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Fox getting the rights to the World Cup?


RyanMcD29

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http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2011/10/21/FIFA.aspx

The FIFA World Cup will have a new U.S. TV partner in '18 and '22, with several sources saying that Fox will pick up the English-language rights. FIFA has informed the bidders and is planning to announce the winners at some point today or early next week. The decision to award the rights to Fox is a shocking development, since incumbent ESPN was widely believed to be the front-runner to retain the World Cup rights.

Bids were initially submitted in Zurich on Wednesday, with a second round of bids being submitted yesterday afternoon. ESPN in '05 paid $100M for an English-language package that included rights to the '10 and '14 World Cups. Fox picked up rights to all FIFA events from '15-22, including the men's World Cup in '18 and '22; the women's World Cup in '15 and '19; and all U-20 and U-17 games. It is unclear who will pick up the Spanish-language rights that both Univision and Telemundo were bidding on, with Univision the incumbent.

OK, the World Cup is up there with college sports in things ESPN does right. And the Champions League is highly up there with Tim McCarver and Troy Aikman in things Fox does wrong. So basically, the World Cup on Fox?

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Twitter: @RyanMcD29

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As cruddy as the Fox coverage for the Champo League is, this is still 7 years out to the point you'd HAVE to think they've got enough time to prep and do it right. It will be good to have a broader audience, as well. I will miss ESPN's excellent coverage, though. I'll also miss their round-the-clock coverage, as I presume Fox has news to broadcast as well, so we won't have the 24/7 coverage. :/ That might be the saddest part. Hopefully ESPN picks up the slack in that regard.

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I do like the ESPN coverage, but putting the World Cup on broadcast television can only continue to build the audience in the States.

This.

Although, with ESPN, they still put the big games on ABC...

ESPN seems to have a better feel for soccer broadcasts. I don't think Fox is capable of the kind of subtlety (or patience) soccer broadcasting. On the other hand, perhaps some more ROBOTS and EXPLOSIONS will help increase viewership. Also, 2018 is a long ways away.

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I do like the ESPN coverage, but putting the World Cup on broadcast television can only continue to build the audience in the States.

This.

Although, with ESPN, they still put the big games on ABC...

ESPN seems to have a better feel for soccer broadcasts. I don't think Fox is capable of the kind of subtlety (or patience) soccer broadcasting. On the other hand, perhaps some more ROBOTS and EXPLOSIONS will help increase viewership. Also, 2018 is a long ways away.

Surprisingly, ESPN who is criticized for being all "NFL and big market cities and the Sox and the Yankees", is being defended for having being the best option for Soccer broadcasting in the US. (It's also surprising they will broadcast soccer, but don't seem to want to have anything to do with the more-relevant NHL, but that's another story...)

I'm not denying that they do a good job, because they do. But what's to say Fox won't be any better or worse. Like you said, 2018 is a long way away, they have time to learn.

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I do like the ESPN coverage, but putting the World Cup on broadcast television can only continue to build the audience in the States.

This.

Although, with ESPN, they still put the big games on ABC...

ESPN seems to have a better feel for soccer broadcasts. I don't think Fox is capable of the kind of subtlety (or patience) soccer broadcasting. On the other hand, perhaps some more ROBOTS and EXPLOSIONS will help increase viewership. Also, 2018 is a long ways away.

But 2015 really isn't. That is when we will see how what they are going to try to do. It could just be as simple of them using their UK Sky Sports talent since it is a global TV feed.

Studio and host duties could be different as the need to dumb down the product gets less and less each year. Russia and Qatar are not really time zone friendly either.

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Surprisingly, ESPN who is criticized for being all "NFL and big market cities and the Sox and the Yankees", is being defended for having being the best option for Soccer broadcasting in the US. (It's also surprising they will broadcast soccer, but don't seem to want to have anything to do with the more-relevant NHL, but that's another story...)

There's not a whole lot of competition in the "best soccer broadcasting in the US" category.

As for the NHL, ESPN bid on their rights. A decent bid, actually. They just didn't win, in part because NBC had the right to match any other offer.

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Well, why not give Fox a chance to show off what they have learned when they get that chance in 2018? They already have the Champions League, so that's a good start.

