Fox Soccer Channel gets rated in US

[Bally]

Fox Soccer Channel gets rated in US
By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer
7 hours, 46 minutes ago
 
      Buzz Up PrintNEW YORK (AP)—The fiercest soccer competition in the United States might be played out in television network conference rooms.

The Fox Soccer Channel will be rated by Nielsen starting next month, measuring how many people tune in across the United States to games of the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.

At the same time, ESPN is considering a challenge Fox and its News Corp. cousin, British Sky Broadcasting, for Premier League rights starting with the 2010-11 season. If ESPN succeeds, it could be the spark to increasing ESPN’s presence in England and perhaps beyond on the European continent.

“They’re definitely focused on getting some package of rights in the U.K. because they see that as a key to establishing a base in that country,” said David Sternberg, executive vice president and general manager of Fox Soccer Channel.

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FSC, currently available in more than 33 million homes, began as Fox Sports World in 1998 and was rebranded as an all-soccer channel in 2005. Rights to the Premier League, which are shared with Setanta Sports, are the network’s key properties, with live broadcasts on Saturdays and Sunday from mid-August through mid-May.

“We already know that English Premier League is a premier global sports property much like FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League and Euro 2008 which have all been strong performers on our networks and platforms,” said Scott Guglielmino, ESPN’s vice president of programming. “I would expect strong numbers for the EPL in the homes that receive FSC.”

English soccer has boomed in recent years, with the big four clubs— Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea—expanding their audiences in the United States and Asia. The EPL’s increased revenue has been used to acquire and retain top foreign talent such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Emmanuel Adebayor and Didier Drogba, boosting the English clubs past their European counterparts in the Champions League, the world’s top club competition.

“The celebrity of the players in England is huge,” Sternberg said.

ESPN’s 27 Champions League telecasts last season were watched by an average of 255,000 households—even with matches starting at 2:45 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesdays and Wednesday. Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea in the final last May was ESPN’s most-watched Champions League match, drawing 798,000 homes and 1,097,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. And starting in 2010, the Champions League final will be shifted to Saturday.

ESPN and ABC, units of The Walt Disney Co., own rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups along with U.S. World Cup qualifiers through 2014 and the Champions League though this season. ESPN and ABC televised every game of the European Championship in June—soccer’s No. 2 event after the World Cup—and Spain’s win over Germany in the final was watched by 3.76 million viewers on ABC. Another 657,000 tuned in to the Spanish-language broadcast on ESPN Deportes.

ESPN and Fox have started to stream soccer telecasts on the Internet, especially key for midweek afternoon games that attract viewers in offices. And a version of ESPN Classic launched two years ago in Britain, where ESPN’s North American Sports Network is based.

Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger said last week that ESPN might bid for Premier League rights either by itself or with partners. As in the United States, News Corp. and Setanta share rights in Britain.

“The global appeal of soccer is unique and we will continue to expand key relationships with key soccer properties to meet the substantial and growing appetite for soccer across all media platforms,” Guglielmino said.

GolTV, the third major soccer broadcaster in the United States, has rights to Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga through the current season, FSC and ESPN both televise Major League Soccer, and FSC has the second-tier UEFA Cup.

But after the World Cup and the European Championship, the Champions League and Premier League are the biggest properties. FSC hopes being rated will lead to increased revenue.

“We will be able to open up a lot of advertising business,” Sternberg said.

[weary1969]

Intresting 2 c how much peeps does watch dem.

[Bakes]

I hope ESPN gets it... FSC is decent but I tired ah dis analog broadcast shit...time for FSC to step their game up to HD.

[Babalawo]

I hope ESPN gets it... FSC is decent but I tired ah dis analog broadcast shit...time for FSC to step their game up to HD.

And Shaka will get more commentating and work to do.

[Andre]

i remember ESPN has EPL action back in the 90s. it used to be on monday nights.

back then i used to see 2 game a week:
1. ESPN monday night
2. the sunday 11 AM game on thief PPV

is just me or anybody find Gol TV have a much better quality picture than FSC? i find it is look near HD once you feed it to the TV via an HDMI cable.

