Comments on: USA WC Qualifier Not On TV, Again!

By: James

James — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:19:10 +0000

Actually, per USSOCCER.COM, it is not ESPN’s choice. Whichever nation is the Home Team owns the television rights to the game. Unfortunately Honduras is the culprit in screwing the US fan base because it “opted to broadcast via closed circuit feed only.”

Check out the article on the website:

http://www.ussoccer.com/Community/USA-Honduras-Locations.aspx

I think the world cup confederation should review their Broadcast Rights Policies!!!!!!!!!!

By: The Gaffer

The Gaffer — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:42:19 +0000

Looks like the game may only be available on PPV as I suggested earlier: http://dunord.blogspot.com/2009/09/some-news-action-for-fri-sep-18-2009.html

Cheers,
The Gaffer

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:57:52 +0000

I believe the game will be played at San Pedro Sula

By: Chris in NOLA

Chris in NOLA — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:39:18 +0000

Any idea where this match will be played? Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula?

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:27:19 +0000

I think it is poor that the US national team is not on TV at all. Not sure if it’s for profit or not but if they want the game to become bigger in the states, they need to support it more! I’ve read a few comments and do agree with the fact fact ESPN are pushing European football, but is this because it was put in there laps by buying Setanta group out who already had the contracts for Spanish and English leagues? Or did they invest it in it just so no rival sports channels could? Either way I am happy they did but lets see when it comes around again to renew the contract! All in All show the frigging games on TV please! Which does seem a bit late to post this as I have just searched through to find it not on anywhere when i saw the highlight of US scoring on ESPN! Or yeah I’m from England and live in US, an we qualified today kicking Croatia’s arse’s 5-1…. Come Onnnnnnn!!! Hope to see you there, 3 easy points are always nice!!!

By: Joe D

Joe D — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:37:53 +0000

You also have to remember, that besides the Honduran Federation either refusing to sell the rights or asking for an exorbitant amount of money, that ESPN is the the business of making money. If they normally buy rights for games for let’s say $500K and Honduras now wants them to pay $4 million for it, they would be idiots to do so.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of us die hard soccer fans and US fans, but no matter what, a US qualifier on ESPN is only going to get a 1.8 rating at best. Based on ratings books, ESPN sells commercials. How are they going to recoup the large fee with basically no viewers? Plus, once again, October 10th is a Saturday. College Football is ESPN’s money maker so no way the soccer match makes it on ESPN or ESPN2…thus once again it gets dumped to Classic.

So I guess the only hope is that Telemundo, that had the Spanish US rights for the Mexico match, gets the rights again and is able to provide an English version on a sister station. However, where NBC owns Telemundo, the pressure should be put on them to put the game on a more popular station than Mun2. Something like USA, Bravo, SyFy, etc. All NBC networks that could have shown the US – Mexico match and gotten a better rating that it got on Mun2. Gripes, if NBC doesn’t have football that night, why not show it on NBC itself? It will still get a better rating than any crap they have on Saturday nights anyway!

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:47:14 +0000

They haven’t sold the rights yet. ESPN can very likely gain the rights to the match for October 10th as they do with many other WC Qualifiers in Central America. The game is on a Saturday in the fall, which means college football will be on ESPN and ESPN2. The game should be on ESPN Classic and Telefutura. The game time hasn’t been announced yet. The difference with this game and the Mexico game if FMF had a tv rights deal in the U.S.A. with Telemundo. Honduras has no tv rights deal in the United States so its likely ESPN having the first right to choice with U.S. Men’s National Team will pick up the game and likely put it on ESPN Classic, because of the aforementioned college football.

By: The Gaffer

The Gaffer — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:05:33 +0000

No word yet on whether the Honduran Football Federation has had a chance to sell the US TV rights for the October 10th game, but it could be that the game will only be available on pay-per-view. Too early to say right now. A lot of it depends on how important the Honduras game will be and whether the US can beat El Salvador and TNT – thereby making the Honduras game practically irrelevant.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,
The Gaffer

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:58:23 +0000

Alrighty…thanks gaffer…any channel is better than Mun2 and Telefutura and etc etc…

By: The Gaffer

The Gaffer — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:31:21 +0000

We’re working on finding more about the story, but it may be that NBC owns the rights to the Honduras v USA game, but I’m working on verifying that.

Cheers,
The Gaffer