Fox Sports Bundesliga Coverage

Z4CH3B99

Z4CH3B99

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Aug 5, 2014
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The upcoming 2015/16 season of the Bundeliga is scheduled to be aired in the USA on Fox Sports networks. As expected many football fans in the USA are excited to watch German giants like Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund in their living rooms on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Despite the growing interest in German football, I hadn't seen a single advertisement or piece of information regarding how Fox sports will broadcast games. In fact, I still haven't seen anything officially from Fox Sports. The only inkling of information that I have seen was posted on WorldSoccerTalk. The article claimed that Bundesliga matches would be shown on FoxSports2, Fox Soccer, and the Fox Sports streaming service. If this article is true it is supremely disappointing for many football fans in the USA. 46 million households have access to FoxSports2 and even fewer have Fox Soccer or the streaming service. The article claims that no matches have been scheduled on Fox or FoxSports1 for at least the first 3 weeks of the season.

What do you guys think of the lack of coverage that the Bundesliga will be getting in the USA? Has fox made a mistake limiting its coverage?
 
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Wow. They're going head to head with the Premier League on the weekends? oof. Decisions, decisions.
 
The problem is that Bayern Munich only plays one match per week, and they can't play against themselves. So there are so few games that would be desireable to anything more than a super-niche audience. While dedicated soccer fans like the Bundesliga, that casual public who probably makes up 90% of EPL audiences, would have no interest in Shalke v. Hertha Berlin or Bayern v Eintracht Frankfurt. When January rolls around and Bayern has already pretty much wrapped up the league, it will be difficult to attract viewers.
They likely can draw more value if they assume the niche supporters will subscribe to the premium soccer properties, instead of getting low rating and no further revenue by putting it on FS1.
 
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413Blue said:
The problem is that Bayern Munich only plays one match per week, and they can't play against themselves. So there are so few games that would be desireable to anything more than a super-niche audience. While dedicated soccer fans like the Bundesliga, that casual public who probably makes up 90% of EPL audiences, would have no interest in Shalke v. Hertha Berlin or Bayern v Eintracht Frankfurt. When January rolls around and Bayern has already pretty much wrapped up the league, it will be difficult to attract viewers.
They likely can draw more value if they assume the niche supporters will subscribe to the premium soccer properties, instead of getting low rating and no further revenue by putting it on FS1.
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I think the same thing can be argued regarding the EPL. Casual fans care about 5 teams: Araenal, Liverpool, Man City, Man U, and Chelsea. These 5 teams dominate the American football market because they are constantly shown on TV in households across the USA. The rest of the league has niche fans in the USA. The niche fans are continually growing thanks to the great coverage NBC has.

It couldn't possibly hurt to show Bundesliga games on easily accessible channels like FoxSports1. In fact, I believe that it would help the casual fan to become interested in teams such as Bayern, Borussia, Shalke, and Wolfsburg if not the league as a whole.

If Sunderland vs. QPR can make a national broadcast I don't see why Herta Berlin or any other lower table Bundesliga can't.
 
I was just starting to follow Bundesliga a bit more when my cable provider dropped goltv which was then covering it to pick up Bein.

I leaned toward Dortmund , football hipsterism at the time or not, not sure if they'll be as pretty to watch post Klopp or not.

One thing that makes the Bundesliga nice on TV IMO is they they have almost entirely modern fully packed stadiums. Stupid or not it can be a problem for me trying to watch La Liga, Serie A or Ligue one on TV that once you get passed the top of the table teams you have a lot teams with crappy falling apart stadiums , pitches with mud patches, and half full crowds all of which can be negatively distracting. Only other league in Europe that can match the EPL for this.
 
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Z4CH3B99 said:
I think the same thing can be argued regarding the EPL. Casual fans care about 5 teams: Araenal, Liverpool, Man City, Man U, and Chelsea. These 5 teams dominate the American football market because they are constantly shown on TV in households across the USA. The rest of the league has niche fans in the USA. The niche fans are continually growing thanks to the great coverage NBC has.

It couldn't possibly hurt to show Bundesliga games on easily accessible channels like FoxSports1. In fact, I believe that it would help the casual fan to become interested in teams such as Bayern, Borussia, Shalke, and Wolfsburg if not the league as a whole.

If Sunderland vs. QPR can make a national broadcast I don't see why Herta Berlin or any other lower table Bundesliga can't.
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The problem with this is that Fox is not in the business of building other people's business. Bundesliga needs to make itself more attractive for casual tv viewers. Fox is in the business of making money off of their contract. EPL draws nice audiences even without the big clubs, some thanks has to be given to Fox, who spent a lot of money over the years with FSW and FSC taking it from niche to mainstream only to build the value for NBC to come along and take it away. Hopefully Bundesliga replicates that growth, but just like the EPL, it will be relegated to rather obscure channels until it proves that demand is there to give it better coverage.
 
Z4CH3B99 said:
I think the same thing can be argued regarding the EPL. Casual fans care about 5 teams: Araenal, Liverpool, Man City, Man U, and Chelsea. These 5 teams dominate the American football market because they are constantly shown on TV in households across the USA. The rest of the league has niche fans in the USA. The niche fans are continually growing thanks to the great coverage NBC has.