[pass(10trini)]

i remember ESPN has EPL action back in the 90s. it used to be on monday nights.

back then i used to see 2 game a week:
1. ESPN monday night
2. the sunday 11 AM game on thief PPV

is just me or anybody find Gol TV have a much better quality picture than FSC? i find it is look near HD once you feed it to the TV via an HDMI cable.

Me eh know because dish take them off

[asylumseeker]

Leh me see  ... ESPN carrying de EPL with American commentary ... hmm  ... negative.

[Bakes]

Leh me see  ... ESPN carrying de EPL with American commentary ... hmm  ... negative.

Nobody said it has to be w/American commentary... hopefully the suits in Bristol recognizes at least this much.

[giggsy11]

Leh me see  ... ESPN carrying de EPL with American commentary ... hmm  ... negative.

Right, or tape delayed games tuh show log rolling and Nascar.

[asylumseeker]

Leh me see  ... ESPN carrying de EPL with American commentary ... hmm  ... negative.

Right, or tape delayed games tuh show log rolling and Nascar.

Like dey eh make out Howard Cosell and Jim McKay are no longer with us.

[JDB]

Competition for FSC is good if it forces them to give a better product but I not convinced that we would be better off on ESPN.

They do have a practice of using their in house personalities instead of more qualified specialists, especially for the big games. This is counter to what you would expect where you have the best talent commenting on the big games, with ESPN you get the people they are trying to push like on Monday Night Football.

Also football on Saturdays and Sundays usually runs right into the start of College football and NFL games so it is unlikely that the games woul dbe shown on ESPN 1 or ESPN 2 because those have lengthy pre-game shows.

They might use it to launch Deportes nationwide or throw on Classic, a channel that they do not do any marketing for and is not packaged as a basic cable channel or a sports package channel in my  market.

Hopefully Fox/Sky recognizes the importance of keeping football, after doing so much to carry it in the earlies, and step up to the plate.

[Observer]

Fack ESPN I never forgive dem  when they cut CL  1/4 finals games to bring us Baseball draft.

[judge101]

to much bias reporting and commentating a change will be nice

[Bakes]

Competition for FSC is good if it forces them to give a better product but I not convinced that we would be better off on ESPN.

They do have a practice of using their in house personalities instead of more qualified specialists, especially for the big games. This is counter to what you would expect where you have the best talent commenting on the big games, with ESPN you get the people they are trying to push like on Monday Night Football.

Also football on Saturdays and Sundays usually runs right into the start of College football and NFL games so it is unlikely that the games woul dbe shown on ESPN 1 or ESPN 2 because those have lengthy pre-game shows.

They might use it to launch Deportes nationwide or throw on Classic, a channel that they do not do any marketing for and is not packaged as a basic cable channel or a sports package channel in my  market.

Hopefully Fox/Sky recognizes the importance of keeping football, after doing so much to carry it in the earlies, and step up to the plate.

Classic is being revamped.  ESPN is currently in talks with the NFL to fold the NFL Network into it's programming, one option being to make Classic the new "NFL channel".  So not sure if they can carve out room for 'soccer' on there as well.  I have similar doubts about Deportes, given that the primary focus of that channel is to reach the latino community... including heavy programming and broadcasts in spanish.

At any rate ESPN is a phenomenal success in the 30 yrs it has been in business.  I think people here fail to give them proper credit where due for their market sense.  In the past soccer has been seen as a secondary, if not tertiary player in American sports...and the resources devoted to it has been commiserate.  Clearly ESPN is incrementally gaining an appreciation for just how powerful a player it can be both on the domestic and international fronts...as evidenced by this push to get the EPL. 

I hardly doubt that we can find the same quibbles with UEFA and Champions League broadcasts, that we find with MLS, CONCACAF or even Olympic (and to an extent World Cup) broadcasts.  Better productions go into the better products, in part due to the differences in the target audiences of each broadcast.  They're not likely to spend on top end commentators for an MLS game because the American audience is a relatively unsophisticated, and undemanding one.  The international broadcasts, with the likes of Adrian Stone... even everyone's favorite punching bag, Tommie Smyth...receive greater attention and greater budgets.  It's my guess (hope at least) that they'd recognize the value of the EPL broadcast, and allocate resources accordingly, including an upgrade in the broadcast talents for these games.

