Fox Soccer Channel
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| Fox Soccer Channel | |
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| Launched | February 7, 2005 |
| Owned by | News Corporation |
| Slogan | Your World, Your Life, Your Game |
| Formerly called | Fox Sports World |
| Website | FoxSoccer.com |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| DirecTV | Channel 619 |
| Dish Network | Channel 149, 877 |
| Cable | |
| Available on many cable systems | Check local listings |
Fox Soccer Channel is a United States digital cable network, owned by News Corporation, that specializes in soccer. The channel took its current name on February 7, 2005; before then, the network was known as Fox Sports World, launched November 1, 1997. In 2006, all non-soccer programming (other than Sky Sports News - see below) was dropped.
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[edit] Current programming
The channel focuses on soccer throughout the world. Among the countries whose matches it currently televises:
[edit] Argentina
- One match every week from the Primera División, plus a weekly highlights show. The featured Argentine League matches begins on Sunday usually at 3:10 Eastern and is tape-delayed on FSC until 5pm Eastern or later (with the exception of the Boca Juniors-River Plate Superclásico, which normally airs live). Also, the network broadcasts a dubbed version of Fútbol de Primera, Torneos y Competencias' weekly review show, every Wednesday usually at 9 PM Eastern.
[edit] Australia
- One live game per week plus the weekly highlights package from the A-League, culminating with the A-League Grand Final.
[edit] England
- Live and tape-delayed matches each week from the English Premier League (EPL), plus weekly magazine (Premier League World), preview (EPL Preview Show, and FOX Soccer Match Day) and recap (EPL Review and Super Sunday +) shows. FOX Sports International shares EPL TV rights with Setanta Sports North America. Both networks hold exclusive rights to 4-5 matches each week in consistent time-slots.
- The season-opening FA Community Shield live.
- FA Cup ties. Some, including one semifinal and the final, were broadcast live on pay-per-view and then re-aired on FSC a few days later. FSC currently airs the FA Cup finals live for four years which began with the 2008-09 final.
- England under-21 home matches.
- England national football team home matches. Most weekend matches and qualifiers air live on pay-per-view. FSC rebroadcasts the matches during the following week.
- Dream Team: English football soap opera, which completed its 10th and final series in the UK in 2007, but is currently only in its 8th on FSC in the United States.
[edit] Italy
[edit] Japan
- A weekly highlights package from the J. League.
[edit] United States
- Major League Soccer (MLS): Rights to a package of weekly live matches (usually on Saturday nights) through 2010, via a deal with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) that also includes summer tour matches in the US from 2007-2010.
- Women's Professional Soccer (WPS): Rights to weekly live match (usually on Sunday evenings) through the 2011 season with an option for 2012.
- Exclusive rights to United Soccer Leagues matches, including:
- One live match weekly from the second-level USL First Division.
- The championship matches of all USL leagues—the First Division, Second Division, Premier Development League, and W-League.
- Up to three live college soccer matches each week in September and October via an agreement with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Other matches may air on FOX Sports Net affiliates as part of multi-sport deals between various conferences and those channels.
- Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final (2006-2010). The competition is the U.S. equivalent of the English FA Cup.
- United States men's national soccer team and United States women's national soccer team: Second-choice of matches after ESPN.
[edit] Other events
- UEFA:
- Live coverage of the UEFA Cup starting with the quarterfinal round, with 6 (out of 8) quarterfinal matches (Setanta Sports North America televises the other two matches), all 4 semifinal matches, and the final through May 2009.
- Live coverage of the UEFA Super Cup through August 2011.
- Live coverage of the UEFA Women's Championship.
- Selected live qualifiers for the UEFA European Football Championship and FIFA World Cup via sublicense from Setanta Sports North America.
- CONCACAF: Live coverage of the CONCACAF Champions League, including any matches that involve MLS teams and the final. FSC also broadcast the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup (matches involving the U.S., plus the final) and 2006 Women's Gold Cup.
- CONMEBOL: Live and tape-delayed coverage of selected Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana matches.
- FIFA:
- Club World Cup through December 2008.
- Through 2006, FSC aired several other FIFA events (see "Past programming" section immediately below). However, ESPN has acquired the US English-language television rights to all FIFA events except for the Club World Cup, from 2007 through 2015.
- Club World Cup through December 2008.
[edit] Future programming
Fox Soccer Channel has obtained the rights to air the following soccer events in the near future:
- UEFA Champions League (beginning with 2009-2010 season)[2]
[edit] Past programming
In the past, FSC also aired the following:
- Mexico: Limited coverage of the Primera División through the early part of the 2007 Apertura season. Showed home games from teams such as Cruz Azul, C.F. Pachuca, Santos Laguna and Tecos UAG. Now seen only on Fox Sports World Canada and Fox Sports Middle East.
- France: Ligue 1 through the 2005-2006 season. Ligue 1 coverage moved to Setanta Sports North America effective with the 2006-2007 season.
- Germany: First Bundesliga through the 2005-2006 season. Bundesliga coverage moved to GolTV effective with the 2006-2007 season.