Again, it is for 2018 and 2022. A long time before those World Cups for Fox to get well versed.

 

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Ugh. Don't like the idea. It's gonna be so sucky witnessing this because the NFL on FOX theme is the song for every FOX Sports coverage, and they're probably gonna do stupid gimmicks to grab American fans (alla the glowing puck in the NHL on FOX era).

Wish either NBC or CBS got the World Cup. I actually would have enjoyed listening to Jim Nantz or Bob Costas, instead of that overused dishrag Joe Buck.

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Surprisingly, ESPN who is criticized for being all "NFL and big market cities and the Sox and the Yankees", is being defended for having being the best option for Soccer broadcasting in the US. (It's also surprising they will broadcast soccer, but don't seem to want to have anything to do with the more-relevant NHL, but that's another story...)

There's not a whole lot of competition in the "best soccer broadcasting in the US" category.

As for the NHL, ESPN bid on their rights. A decent bid, actually. They just didn't win, in part because NBC had the right to match any other offer.

Maybe it's the start of the fall of ESPN. They failed on getting the NHL, they overpayed for the new Monday Night Football contract thru 2021, the NBA is on life support, and now they lost both their soccer coverages (MLS and World Cup).

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You know what will be cool the fox bots for every goal and Joe Buck putting on a fake accent.

:puke:

Please. Kill that stupid FOX robot (think his name is Cleatus) from all walks of TV, especially during sponsor plugs after commercial breaks. So damn annoying is he. I remember watching the first few weeks of last season's NFL and I thanked God that robot was gone from all their new sponsor plug concepts. Then midpoint of the season, and poof, Cleatus plays guitar while FOX reminds you that Bud Light sponsors that NFL game.

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Ugh. Don't like the idea. It's gonna be so sucky witnessing this because the NFL on FOX theme is the song for every FOX Sports coverage, and they're probably gonna do stupid gimmicks to grab American fans (alla the glowing puck in the NHL on FOX era).

Wish either NBC or CBS got the World Cup. I actually would have enjoyed listening to Jim Nantz or Bob Costas, instead of that overused dishrag Joe Buck.

This may be the few (or rare) instances where someone defends Joe Buck, however, how do we know that he will be in great health to provide commentary leading up to or during the 2018 World Cup?

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Ugh. Don't like the idea. It's gonna be so sucky witnessing this because the NFL on FOX theme is the song for every FOX Sports coverage, and they're probably gonna do stupid gimmicks to grab American fans (alla the glowing puck in the NHL on FOX era).

Wish either NBC or CBS got the World Cup. I actually would have enjoyed listening to Jim Nantz or Bob Costas, instead of that overused dishrag Joe Buck.

This may be the few (or rare) instances where someone defends Joe Buck, however, how do we know that he will be in great health to provide commentary leading up to or during the 2018 World Cup?

And something tells me that Joe Buck doesn't know one lick about soccer. I have a feeling Joe Buck won't even sniff the World Cup.

Buck didn't do the NHL. Buck doesn't do Nascar. Buck doesn't even do the BCS. Heck, I remember him saying at one point that he barely follows the sports/games he's not covering.

I think we'll be fine. And like a lot have been saying, there's 7 years before the actual World Cup Fox would broadcast. That's plenty of time to recruit some actual soccer people for their coverage.

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As cruddy as the Fox coverage for the Champo League is, this is still 7 years out to the point you'd HAVE to think they've got enough time to prep and do it right. It will be good to have a broader audience, as well. I will miss ESPN's excellent coverage, though. I'll also miss their round-the-clock coverage, as I presume Fox has news to broadcast as well, so we won't have the 24/7 coverage. :/ That might be the saddest part. Hopefully ESPN picks up the slack in that regard.

That's what I'm hoping, because if the World Cup was during this summer, it'd be a mess. Ever since Euro 2008, ESPN's soccer coverage has been very well done, and it'll be sad to see them lose the rights...but hey, that probably means that they're gonna pull out all of the stops for their Euro 2012 coverage & their 2014 World Cup coverage down in Brazil.

But yeah, FOX has got 7 years to get their :censored: together when it comes to soccer coverage. Hopefully by then they won't be using the NFL music as the universal sports theme. :lol:

 

 

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