Americans Relegated From World Cup TV Coverage

JP, You'd Better Swap That Mic Out For A Radio

Surely still feeling the burn over letting Dave O’Brien and Marcelo “Opines As If He’s Concussed Like Rocky” Balboa run roughshod (and shoddily) over the 2006 World Cup broadcasts, ESPN has decided to drop out its American rotation in favor of an English vibe.

Martin Tyler was hired a while back, but the rest of the gang has been filled out: Adrian Healey, Derek Rae and Ian Darke will join the esteemed play-by-play hero in the box and between them, all 64 games will be covered.

It’s a bittersweet thing, really.
READ MORE

QT: It’s ESPN Crazy List Time!

We’re trying out some new writers here and there, trying to break them in gently. Welcome to The Stretford End, who is a Man U fan (I know, I know, I just broke the golden rule), but he’s gonna get a trial so play nicely.

Crazy things happen when you click over to ESPN.com (like I did at 1:45 a.m. PST).

To wit, the Worldwide Leader’s home page has a nice spread with Torres, Rooney and C-Ron to pimp its rankings of the Top 50 players in the World Cup this summer. Not a horrible list. I mean, how tough is it to choose Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney as your top 3 players? However, the oddities start with Essien at No. 10, Samuel Eto’o at No. 13 and Robin Van Persie (he’s still alive?) at No. 25. John Terry is at No. 37 — his dong is at No. 69. And Landycakes gets the home-listing advantage at No. 50 (no Timmay!) These lists aren’t very enlightening, but they’re fun to look at. Kind of like Cheryl Cole in body paint. Debate away!

Does Anyone Anywhere Like Tommy Smyth?

Ol' Onion Bag himself

We all know the Irishman from his continual midweek assaults on the senses as part of ESPN’s old Champions League coverage (mercifully, they no longer have the rights), and whenever there are soccer opinions to be aired on tWWL, Smyth is the default to which they shamelessly submit. He contains enough idiocy to make Alexi Lalas appear knowledgeable, and yet all the while, we endure him, we tolerate him (barely), and we hope he’ll go away.

Cue ESPN in the UK, and their decision to air free-of-charge all weekend and subject the British audience, far less prone to accept Smyth’s unique brand of nonsense, to the Crown Prince of Crap himself.

And what a decision, as evidenced in a rather hilarious blog by Martin Kelner on The Guardian this weekend, proving that even the UK audience is far from enamored with the inanity, breezily and enthusiastically as it may well be delivered:

READ MORE

UF Quick Throw: Bretos to ESPNews

We have it on good authority (a co-anchor), that Max Bretos is leaving FSC to join ESPNews. Any hire by the 4-letter of people who have a basic grasp of the game is okay in our book if for no other reason than it increases the chance the Julie Foudy will never again have her face on the WWL. Additionally, Bristol will have at least one person who can pronounce “Tevez” correctly, although going to News means Bretos will have to learn to pronounce “Gbaja-Biamila” (assuming he’s still even in the NFL).

ESPN Are Clearly Inspired by James Cameron

Fans were amazed at the arc of Rory Delap's long throws in 3-D

I’m guessing someone at ESPN/Disney loved Avatar a lot, as they’re spearheading the push to get people watching things in 3-D at home with today’s announcement of an ESPN 3-D channel that will debut in June.

Word has it that the first broadcast (they’ll show some 85 sporting events in their first year) will be the opening game of the World Cup, to which I say “huh?”

ESPN, Discovery, Sony and IMAX are all getting into the 3-D TV game, and ESPN’s spokes-suit can barely restrain his excitement. Take it away, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Sean Dratches!

READ MORE

QPR Helps Man Win 1 Million Dollars

Streaking

Did anyone ever try ESPN’s Streak for the Cash?

The premise is enticingly simple: pick winners (or O/U bets, prop bets, etc) across a variety of sports, and the person with the longest streak of successful picks bags a million dollars. Simple enough, yet I never managed more than five in a row, but thanks to the rather innocuous Colaship game on Monday between QPR and West Bromwich Albion, a guy in San Francisco walked away with the big cash prize.

