TV Coverage, TV Coverage

from the du Nord bl0g:

EPL Talk reports that Fox Sports World Canada will be taken off the air by owners Shaw Media in late April, meaning that we could see the cancellation of the nightly program Fox Soccer Report.

Surely it can be continued on another Fox channel??

Some media tidbits from various sports but the first one is on NBC's new contract to televise MLS and US nat'l team games.

NBC's plan is to have TV analyst Kyle Martino on the sideline and not in the booth with play by play broadcaster Arlo White. An interesting experiment and it follows what NBC does with hockey matches. Martino will have a monitor but claims he will better be able to relate what is going on the field. A combo of game analyst and sideline reporter it seems.

It works with hockey, let's see if it also will work with soccer. A different concept for sure.

Thanks for that John. I had no idea Shaw owned FSWC. That explains a lot. There is so little on that station any more. They show Serie A and the Europa Leage, but up here the Score and TLN gets the big matches of the weekend in Italy. I think the only time I watch FSWC is when Issey Nakajima-Farran’s team in Australia is playing. What does Fox Soccer Channel show down there? It seems like FSWC lost out on the rights to anything interesting and now simply has very little programming.

I’ve read that they are hoping to continue to produce the Fox Soccer Report and sell it to Fox Soccer Channel (and whoever else buys it internationally). Are people really that hungry for Bobby McMahon? It seems odd to me that what is a essentially a cable access show out of Winnipeg is one of the mainstream voices for soccer punditry in North America. Which isn’t to say that I don’t think it’s a pretty good show, especially with what I suspect are extremely limited funds, but still . . .

I am curious to see a one-up, one-down for soccer. I would think the perspective from the booth would be much better, but obviously players are used to watching matches from the sidelines. It could be an interesting experiment.

cheers,
hobbes

In the US, Fox Soccer Channel seems to show a combination of what you have described hobbes from the various Canadian channels you mentioned. FSC mainly shows the English Premier League and Champions League with Serie A as their third major offering. Early Saturday morning/late Friday night, depending on your time zone, there also is an Australian league match.

FSC's newest channel, Fox Soccer Plus shows replays of some FSC matches plus overflow games from England, Italy and the Champions League. In addition it also shows France's Ligue 1, England's Championship (2nd Division) and assorted rugby league matches (the "plus" I assume in Fox Soccer Plus!)

Fox' Spanish sports channel, Fox Deportes shows the same leagues as FSC in English, just less Premier League games and I do not believe they show matches from Australia. They also show Copa Libertadores and Sudamericana matches giving it a more diverse set of programming in my opinion. During baseball season Fox Deportes also shows in Spanish a baseball game being broadcast at the same time on the main Fox network in the US.

Some big TV news on the near horizon for US fans:

Al Jazeera has outbid GolTV for Spanish league games, Fox for Italian and French games and Univision for Copa America matches.

I expect plenty of hiccups as these new channels try and get started, it is not easy getting on cable and satellite systems, it does not happen overnight.

This sounds like there will be some real headaches at the start of the next season in Europe as this new channel tries to get on cable and satellite systems. I am not looking forward to this but we all know money talks and back by Al Jazeera's (aka the Qatar government) billions, the current Tv rights holders were outbid. So welcome to the new world of beIN Sports (what an awful name.)

Changing topics, a somewhat interesting article on what goes on behind the scenes in telecasting a soccer match at ESPN.

I expect plenty of hiccups as these new channels try and get started, it is not easy getting on cable and satellite systems, it does not happen overnight.

This is a potential nightmare, at least for the first half of next season while this new channel tries to get on the air and get space on cable and satellite systems.

Looks like there is a new sheriff in the soccer TV world, one with very deep pockets who is changing the landscape of how we in the US, and actually in Europe too as they are buying up these rights for European markets as well, view soccer on TV.

And, they added their first "name" -- former GolTV play-by-play man Phil Schoen.

Is this being talked about elsewhere on the board? beIn has now added rights to U.S. road qualifiers in World Cup qualifying (except for the potential game at Mexico in next year’s Hex) and the English Championship to their aforementioned properties, and overnight have become a real player in the (already crowded) televised soccer market in the US. Comcast is the first major cable player to sign on (yea for me!) but I suspect most of the rest will follow, likely as part of an extra sports-tier package.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/soccer/...s&position=also

They still are having some growing pains and I think are finding it difficult finding the time to show matches from 3 leagues-Spain, Italy & France which generally play at the same time, but overall the channel looks like it will be pretty good. But the lack of live Italian league games is something I am not too crazy about. Fortunately RAI International still shows many in Italian.

That is true raconteur, they do need to figure out a way to show more games live, maybe one match on their English language station, another live on their Spanish one? Also seems like they are overworking the English broadcasting pair of Phil Schoen & Ray Hudson, they seem to broadcast 2/3 of the games the channel shows in English! Their schtick can be enjoyable sometimes but only in small doses IMO. In Spanish while they have some announcers from their studio in the US, notably ESPN Deportes former broadcaster Jose Hernandez, they also use guys from the direct feed coming from Spain. There also are English announcers on those direct feeds too but BeIn doesn't seem to use them.

But as we all know every station will have some growing pains.

For those in the US, Friday is a smorgasbord of World Cup qualifying games, especially with the English and Spanish versions of BeIN Sports, the schedule (all times Pacific time):


On BeIN Espanol

PT 1:20 PM - 3:30 PM
Colombia vs. Uruguay

PT 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Ecuador vs. Bolivia (joined in progress but on in English from start)

PT 4:00 PM - 6:10 PM
Argentina vs. Paraguay

PT 6:10 PM - 8:15 PM
Peru vs. Venezuela

On BeIN English

PT 1:55 PM - 3:55 PM
Ecuador vs. Bolivia

PT 4:55 PM - 7:00 PM
Jamaica vs. USA

PT 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM
Argentina vs. Paraguay

PT 8:45 PM - 10:30 PM
Colombia vs. Uruguay

On GolTV
PT 11:30 AM
Brazil vs South Africa
PT 1:30 PM
Montenegro vs Poland

On ESPN Deportes
PT 8:00 AM
Russia vs Northern Ireland
PT 11:30 AM
Bulgaria vs Italy
PT 1:45 PM
Netherlands vs Turkey
PT 4:30 PM
Canada vs Panama

On Telemundo
PT 7:00 PM
Costa Rica vs Mexico


It is enough to make your head explode! I have already taken Friday afternoon off!

In the US, this problem is especially evident this Sunday with Barcelona-Real Madrid starting 1 hour before AC Milan-Inter. Plus Marseille-PSG, the biggest rivalry in France will also be played at the same time. So what will be beIN Sport do? They are showing Barcelona-Real Madrid live on both their English and Spanish channels, then will ONLY show the 2nd half of AC Milan-Inter (again on both channels.) After that is finished the English version of beIN will show Marseille-PSG on tape delay while the Spanish version will show Atletico Madrid-Malaga (another big match) also on tape delay.

Those of us with RAI International, however, at least will be able to see AC Milan-Inter in its entirety but this big Sunday of matches points out a major problem beIN Sports have by carrying three leagues which often play games at the same time.

Most fans do not yet have beIN Sports, let alone RAI International consequently they will be unable to see these games but even those with one of these channels still will be hard pressed to see the matches as they could in previous years.

NBC grabs U.S. Premier League rights from Fox and ESPN

Big news for US viewers. You wonder what will become of Fox Soccer Channel which apart from Champions League and FA Cup games will have no other competitions to cover next year!