Of course I have no info on this and I know that no one else can know anything much for sure BUT I thought it might be a good idea to have a consolidated thread for TV info as this get closer it would be good to have one place to look for info. Along with that does anyone know if Galavision or Univision have coverage plans and if those plans any way hang on Mexico's qualifying situation. Given a choice I usually prefer the Mexican commentators as they are more competent in their call of the game although the lightening fast Spanish gives me a lot of trouble but I can get the gist. I KNOW the Men's WC was MUCH better on the Spanish channels. Maybe this should be a sticky?
Look for games on Galavision and TeleFutura. There is almost no chance for a game to show up on Univision for business reasons. The distaff Tri does NOT sell among the Mexican-American audience. Why not? Because they are not contenders.
From the conference call: http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=37339&itype=113&iCategoryID=0 From Don Garber (MLS commish):
it should be based on which one is more important, World Cup is international event and other sports are domestic's, so put the WC first and the others can be shown in tape delay, it's so simple.....don't they understand what the WORLD CUP is ? its huge, its involving other people in the World !, it much bigger than the preliminary season's games of football, baseball etc
okay, you do know that college football and the nfl pulls in more of a draw here in the united states on television, right? do you really think espn cares what the rest of the world thinks about womens soccer and the world cup when they are finding time to show these games? plus, i would have to think that besides china, the majority of the television viewers will be here in the united states...
Has there been any word of a World Cup 2Night show? If they do it might they do a Match Of The Day-style condensed commentary thing for games they don't show on the Mouse channels?
Go the taped delay early am route on espn2.... there's all the junk shows anyway... interesting in korea last year there were 3 or 4 channels showing every match over almost 24 /7... you needn't do them LIVE, here for the WWC, just tape delay them... do the USA matches live tough
TV rating during the '99 WC was huge, better than super bowl and NBA championship combined, its an experience they should've learned from, the WC should be a slam dunk coverages, its a must !, anyway there'll not be many football/baseball games missed its only three weeks tournament.
generally, at events like olympics or world cup, the host nation provides a live feed for everyone... the question is whether this LIVE feed will exist for this WORLD cup. Will ESPN, basically do the needed camera and other technical work, so anyone wishing to telecast a match has access to the pictures... sort oif like Andreas Cantor in either his univision/telemundo incarnations doing the matches from a studio... Canada is probably interested in Canada matches... Mexico in Mexicans China in Chinese... Germany in Germans... France in the French... etc... hence ESPN or some entity does the dirty work... and if that's the case, offer these matches on the early am hours, so we can tape them... Will some one deny this function won't be provide to our foreign friends??
It is based on what SELLS. WWC games NOT involving the US do NOT sell. They get ratings on ESPN2 in the US on the order of 0.0 (less than 50000 homes) to at most 0.2 (150000-200000 homes). The TV plan by AEG/SUM has always been to air 1st round games involving the US ONLY (the rest don't sell), then full coverage from the quarterfinal through the final. The contract between AEG/SUM and ESPN/ABC has NOT changed even though WWC 2003 will now be in the US. The final will be on ABC, the other 10 games on ESPN2 or ESPN.
"generally, at events like olympics or world cup, the host nation provides a live feed for everyone... the question is whether this LIVE feed will exist for this WORLD cup." You're right. But due to the timing of the possible games tape-delay, for domestic and international audiences, may indeed by the norm. Now for those outside of the US or the Western Hemisphere, that may indeed be better. 8:00 EST second game of a doubleheader for two European teams would be better for the next day at noon or whatever. We are not going to expect them to stay up too late like many people did last year for that other World Cup. So tape-delay may just be fine. Besides, we soccer nuts are going to tape it whenever it's on anyway. "Canada is probably interested in Canada matches... Mexico in Mexicans China in Chinese... Germany in Germans... France in the French... etc" Well, with the exception of Mexico(Couldn't some people with satellites get ESPN or ESPN2? The whole trick-with-the-address thing) these countries will probably show at least the games with their national teams. Telefutura will have the final though so it is available to a Hispanic audience in Spanish. I assume more in China. DSF in Germany showed the FNT matches earlier this season and they may have shown other National team matches. Could be another channel. Not sure for now. Canada, of course, has had the national team games on and the WUSA and many people have access to ESPN or ESPN2. Anyway, if the mouse and elephant shall meet, it will be widely anticipated from Port Hardy to Pouch Cove. In France, last year's second leg match between England and France, 23,680 attended, was broadcasted live on Canal+ and I'm sure the French matches will be on coming this fall. Even countries like Denmark may show matches. Fortune Hjørring's run in the UEFA Women's Cup has been televised(Semis and finals) as well as the second leg against France in the World Cup Playoffs. And Norway has been showing matches as well. National team matches and a couple of club matches too. So that feed, whether live or not, will be important.