31-year-old Blake Thompson picked QPR to win or draw, proving some basic lack of soccer comprehension (WBA are 2nd in the Colaship, while QPR sit 14th, 11 points adrift), and lucked out big time; despite QPR taking a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes, the Baggies rallied for a well-deserved away point and securing Blake’s fortune. I don’t think a single one of us at UF would bet the house on QPR winning, though they don’t call this stuff “gambling” for nothing.

And so, Blake Thompson becomes the first person ever to profit handsomely off betting on a mid-table Colaship team. Well played, sir. Here’s hoping you use some of the $1m to buy some soccer knowledge.

Quick Throw: Fox Soccer Retains US EPL Rights

Looks like ESPN lost again (if they even really tried) because Fox Soccer Channel will have exclusive US broadcast rights for Premier League matches from 2010-13. The announcement seems to be the final nail in the Setanta US coffin as there is no indication that Setanta US will have any rights during this period, and the company already lost some of its matches to ESPN this year.

It seems that further licensing of matches by Fox Soccer would be likely as they could not show all games. Perhaps the current arrangement with ESPN will continue and ESPN will not have to outlay significant sums to acquire only a portion of the broadcast rights.

ESPN prepares for the World Cup in the best possible way

Man In Booth

The Worldwide Leader in Stuff has pulled off a remarkable coup for next summer’s festivities in South Africa: they’ve signed longtime commentating genius Martin Tyler to be their lead play-by-play guy for the World Cup. This is truly wonderful news, as Tyler’s the best in the business and the ideal boffin to lead the American masses through the tournament.

Mr. Tyler is excited for the challenge: “The World Cup is a real challenge for any broadcaster because of the games every day. It’s a test of stamina and skills. You expect the very high standards of the players at the World Cup, and I expect to be judged by the very high standards of the American audience.” If nothing else, at least we’ll get a knowledgeable guy who can pronounce players’ names correctly.

And best of all, it means that Dave O’Brien should hopefully be nowhere near a microphone. Seeing as though these particular prayers were answered, I shall now begin my “Please Sign Andy Gray As Well” rain dance.

Soccernet Looking for Copy Editors

Is that Ingemar's Brother?

Congratulations Denmar. Good luck in South Africa.

Yeah, we know. Glass houses.

ESPN cares about soccer, really. Just don’t go looking for it

Yes, we have dedicated a little bit of webspace here to ESPN jumping in feet first to both the EPL and La Liga this season. So far, we have been cautiously optimistic about what we have seen. Sure there have been flubs, but they get those early in the season of every sport they cover (see last night’s Boise State-Oregon game where the halftime stats had TEAM LOGO where the, uh, team logos should have been). What it comes down to, I guess, is that we don’t expect the world from ESPN, but we do expect some basic support.

looking...looking...looking...

Which is what made last night’s schedule search on ESPN.com a little frustrating. While one can highlight any number of individual sports on the page–like Fitness, Martial Arts or (heh heh) Water Sports–one cannot do the same for soccer.

So, come on WWL, get with the program. Kindly take out one of the categories in the picture above for a sport that you have not shown in years (Cycling comes to mind) and place soccer in there as a searchable sport. And no, MLS doesn’t count.  While you are at it, quit showing Burnley games.  Three out of your first five EPL games is a bit of overkill for the club.

Barcelona v. Sporting Gijon Ratings

WWL

Thanks to Barcelona’s UEFA Super Cup victory over Shakhtar Donetsk last Friday, the Catalan club’s La Liga opener was not played until Monday. The opener against Sporting Gijon was broadcast on ESPN–the original channel not the Deuce–because ESPN just bought a share of La Liga broadcast rights in the U.S. this year and garnered a somewhat impressive 0.3 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, with 294,000 households and an estimated 327,000 sets of eyes tuning in to watch the reigning Champions League and La Liga champions open its league season.