- Spain: Selected La Liga matches that notably did not have FC Barcelona, Valencia CF, Real Madrid or Atlético Madrid, four of Spain's biggest clubs, involved in them. Coverage was moved to GolTV effective 2004-5, where all teams can be shown.
- Netherlands: Eredivisie in the 2004-2005 season. Coverage is now on Setanta Sports North America.
- United States: A Major League Soccer highlight show entitled MLS Wrap.
- Euro 2000
- FIFA:
- Confederations Cup through the 2005 season.
- FIFA World Youth Championship, now the FIFA U-20 World Cup, through 2005.
- FIFA U-17 World Championship, now the FIFA U-17 World Cup, through 2005.
- Super 14 Rugby, now on Setanta Sports North America.
- The Australian Football League, the main league of Australian rules football. Now also on Setanta Sports North America.
- The 2003 Rugby World Cup (the 2007 Rugby World Cup was on Setanta Sports North America).
[edit] Sky Sports News
FSC picks up the feed from its corporate cousin, Sky Sports News in the United Kingdom. In 2007, FSC began running the feed live at 2 a.m., noon and 7 p.m. Eastern Time (the 7 p.m. edition is sometimes replaced with a live match). This arrangement dates back to its days as Fox Sports World, and offers updated soccer news throughout the day (along with coverage of other international sports such as Rugby and Cricket).
[edit] Fox Soccer Report
FSC's flagship studio program is the Fox Soccer Report, anchored by Carlos Machado, Jeremy St. Louis, Derek Taylor, and Terri Leigh. The show is produced by Fox Sports World Canada, a Canadian international sports network owned by CanWest Global Communications (parent of Global Television Network). The show was formerly called the Fox Sports World Report, which also featured occasional news and highlights of Formula One, Rugby, and other sports prior to the format change. It airs nightly at 10 p.m. Eastern (or after a live prime-time match- though highlights of that game are not included because the show is taped), with a few re-airs overnight and during the morning.
[edit] Additional information
Fox Soccer Channel will become a network rated by NIELSEN on October 1, greatly enhancing its ability to seek advertiser support. Fox Soccer Channel produces its own game programming for United States soccer leagues. Its primary broadcasting team for Major League Soccer, the U.S. national soccer teams (mens and womens), and CONCACAF Champions League, consists of play-by-play announcer Max Bretos and color commentator Christopher Sullivan, with Brian Dunseth, Christian Miles and Mark Rogondino as sideline reporters, and Todd Grisham hosting the studio pregame, halftime and postgame shows. Grisham also works for World Wrestling Entertainment.
Most of FSC's coverage which originates outside the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America, Caribbean) consists of picking up international broadcast feeds to which FSC has the U.S. broadcast rights. For example, the Argentine League matches and highlights show are voiced by FSC announcers from the channel's studio (having originally been produced in whole or in part by Fox Sports International). The Australian League highlights show is produced by FOX Sports' Australian-unit. The English coverage generally comes to FSC direct from the marketing agencies who produce the match feeds and magazine shows, notably TWI.
The network's soccer coverage is not limited to game play; FSC airs reruns of Dream Team, a British soap opera that aired in the UK on FSC's corporate cousin Sky One until 2007 and focused on a fictional Premiership team (however, as of March 2008, FSC is airing the seventh of Dream Team's ten seasons). The channel also televises a live soccer talk-show, Fox Football Fone-in (formerly Fox Football Friday), featuring viewer calls and predictions for that weekend's Premier League matches. During the Premier League term, FSC also produces and airs a couple of studio-based shows surrounding its game coverage.[3]
In 2006, Fox Soccer Channel announced that they had dropped coverage of other sports other than soccer. Amongst the leagues dropped were Super 14 rugby union, the Australian Football League (the principal Australian rules football league), and the Australian National Rugby League. The Super 14 and Australian Football League games now reside on Setanta Sports North America. In return, Setanta has given FSC the rights to some national team matches that would not otherwise air live.
Fox Sports World filled out its schedule with an eclectic mix of programming; among the sports featured (either in anthology form or actual events) were motorsports (prior to News Corporation's acquisition of SPEED), cricket, pool, darts, and extreme sports. It also aired the Final Four of the Euroleague in basketball; that league is now more extensively covered by NBA TV.
However, FSC has not yet filled out its day with sports programming; the morning hours are usually filled with infomercials as well as the random half-hour in between games on some days.
Since its relaunch as FSC, the channel has had various well-known people in and out of the soccer world do promos. The first of these aired on the Fox network pregame show for Super Bowl XXXIX. It featured Freddy Adu, Clint Mathis and Mia Hamm giving the channel's slogan: "Your world, your life, your game." Since then, other celebrities have popped up doing FSC promos including David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Jon Stewart, Kobe Bryant, Simon LeBon and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran, Andrew Fletcher and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Ziggy Marley and even Paris Hilton. Two additional spots featured Eddie Pope and Chris Albright of the U.S. national team, but they were no longer aired after the conclusion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Ethan Zohn, winner of Survivor: Africa in 2001, hosted FC Fox, a show mostly focused on youth soccer which debuted in 2006 and aired for less than a year. The show has now been retitled and is generally done with voice-over narration.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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