Anyone who thinks that a "preliminary" season's games of the NFL or baseball aren't more important to the general American sporting public and especially to the networks than the Women's World Cup hasn't been paying attention. Like they'll conceivably pre-empt NFL or college football games to put on women's soccer? Get real.
Only the WWC 1999 FINAL got a huge rating (11). The semifinal involving the US did well (4), but the semifinal NOT involving the US did poorly (0.2). Many first-round games not involving the US got an 0.0 rating (less than 40000 homes). Other than games involving the US, WWC games do NOT get any ratings that would interest sponsors.
so, cover the games that involving US live and the other on tape delays, this will be a good solution, by the way most of Men WC games shown live with or w/out US involvement, is that because the men WC gets better viewers than women's ?
the reasons why they should pre-empt other sport for soccer : 1- soccer is in a fast pace growing right now in US 2- it's the world most watched sport 3- more attractive than other sports 4- its only happens every 4 years 5- generates a lot of money on TV coverage contract from many countries 6-its an international level event that involving national pride. 7- we need fans support to defend the championship. 8-.....let see, well because i like this sport eventhough i like base ball and nfl as well.
The USA matches LIVE and the proposed TAPE DELAY in off peak hours....early AM on espn2 or other abc/espn/espn2/ related channel would make these matches available to those who have an interest... VCR alert and you can tape them.... the koreans kept doing reruns through the middle of the night, so when I came dragging in at 2 am, I could watch a replay of USA-Portugal.....
And it still costs money. Providing people who care about Mexico/Ghana with the ability to see that game, even on tape, is not what media companies based on making a profit usually do, and it's not how SUM should be spending its money in a time-buy situation. There are, what, 12 people who give a rat's ass about anything in the WWC that doesn't involve the US Women? That's an exaggeration, obviously, but the fact remains that if it doesn't pay for itself, or doesn't provide some other benefits to the broadcaster, it ain't gonna happen. Nor should it. This is not the Red Cross.
Did you see my earlier post about the HOST nation being responsible for providing a LIVE feed for OTHER NATIONS.,... So is there a LIVE feed or is there NOT a LIVE FEED? That's the question... if it's TAPE delayed, then use your VCR... The host nation provides the LIVE feed for OLYMPICS and WORLD CUP, and MANY other WORLD championships like hockey and track and field. It's part of the responsibility of the HOST to provide this service.. do do less, is to NOT be a proiper HOST.
Which doesn't mean SUM wouldn't have to buy the time to put it on American television, even at 2 in the morning, to satisfy the 12 people who care. If the host nation provides a live feed for the rest of the world, that doesn't mean they have to provide it to you for free. Those other nations will (ostensibly) pay for the games (though I'm skeptical about that).
Kenn's right: The Salt Lake host broadcaster (which was not NBC) produced 900 hours of footage, much of which never saw the U.S. airwaves. And these hours certainly didn't go to other countries for free. The Salt Lake games alone drew about $738 million in TV revenue, according to the IOC. The question remains, does the European Broadcasting Union or Chinese TV (or anyone else) have any interest whatsoever in paying for the WWC feed?
so what's the history from 91, 95,99... I know in 91, the USA matches were TAPE delayed on a small entity... 95 ESPN2 telecast the USA matches, and FINALS. 99, we know it from the USA perspective... I would suspect OTHER nations playing in the tourney would have an interest.... Simple question... what happened in 1999?? and that response would be close to what happens in 2003...excepting the LIVE coverage of NON-USA matches in the USA...
Offcourse there'll be live broadcast for other countries in the world that interested in covering this event, this is how FIFA and the host will generate a lot of money beside the ticket sales and comercial ads.
In '99 the WC tournament was happening during slow summer for TV but now we have to compete with nfl and baseball for live TV broadcast