[Sam]

SPL agree £65million TV deal with Sky and ESPN.
by Alison McConnell

THE Scottish Premier League today (July-09) agreed a £65million five-year deal with Sky and ESPN to screen 60 live matches each season.

But the SPL has an option of opting out of the final two seasons of the agreement with the new grouping.

Sky-ESPN's deal replaces the one agreed with collapsed broadcaster Setanta, but the clubs will earn about half what they would have gained under that deal.

The new contract is worth a similar amount to Setanta's original deal - £13m per year - due to end next year.

advertisementScotland's 12 top-flight clubs - some of whom were facing severe financial problems without a TV deal - voted on the proposal at the league's annual meeting at Hampden Park today.

And SPL chairman Lex Gold said: "We are pleased that in just over three weeks we have been able to strike this deal.

"Sky and ESPN are two of the biggest names in sports broadcasting and they will bring first-class production standards and a wide audience to the table.

"We are looking forward to working with both in the coming years to raise the profile of the SPL for our clubs, fans and partners."

Setanta's original contract began in 2006 and the Irish-based broadcaster had negotiated a new contract worth £125m due to begin in 2010.

However, Setanta lost the rights to top-flight football in England and Scotland after being unable to meet payments at the end of last season.

Disney-owned ESPN last month bought the rights to show English Premier League matches that were to have been shown by Setanta.

It plans to launch a new UK sports channel, called ESPN, on August 3 and reached an initial deal to have the channel shown on Sky, which will also be responsible for selling advertising on the new channel.

ESPN-Sky were believed to have offered a five-year contract, but the SPL appears to have won an option for the final two seasons with the new grouping, and the agreement will last until at least the end of season 2011-12.

Rangers chief executive Martin Bain said this week that he had been in discussions with Celtic about buying the broadcasting rights themselves because they were unhappy at what they viewed as a cut-price offer.

However, it is believed that the Old Firm's proposal was not voted on today.

Meanwhile, St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour has been elected to the SPL board, replacing Campbell Christie, who has stepped down as chairman of Falkirk.

Gold was elected unanimously for the 11th time as chairman but indicated that he would stand down in the autumn.

Hibernian's Rod Petrie, Aberdeen's Duncan Fraser and Bain were all re-elected by the clubs to complete the SPL board along with newly-appointed chief executive Neil Doncaster.

*Sky and ESPN will both cover 30 live Clydesdale Bank Premier League games each season.

*The broadcast slots will remain as Saturday lunchtimes, Sunday lunchtimes, Sunday afternoons and Monday nights.

*The SPL's existing broadcasting deals with BBC, BT Vision, MG ALBA and Sportfive will be unaffected by this deal.

*All games will be broadcast in High Definition and Standard Definition formats.

[triniairman]

Leh me see  ... ESPN carrying de EPL with American commentary ... hmm  ... negative.

Right, or tape delayed games tuh show log rolling and Nascar.

Or Re runs of NFL games or talk shows about the NFL... On another note FSC brings you 2 to 3 games on game day plus re runs of games played that day. How will ESPN be able to this with their tight schedule of programs? NFL, College Hand Ball, Talk shows and did I say NFL?

[JDB]

This news has been circulating for the past two days but it is still unconfirmed.

Apparently ESPN is working on bringing the 7.45 am (ET) Saturday game and the Monday 3.pm game to its US channels. FSC still keeps its games and Setanta keeps its 10.00 am game and the Sunday morning game.

It could start as early as this weekend with Chelsea vs Hull. makes some sense since teh early game is the only one ESPN could show without interfering with College football pregame shows.

Good news for men like me who bail on their sports package last year. Might actually get to see a couple games.

Link Here

[dinho]

that would be real good... im glad they not putting those games on some other espn channel i dont have.

so wake up early and take in the 745 game on espn2.. stream de 10am game online if it good and then fox for the rest..

any word on whats the deal with la liga as I think ESPN also has a package.. is it going to take away from goltv?

[Trinidogg]

This will be great... all yuh gone be watchin Fulham and Bolton more often now?

[Andre]

check espntv.com for listings.

i eh sure if this is for real. would be nice though.

[spideybuff]

If allyuh in Trinidad, there is no guarantee that Flow wouldn't block it anyway and say that " Sportsmax have the rights". So I not celebrating til this weekend and I see what going on this season with Setanta messign up