The Red Zone Channel is coming full circle. Originally developed in Europe for soccer, then brought to the United States for the NFL, a Red Zone-type highlights channel is being developed by Fox for the UEFA Champions League.
Now how would this work? With as many as eight games being played simultaneously in the early rounds of the Champions League, Fox is planning to start “Multimatch 90” which would air on Fox Soccer Plus, the pay per view channel which costs up to $14.99 a month.
Multimatch 90 would begin on September 16 and last 12 CL Matchdays through December 10. The show highlights program would be produced from the Fox Sports studios in Los Angeles and be sent across the country to cable subscribers.
The first soccer Red Zone-type channels were first developed in Germany and Italy before the concept came to DirecTV for the NFL. They have since been used for college football, college basketball and MLB here in the United States.
So the concept has come full circle with Fox ready to launch Multimatch 90 for the Champions League.
There will be free previews of the channel on AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV and Verizon Fios in October with other cable providers providing free views in other periods.
If this is successful, imagine NBC unveiling a similar channel for the English Premier League or even the NHL.
Comments are closed.
About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.