While all of our attention has rightly been focused on Fox Sports winning the rights to the next three World Cup cycles, the network is slowly strengthening its soccer portfolio even further.
In addition to their already established Champions League (UEFA and CONCACAF) and FA Cup coverage, Fox added MLS regular season action this year. Later this year, Fox will begin airing German Bundesliga games for the first time, which is highly anticipated amongst the hardcore American soccer fanbase. That’s in addition to the Women’s World Cup from Canada this summer, which will mark Fox’s bow on the greatest international stage.
And now Fox Sports looks to be picking up another major tournament – the 2016 Copa America. The South American continental championship has traditionally invited guests to play alongside the ten CONMEBOL nations in a 12 team tournament. But for the centennial edition, Copa America will expand to 16 teams and be a true western hemisphere championship. 10 teams from CONMEBOL will be joined by 6 teams from CONCACAF with the tournament taking place in the United States. It will be arguably the biggest soccer tournament outside the World Cup that the USA will host and take part in.
And SBJ reports that Fox Sports will be announced as the English language rightsholder imminently:
Fox Sports is close to picking up the English-language rights to next year’s Copa América Centenario, sources said. A formal announcement is expected to come at some point this month. Fox Sports declined comment. This year’s three-week tournament is being carried by beIN Sport. Univision last year signed a deal for the Spanish-language rights.
The tournament featuring top teams from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF will be played in the U.S. next year, marking the first time that it has been played outside of South America. The tournament adds to Fox’ soccer portfolio, which already includes MLS, the ’15 FIFA Women’s World Cup, ’15 CONCACAF Gold Cup, ’17 FIFA Confederations Cup and ’18 FIFA World Cup.
This is a huge win for Fox and it represents a greatly intriguing showdown in the summer of 2016. Fox’s broadcasts of Copa America 2016 will go head-to-head with ESPN’s broadcast of Euro 2016. (That’s probably another reason why ESPN was always an unlikely destination for the Copa America rights.) The timeslots may not be in direct competition, but it will be fascinating to see which tournament is able to deliver the higher viewership numbers.
Just as a soccer fan, I cannot wait for the summer of 2016 to see both these tournaments play out with extensive television coverage. It might even be better than a World Cup year! Just imagine being able to watch multiple games from the European Championships in the morning and early afternoon and then flip it straight over to Copa America for the late afternoon and evening. It will be wall-to-wall international soccer and it will be magisterial.
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