5.20.13
ASN Morning Read: The Future of Soccer on TV
Fox Soccer Channel is dissolving, NBC is making moves, but so too, it turns out, is ESPN. Those who thought ESPN was abandoning joga bonito, think again. Get ready for more of the Big Redhead and Co.
BY
Jasper Wilson
Posted
May 20, 2013
8:01 AM
Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated shared details of two recent American soccer media developments in his latest Media Circus piece. The bigger story is that in response to losing its broadcasting rights to European domestic leagues, the Worldwide Leader plans to launch a "30-minute news and highlights-driven soccer studio show on August 11."
"What we want to do is assert that soccer remains important to us and a daily show is a way to assert we still care about the sport and we are going to be there," ESPN president John Skipper said. "We bought the rights to the Mexican national team and we bought the rights to Liga Mex. The European rights were sold, and in some cases, were sold through blind auctions to other folks. We have the World Cup [in 2014], European Championships and still have the national team through '14. We are also in the MLS. We still want to be in the sport."
The polarizing Gus Johnson's partner for next Saturday's Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will be usual Fox Soccer Channel studio pundit Warren Barton. According to Deitsch, "Fox Sports co-president Eric Shanks liked how Johnson and Barton interacted during their first broadcast last February."
D.C. United has been occupying Struggle City so far this season, but in the midst of the difficulties, Steven Goff of the Washington Post reports goalkeeper Bill Hamid has shown signs of development maturity-wise.
Speaking of D.C., Sporting KC's Graham Zusi shared his thoughts about Landon Donovan not getting called into the next U.S. men's national team camp, and his own situation under Klinsmann, after his team's draw at RFK. "I wasn't completely shocked to be honest, because he's just coming back and he's getting back into form," Zusi said.
As last Sunday's Morning Read showed, Jay DeMerit has a lot of free time on his hands now that he's nursing that torn ACL. Resting on his laurels, he is not.
With NBC taking over EPL broadcasting rights in America next season, Sunday marked the final time that FSC would do its thing. On his weekly pregame-show segment, Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl touched on a number of topics relating to American soccer.
