Report: Fox Sports Acquires 2018, 2022 FIFA World Cup

Posted by | 10/21/2011 at 10:54 am

One year after the World Cup set viewership records on ESPN/ABC, FIFA has landed a new broadcast partner for the prestigious event.

Fox Sports has acquired English-language rights to the FIFA World Cup starting in 2015, industry publication Sports Business Journal reported Friday. The deal, which is expected to be announced by early next week, includes the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and 2019 and the Men’s World Cup in 2018 and 2022.

ESPN/ABC, which currently holds rights to the World Cup, will televise the 2014 tournament.

ESPN confirmed the loss of World Cup rights in a statement released on Friday:

“We made a disciplined bid that would have been both valuable to FIFA and profitable for our company, while continuing to grow our unprecedented coverage of the World Cup and Women’s World Cup events. We were aggressive while remaining prudent from a business perspective” (frontrow.espn.go.com, 10/21).

Fox Sports has significantly increased its commitment to soccer in recent years. The FOX broadcast network has televised the UEFA Champions League final in each of the past two years, and this fall began airing tape-delayed English Premier League matches on NFL Sundays.

Sports Business Journal also reported Friday that the Spanish-language World Cup rights had come down to current rightsholder Univision and NBC Universal’s Telemundo.

(Friday’s news from Sports Business Journal via sbnation.com)

  • http://twitter.com/black_bile mark coale

    I guess we can look forward to the Four Letter putting futbol back on the hockey back burner

  • James Keenan

    This is great news for FOX.  For sports fans out there, dependent on FOX for regional coverage, make sure you know what’s happening with the DirecTV negotiations.  It appears there are many problems with this mediation, and if a contract agreement isn’t reached by Nov.1, DirecTV will lose FOX Sports, FX, NatGeo and much more!  I work for and ubscribe to DISH Network, and have never been more pleased with my provider’s sports coverage!!  Check out Dishnetwork.com if you’re looking for a better provider!