“If you were frustrated by the process of trying to watch the USA-Mexico qualifier at Azteca last month (remember mun2?), you’ll love the TV situation brewing for the USA-Honduras match — a game that has massive implications for the Americans’ World Cup hopes.”

Story via SoccerInsider

“The Honduran federation sold the U.S. TV rights for the Oct. 10 game in San Pedro Sula to MediaPro, a Spanish-based firm that serves as a middle man for coverage that often appears on … pay-per-view and closed circuit.

So there is a very good chance that this vital game will not appear on any of the ESPN outlets or Telemundo. Not even the cuddly mun2.

We may very well have a flashback to, say, 1979, when fans would have to pay $25 to gather at arenas and banquet halls to watch an El Salvador-Guatemala qualifier or a heavyweight title bout.

Efforts are continuing to make the game accessible to a broad audience on standard TV. ESPN did try to negotiate with MediaPro, I’m told by several sources. However, according to an ESPN contact, “The rights holder is planning to exploit the rights via a different avenue that does not include ESPN.”

The USSF or ESPN could purchase the rights from MediaPro for several million dollars, but the sad truth is that the audience for American matches isn’t big enough to offset such an enormous cost. Financially, it wouldn’t make sense. Pay-per-view or closed-circuit organizers are confident they could turn a profit because of the match’s importance and the demand to watch it.

According to the USSF: “The Honduran federation chose to sell the U.S. television rights to the match, in both English and Spanish, to MediaPro and, to our understanding, did not place on them any obligation to resell the English-language rights to this particular game to a third party.”"