The Barcelona ratings are on par with those ESPN has garnered for the English Premier League matches this year, but the numbers are a bit of double-edged sword.  The game was broadcast at 4 pm Eastern on ESPN’s main channel pre-empting shouting heads shows Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. ESPN’s willingness to pre-empt its established programs to show a soccer match indicates a desire by the World Wide Leader to really get behind soccer here in the states. Plus, the 0.3 rating for a Monday afternoon match during a weekday is a positive.

On the other hand, the pre-empted shows have ratings much higher than the Barcelona match. For the days preceding and following the match, Around the Horn pulled a 0.61 rating and Pardon the Interruption a 0.95 rating. Twice and thrice the ratings of the Barcelona match respectively. That the game could not hold a greater portion of the built in audience in those time slots is disappointing.

Scripted sports “talk” shows pulling higher ratings than a live soccer match only reinforces that the US is not a soccer nation. At least not yet. ESPN will certainly work to change that if there is profit to be made.

Football Is a Beautiful Business: The Worldwide Leader

Pick Up Your Remotes

This past weekend was of course the start of another English Premier League season, meaning that we are finally in the middle of nine-odd months of football bliss.

Off the pitch, one of the more interesting storylines of late has been the jockeying for television rights both here in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

By now you probably know the intricacies of Prem broadcast rights saga, but here’s the quick version. With the demise of Setanta Sports, the two main players in Europe are now powerhouse Sky and newcomer ESPN. Sky has solidified its status because, starting in 2010, it owns all but one of the broadcast packages (23 games) in England.

Here in the United States, Premiership football is being broadcast by Fox Soccer Channel, Setanta U.S., and now ESPN2. Indeed, Setanta U.S. survives for now as a despite its parent company’s collapse, but has sub-licensed games to ESPN2. Meanwhile, Fox Soccer Channel continues to establish itself as the dominate force in the United States, including its recent poaching of Champions League rights. Oh, and Fox Soccer Channel and Sky share ownership in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

This being the inaugural weekend of the Prem, it’s a perfect time to look at the current landscape of broadcasts. More discussion after the hop….

READ MORE

Quick Throw: Chelsea v. Hull On ESPN2?

It looks like there is actually a done deal now.  Chelsea v. Hull will be on ESPN2 tomorrow morning, 7:45 ET.  A tip of the hat to EPL Talk who had the rumor first.

It does not appear that there has been a formal press release, but ESPNEWS has the Chelsea v. Hull match appear on the screen as being shown on ESPN2. Additionally, Soccernet.com has it listed in the upper right corner under the “Soccer on TV” box. It does not appear that the TV guides on cable boxes have been updated however.

UF is awaiting comment from ESPN regarding the deal and whether it is just for this match or for more matches.

UPDATE:  Jozy Altidore will not be available for the match.  He is still in the US sorting out work permit issues.

UPDATE II:  ESPN has confirmed the deal releasing the schedule through September, shown below.  All times eastern.

Autopost 4: Don’t Tread On Me

Incoming!

Sometimes, the week’s stories need a little more rumination, a little more thought. While we try to cover everything with speed and force, occasionally we’ll look to Autoglass to provide a little something extra from his constant cross-country business travel schedule.This is Autopost.

They Were Always Going To Lose This Match.

I will confess to being on a plane and missing the USA-Mexico match.  However, in advance of the match the build-up and hype had convinced me that the US was very unlikely to win at the Azteca.  This is not because the US is unable to win at that stadium.  It’s not because Mexico is better than the US.  And while I think he is the wrong coach for the US and should be fired, it’s not necessarily because of Bob Bradley.  I believe that the US, on its day and even under Bradley, can beat any national side in the world.  I believe that the US, in the right fixture and in the right context, could blow the Mexicans off the Azteca pitch.  But it wasn’t going to happen this past Wednesday.  More after the jump…
READ MORE