Comments on: Guest Column: Al Jazeera: A Player in The US Sports Media? Believe It http://fangsbites.com/2012/06/al-jazeera-a-player-in-the-us-sports-media-believe-it/ Your One Stop Source for All Things Sports Media and anything else I can think of. Over 3 Million People Served and Growing! Wed, 15 May 2013 05:59:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: tlas http://fangsbites.com/2012/06/al-jazeera-a-player-in-the-us-sports-media-believe-it/#comment-29483 tlas Sun, 10 Jun 2012 01:23:29 +0000 http://fangsbites.com/?p=20145#comment-29483 If someone would have told me thirty years ago that association football would matter in the grand game of American sports networks, I would have him to look at the folding of the then-North American Soccer League as proof of the opposite. In my opinion, I think the impact of social media and the world wide web can't be overstated. Hardcore fanatics who happen to be stuck in the States now have the ability to bypass the traditional American sports media filters, which was more difficult to do then.

Taking just a gander of what soccer properties big networks have today and it reveals something:

Comcast/NBC – Major League Soccer 2nd tier rights; 2nd tier USWNT and USMNT; Olympics

News Corp/Fox – EPL; FIFA World Cup (after 2014); UEFA Champions League; Europa League (from 2012-13); SPL; English FA Cup and English League Championship; Concacaf Champions League; US Open Cup matches

Disney/ESPN – Select EPL matches; FIFA World Cup (until 2014); European Championship; 1st tier Major League Soccer; USMNT World Cup Qualifiers; major FIFA friendlies hosted in the US; USWNT friendlies

CBS and Turner Sports are the main holdouts and both Turner and CBS have experience in years past (long, long time ago).

Clearly, Al J sees a market opportunity here as Rupert Murdoch did years ago. I only wish that it wasn't them that want to enter the US sports market.

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