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Fox Soccer Channel is a United States digital cable network, owned by News Corporation, that specializes in soccer. The channel took its current name on February 7, 2005; before then, the network was known as Fox Sports World, Launched Nov. 1, 1997. In 2006, all non-soccer programming was dropped.
Current programming
The channel focuses on soccer throughout the world. Among the countries whose matches it currently televises:
Argentina
- One match every week from the Primera División, plus a weekly highlights show. The featured Argentine League matches begins on Sunday usually at 3:10 Eastern and is tape-delayed on FSC until 5pm Eastern or later (with the exception of the Boca Juniors-River Plate superclasico, which normally airs live). Also, the network broadcasts a dubbed version of Fútbol de Primera, Torneos y Competencias's weekly review show, every Wednesday usually at 9 PM Eastern.
Australia
- A weekly highlights package from the A-League, plus live coverage of the A-League Grand Final.
England
- Live and tape-delayed matches each week from the English Premier League (EPL), plus weekly preview (Premier League World, EPL Preview Show, and FOX Soccer Match Day) and recap (EPL Review and Super Sunday +) shows. FOX Sports International shares EPL TV rights with Setanta Sports North America. Both networks hold exclusive rights to 4-5 matches each week in consistent time-slots.
- The season-opening FA Community Shield live.
- FA Cup ties. Some, including one semifinal and the final, are broadcast live on pay-per-view and then re-aired on FSC a few days later.
- England under-21 home matches.
- England national football team home matches. Most weekend matches and qualifiers air live on pay-per-view. FSC rebroadcasts the matches during the following week.
- Dream Team: English football soap opera, which completed its 10th and final series in the UK in 2007, but is currently only in its 6th on FSC in the United States.
Italy
- Exclusive English-language coverage of Serie A for the 2007-2008 through 2009-2010 seasons[1].
Japan
- A weekly highlights package from the J. League.
United States
Other events
- FIFA:
- Club World Cup through December 2008.
- Through 2006, FSC aired several other FIFA events (see "Past programming" section immediately below). However, ESPN has acquired the US English-language television rights to all FIFA events except for the Club World Cup, from 2007 through 2015.
Past programming
In the past, FSC also aired the following:
Sky Sports News
FSC picks up the feed from its corporate cousin, Sky Sports News in the United Kingdom. In 2007, FSC began running the feed live at 2 a.m., noon and 7 p.m. Eastern Time (the 7 p.m. edition is sometimes replaced with a live match). This arrangement dates back to its days as Fox Sports World, and offers updated soccer news throughout the day (along with coverage of other international sports).
Fox Soccer Report
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FSC's flagship studio program is the Fox Soccer Report, anchored by Carlos Machado, Jeremy St. Louis, Mitch Peacock and Derek Taylor. The show is produced by Fox Sports World Canada, a Canadian international sports network owned by CanWest Global Communications (parent of Global Television Network). The show was formerly called the Fox Sports World Report, which also featured occasional news and highlights of Formula 1, Rugby, and other sports prior to the format change. It airs nightly at 10 p.m. Eastern (or after a live prime-time match- though highlights of that game usually cannot be edited in time for inclusion), with a few re-airs overnight and during the morning.
Additional information
Fox Soccer Channel produces its own game programming for United States soccer leagues. Its primary broadcasting team for Major League Soccer games consists of play-by-play announcer Max Bretos and color commentator Christopher Sullivan, with Christian Miles, Mark Rogondino and Jeremy St. Louis as sideline reporters, and Todd Grisham hosting the studio pregame, halftime and postgame shows. Both Bretos and Grisham also work for World Wrestling Entertainment.
Most of FSC's coverage that originates outside the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America, Caribbean) consists of picking up international broadcast feeds to which FSC has U.S. broadcast rights. All of FSC's South American coverage, including the Argentine highlights show, is overdubbed in English by FSC announcers (having originally been produced in whole or in part by Fox Sports International). The Australian League highlights show is produced by FOX Sports' Australian-unit. The English coverage generally comes to FSC direct from the marketing agencies who produce the match feeds and magazine shows, notably TWI.
The network's soccer coverage is not limited to game play; FSC airs reruns of Dream Team, a British soap opera that aired in the UK on FSC's corporate cousin Sky One until 2007 and focused on a fictional Premiership team (however, as of March 2008, FSC is airing the seventh of Dream Team's ten seasons). The channel also televises a live soccer talk-show, Fox Football Fone-in (formerly Fox Football Friday), featuring viewer calls and predictions for that weekend's Premier League matches. During the Barclays Premier League term, Fox Soccer Match Day is broadcasted every Saturday mornings with Christian Miles and Keith Costigan at the helm, discussing the upcoming match to be aired on the network. On Sundays, Super Sunday + with hosts Christian Miles and Keith Costigan, along with soccer pundit Gary Richards, is broadcasted live to review not only the latest Premier League results but the relevant soccer matches for that weekend, as well[2].
In 2006, Fox Soccer Channel announced that they had dropped coverage of other sports other than soccer. Amongst the leagues dropped were Super 14 rugby union, the Australian Football League (the principal Australian rules football league), and the Australian National Rugby League. The Super 14 and Australian Football League games now reside on Setanta Sports North America. In return, Setanta has given FSC the rights to some national team matches that would not otherwise air live.
Fox Sports World filled out its schedule with an eclectic mix of programming; among the sports featured (either in anthology form or actual events) were motorsports (prior to News Corporation's acquisition of SPEED), cricket, pool, darts, and extreme sports. It also aired the Final Four of the Euroleague in basketball; that league is now more extensively covered by NBA TV.
However, FSC has not yet filled out its day with sports programming; the morning hours are usually the province of infomercials as well as the random half-hour in between games on some days.
Since its relaunch as FSC, the channel has had various well-known people in and out of the soccer world do promos. The first of these aired on the Fox network pregame show for Super Bowl XXXIX. It featured Freddy Adu, Clint Mathis and Mia Hamm giving the channel's slogan: "Your world, your life, your game." Since then, other celebrities have popped up doing FSC promos including David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Jon Stewart, Kobe Bryant, Simon LeBon and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran, Andrew Fletcher and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Ziggy Marley and even Paris Hilton. Two additional spots featured Eddie Pope and Chris Albright of the U.S. national team, but they were no longer aired after the conclusion of the 2006 World Cup.
Ethan Zohn, winner of Survivor: Africa in 2001, hosted FC Fox, a show mostly focused on youth soccer which debuted in 2006 and aired for less than a year. The show has now been retitled and is generally done with voice-over narration.
See also
References
External links
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