Fox wins television rights to 2018, 2022 World Cup
A. Isaac Fox has won the bidding war for the 2018 and 2022 Men’s World Cup over ESPN and NBC. In the deal, Fox picked up every single FIFA game from 2015-2022 including the next two Women’s World Cups.
Given the popularity of last summer’s games in the United States, regardless of the price Fox paid, it appears to be a very good deal for the future.
The 2010 Men’s World Cup drew in the most U.S. viewers ever for the tournament. ESPN announced that broadcasts averaged a 2.1 rating (2,288,000 households and 3,261,000 viewers), a 31 percent increase over 2006. The final between the Netherlands and Spain was the most-watched men’s World Cup game by viewers (15,545,000).
“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,” ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said in a statement. “We were aggressive while remaining prudent from a business perspective.”
Unfortunately, the deal means no Ian Darke, who is arguably the best soccer commentator in the world right now. Then again, the Fox deal doesn’t go into effect until 2018, so, who knows. Maybe Darke will “go, go USA” for another network.
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