It couldn't possibly hurt to show Bundesliga games on easily accessible channels like FoxSports1. In fact, I believe that it would help the casual fan to become interested in teams such as Bayern, Borussia, Shalke, and Wolfsburg if not the league as a whole.

If Sunderland vs. QPR can make a national broadcast I don't see why Herta Berlin or any other lower table Bundesliga can't.
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Partially yes, but not quite IMHO.
1. Right now it seems that Bayern dominates the Bundesliga in a way that no PL team does. It will change, and some year some other team will make a run at them and even win, but it's much harder to imagine other teams winning while in the PL there always seems to be at least 2-3 teams and sometimes 5 who have a chance going into a season.
2. Tottenham and Everton are a notch below the 5 you mentioned but also have substantial followings. The Bundesliga has lots of Bayern fans here, then a big drop. I mean I know Dortmund is a big team but I've never met a US fan in person, while I know 10+ Bayern fans.
3. Language. Broadcasting the games in English will help, but the PL has a decades long head start in language accessibility. You could always pick up a UK paper, and in the last 20 years read UK papers online and follow the coverage of PL teams in English.
 
mgarbowski said:
Partially yes, but not quite IMHO.
1. Right now it seems that Bayern dominates the Bundesliga in a way that no PL team does. It will change, and some year some other team will make a run at them and even win, but it's much harder to imagine other teams winning while in the PL there always seems to be at least 2-3 teams and sometimes 5 who have a chance going into a season.
2. Tottenham and Everton are a notch below the 5 you mentioned but also have substantial followings. The Bundesliga has lots of Bayern fans here, then a big drop. I mean I know Dortmund is a big team but I've never met a US fan in person, while I know 10+ Bayern fans.
3. Language. Broadcasting the games in English will help, but the PL has a decades long head start in language accessibility. You could always pick up a UK paper, and in the last 20 years read UK papers online and follow the coverage of PL teams in English.
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I never really thought about the language barrier when following things like transfer news and coaching changes or just general information.

One of my best friends is actually a Borussia Dortmund fan. I've also met a few people who casually follow Schalke. The number of fans for these teams will only continue to grow with exposure to the league.
 
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mgarbowski said:
Partially yes, but not quite IMHO.
1. Right now it seems that Bayern dominates the Bundesliga in a way that no PL team does. It will change, and some year some other team will make a run at them and even win, but it's much harder to imagine other teams winning while in the PL there always seems to be at least 2-3 teams and sometimes 5 who have a chance going into a season.
2. Tottenham and Everton are a notch below the 5 you mentioned but also have substantial followings. The Bundesliga has lots of Bayern fans here, then a big drop. I mean I know Dortmund is a big team but I've never met a US fan in person, while I know 10+ Bayern fans.
3. Language. Broadcasting the games in English will help, but the PL has a decades long head start in language accessibility. You could always pick up a UK paper, and in the last 20 years read UK papers online and follow the coverage of PL teams in English.
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People like winners so Bayern are like the 1980s Showtime Lakers or Miami Heat of a few years back. There expected to win the league yearly they have in March and April in record times. As a neutral fan Bundesliga is amazing to watch as long as it's not a Bayern game.

Tottenham is way more popular than Everton too, but partically lots of the english teams have gignantic fanbases worldwide by far the most fans.
 
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Z4CH3B99 said:
All Bundesliga games are being streamed on the FoxSports streaming application. Or they should be. Most websites reported that.
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Pretty sure not all. Just whatever games air on fs1, fs2, and fsp can be streamed. The apps and streaming website do allow you to watch Fs2 in HD. But it's nothing like NBC Sports Live Extra, which will allow you to watch any live EPL game and any replay within 7 days.

I'll take Bundesliga any way I can get it. Three channels are better than Goltv. Go Dortmund.
 
presidentraygun said:
Pretty sure not all. Just whatever games air on fs1, fs2, and fsp can be streamed. The apps and streaming website do allow you to watch Fs2 in HD. But it's nothing like NBC Sports Live Extra, which will allow you to watch any live EPL game and any replay within 7 days.

I'll take Bundesliga any way I can get it. Three channels are better than Goltv. Go Dortmund.
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Except for Verizon because FIOS sucks and won't let you stream Fox. You can stream NBC however.
 
My biggest peeve with FoxSports decision to only air the games on FS2 and FSP is that I don't have access to either of those channels. I don't think it's worth it to pay an extra amount of money to watch a league that I only have a casual interest in. If Dortmund aren't playing I don't really care about the game. And even then, I'm not a huge Dortmund fan. They're my favorite German team because of their amazing fans.
 
I have FS1 and FS2 (not sure about FSP, so I'll have to check out channel 419 later on), so it looks like I'm covered. However it's going to simply come down to whether or not the Premier League or the Bundesliga has the more attractive game being aired at the moment.
 
Would watch a VFL Wolfsburg or Dortmund or Bayern match if there was no interesting EPL match on.

That said, I *hate* Fox's commentating style. Really grating during the WWC and Gold Cup. At least NBC's EPL coverage uses UK commentators and is pleasant to listen to.
 
Keith Putnam said:
Would watch a VFL Wolfsburg or Dortmund or Bayern match if there was no interesting EPL match on.

That said, I *hate* Fox's commentating style. Really grating during the WWC and Gold Cup. At least NBC's EPL coverage uses UK commentators and is pleasant to listen to.
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The WWC team was awful. Truly awful at match commentary.
 
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