have in the first place, but I had a brain fart.

 

No, Mike, we're stupidfaces.

Get it right.

Oh, and it looks like MLS and FSW are holding a press conference together on Tuesday. So make of that what you will.

 

It's Tuesday.

 

I'll take things we don't need press conferences to announce for $200, Alex.

 

Thanks, Monster, for mentioning the ECG interview with FSW exec Sternberg. It provides excellent background on the network.

I wonder how much of a shot FSW would have had at "the whole kit and caboodle" last year had they realy tried to get the MLS TV deal. As we all know, FSW -- good as it is -- is a minnow compared to ESPN/Disney. If MLS wants to have major market access, it won't get it on FSW.

But, as a complement to the ESPN deal, I think that FSW works (or could work, we'll learn more tomorrow) awfully well. Better than, say Univision or Telemundo.

Why?

- FSW (and, to an extent, FSE) is soccer-focused (unlike Univision & Telemundo, which show soccer, but are primarily full-service Spanish language networks that show mostly non-sports programming) and it's growing. For many of us on BS (i.e., the hard-core MLS fan base), FSW is a destination channel. I'm an adict. While ESPN might be in 90 million households, the great majority of those are not soccer fan households. I get the feeling (with nothing really to back myself up) that soccer fans seek out FSW and will switch to a service that carries it if given a choice. Most people get the ESPN networks by default, whether they're interested in sports or not.

So I guess what I'm hypothesizing about (again, with no empirical evidence) is whether or not a much higher percentage of FSW/FSE's smallish base of subscribers are soccer fans vs. the smaller percentage of ESPN subscribers who are even sports fans much less soccer followers (again, since ESPN is almost automatically carried on all local cable and sat basic deals, while FSW/FSE often requires upgrading to a more focused programming package).

- FSW/FSE gives MLS the possibility of getting back into the Spanish language broadcast market. IF tomorrow's deal includes simulcasting of MLS matches on both networks (the kind of thing that Sternberg said they don't do much of). As I recall, MLS ratings on Univision and Telemundo were always pretty solid. It was just the timeslot issue that kept the league from continuing to show matches on those networks. One wonders how MLS matches on FSE might draw versus the network's other programming.

- That weekly highlights show is a biggie for me, too. I've read various stories about how it'll be 30 minutes or an hour. Whatever. As long as it runs the whole season INCLUDING playoffs.

 

i doubt that too.

FSW will apparently broadcast one game a week that the FSR's don't pick up.

Shootout (depending on what your carrier is), sounds like it could be 4-5 or maybe more games a week (wednesday, sundays..).