Multiplatforms Help ESPN/ABC Win FIFA

[korsjs]

ESPN/ABC Sports is having ongoing negotiations to renew its TV rights deal with Major League Soccer, the U.S. professional soccer league, and according to John Skipper, executive vp, content, at ESPN, a new agreement is expected to be finalized "within weeks to a few months."

MLS commissioner Don Garber said his organization is "continuing our very positive discussions toward extending our longstanding relationship with ABC and ESPN."

Garber also said negotiations are ongoing with Univision and MLS "is looking forward to once again becoming part of the Univision family."

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cabletv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001432750

 

[korsjs]

Multiplatforms Help ESPN/ABC Win FIFA
November 02, 2005
By John Consoli

The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officially announced today that ESPN/ABC Sports was awarded the U.S. English-language TV rights to televise the 2010 and 2014 World Cup.

The rights fee is $100 million, as reported by Mediaweek earlier this week. The rights include not only the two World Cup tournaments, but also the 2007 and 2011 Women's World Cup rights, the FIFA Conderations Cup in 2009 and 2013, and other FIFA soccer events.

ABC will air at least 10 matches live during the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups under the agreement. All remaining matches will be aired by ESPN and ESPN2. Every telecast will be available in high definition.

The agreement also includes extensive multimedia rights including the airing of features, data, match reports and the like on ESPN.com, live game simulcasts on ESPN360, instant game re-airings on ESPN Classic, and assorted information released on Mobile ESPN.

The ESPN/ABC bid was accepted by FIFA over bids by NBC Universal, Fox and Comcast. Jerome Valcke, director of marketing & TV for FIFA, acknowledged that the financial committee, early on in the process, had agreed to accept an early, exclusive bid by NBC Universal, but the FIFA executive committee later decided to delay the process and encourage other U.S. networks to bid, which they did.

Valcke said the broad range of multimedia platforms that ESPN/ABC was able to provide, in addtion to being able to televise not only the World Cups, but also various other FIFA tournaments, was a deciding factor in FIFA's decision.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/networktv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001432598

 

[cablewithaview]

ABC/ESPN, Univision Keep World Cup

World Cup events from 2007-2014 will have the same television partners in the United States that been covering the recent quadrennial events.

The difference, though, is that ABC Sports/ESPN and Univision Communications Inc. will be paying a lot more for the rights to air soccer's -- and, arguably, the globe's -- biggest sports competitions.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the sport's governing body, said the aforementioned parties will pay a combined $425 million for the rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, as well as the women's tournaments in 2007 and 2011, plus 11 other competitions and events.

In announcing what it described as a record deal for a single country's rights pacts, FIFA told AP Univision had ponied up $325 million, almost double its $175 million outlay for its package from 2002-06, and ABC/ESPN had paid $100 million.

ESPN/ABC's current World Cup rights, which expire with the 2006 competition from Germany, did not require a cash outlay. The networks obtained those rights from Soccer United Marketing, which also represented Major League Soccer, in exchange for the domestic league gaining carriage on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.

Responding to questions during a conference call announcing the ESPN/ABC deal, ESPN executive vice president of content John Skipper said the networks have interest in continuing to televise MLS and U.S. national team games.

In addition to World Cup match coverage, the parties will run substantial promotion in the U.S. for FIFA events over the life of the contracts.

The agreement covers a wide range of media categories, including Internet, broadband and mobile telephony. ESPN will also be able to offer truncated versions of the matches on-demand, according to terms of the deal.


http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6280595.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2226