If anyone had predicted a few years ago this headline, “FOX acquire rights to Euro 2024 and Euro 2028,” it would have been astonishing. After all, since 2008, ESPN has held the rights to the European Championship. In fact, ESPN’s coverage has been outstanding from Euro 2008 through Euro 2020. However, critical success does not guarantee results. Sometimes, whoever bids the most wins.
While the exact terms of FOX’s acquisition are not known as of press time, what we do know is this. FOX Sports (NASDAQ: FOXA) is the new home of the UEFA national tournaments. The rights include Euro 2024, Euro 2028, and the UEFA Nations League. Also included in the package are World Cup qualifiers (from the UEFA region). On top of that, qualifiers for Euro 2024 and Euro 2028 will be featured. Subsequently, the package also includes all friendly matches controlled by UEFA.
Why the surprise? Despite the news leaking recently, it appeared that FOX Sports had lost its love of soccer. Instead, it is repositioning itself. They are now calling themselves “America’s home of global national team soccer.” Given that they have the rights to the World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Copa America and Gold Cup, that makes sense. However, that tagline does not bode well for the upcoming rights deal for Major League Soccer. Those rights are up for bid in Q4. It does not sound like a wringing endorsement of its reported interest in acquiring rights to the Premier League either.
FOX’s acquisition of UEFA national games includes more than 1,500 matches, in total. Coverage will begin in June 2022 with the UEFA Nations League.
FOX acquire rights to Euro 2024 and Euro 2028: What about streaming?
FOX’s agreement with UEFA is a six year deal.
“We are thrilled to welcome UEFA’s most-coveted events to FOX Sports’ unrivaled soccer portfolio,” said FOX Sports CEO and Executive Producer, Eric Shanks.
What is not mentioned in FOX Sports’ announcement is that many games will exclusively stream on fuboTV. More details are expected to be announced soon.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/3CKvXUi
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