FSC’s Planned Expanded Coverage Of Champions League
Filed under: Champions League, Fox Soccer Channel, UEFA
While it’s been a few days since the news broke of Fox Soccer Channel’s pickup of next seasons UEFA Champions League, FSC Executive Vice - President and General Manager David Sternberg has announced some of the changes that you’ll see around the channel, including going to HD by the end of the year.
Via FoxSports
After beating out ESPN for rights to the world’s most-followed club competition, Fox will broadcast 31 live and 79 delayed matches on FSC next season. Sixteen games will air on Fox Sports Net on Tuesdays, and the final from Madrid on May 22, 2010, will be on FX as the Union of European Football Association switches the championship to Saturday from its traditional Wednesday.
“Hopefully, with this acquisition we can see some acceleration with our network’s distribution,” David Sternberg, executive vice president and general manager of Fox Soccer Channel, said Wednesday. “Frustration with that was obviously one of the strategic objectives with this acquisition.”
ESPN and ESPN2, which have televised the Champions League since the 1994-95 season, are available in 98 million homes and have broadcast Champions League matches in high-definition this season. FSC, which reaches 34 million households, plans to launch HD telecasts at the end of this year.
“We’re looking at ways to accelerate,” Sternberg said. “That’s going to be big a big topic of conversation with all our distributors.”
FSC hopes the Champions League will expand the network’s reach.
“We would like to see if we can get the network positioned onto more broadly distributed tiers and packages,” he said.
Its coverage will start with the new playoff round on Aug. 18-19 and Aug. 25-26. FSC also plans to air pregame and highlights shows.
Good for FSC but they have a terrible picture quality. That NEEDS to change. Its 2009 and sports need to be in HD, no excuses. I just hope its not Bretos and Sullivan doing the games. Rae and Smyth wont have much to do over at ESPN so they should go after them also.
I love FSC, don’t get me wrong.. I, personally speaking for myself, don’t like this move. I’m at college for much of the Champions League and don’t have time to leave my studies and head to a bar and watch a match.. usually, there’s no one around to watch a match with… I also don’t feel it necessary to upgrade or purchase FSC on top of my basic package, when I may or may not have time to watch the game. In addition, ESPN 360 was amazing. If FSC can improve their picture quality and distribution, I will be okay with this move.
thank goodness for the move to HD. I also think the showing of UEFA on FX is great…although FX doesnt have the best image quality, im sure it will be fine.