The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 starts in two days and broadcaster Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. FOXA is waiting for the event with utmost expectations.
The largest women’s sporting event on the planet will be exclusively broadcasted by Fox and Comcast Corp. CMCSA owned Spanish-language network Telemundo across the United States. In 2010, 21st Century Fox in partnership with Telemundo had acquired all rights to the FIFA events from 2015 to 2022 for a sum of $1 billion. Prior to this, The Walt Disney Company’s DIS ESPN and Univision held the rights for FIFA events from 2010 to 2014.
21st century Fox had paid $400 million while Telemundo shelled out $600 million. This reflects a substantial rise from the combined cost of $425 million paid by ESPN ($100 million) and Univision ($325 million) for the 2010-2014 events.
Although it might appear that 21st Century Fox has taken a risk by dishing out such a hefty amount for the deal, it should be noted that live sports coverage these days is attracting more viewers than ever. Moreover, soccer is gaining popularity in the United States and more so since the national team made it to the Round 16 of 2014 Men’s World Cup held in Brazil.
Women’s soccer has also started to attract a lot of viewers these days and hence, broadcasting soccer tournaments will help 21st Century Fox to expand the reach of its sports channels that currently has a relatively smaller audience compared to ESPN. Rising viewers guarantees increase in sponsorships and in turn, higher advertising revenues.
21st Century Fox is leaving no stone unturned to match up to the standards of international coverage. For the first time ever, the company will ‘’rebrand’’ its Fox Soccer channel as FIFA Women’s World Cup Channel for the entire tournament i.e., from Jun 6 till Jul 5, which guarantees more exposure. While Fox, Fox Sport 1 and Fox Sport 2 will offer live coverage, Fox Soccer will have documentaries, archival footage and replays. Moreover, live streaming of the matches will be available on FOX Sports Go app and at FoxSportsGo.com.
The tournament, to be held in six cities across Canada, will have 52 matches. 16 matches will be aired on Fox including 2 group play, 2 quarter finals, 1 semi-final and the final match. Fox Sport 1 will air 29 matches including the U.S opener match, entire round 16, two quarter finals and one semi-final. The remaining 7 matches will be broadcasted on Fox Sport 2. Additionally, the channels will have a pre-match and a post-match commentary after each game.
The seventh edition of the tournament will have 24 teams competing to become the World Champions. The teams are divided into 6 groups each containing four teams. The defending champions Japan has been placed in Group C with Cameroon, Ecuador and Switzerland, while U.S is in Group D along with Nigeria, Australia and Sweden. Notably, Group D has been referred to as group of death as it boasts of three teams that are in top 10 FIFA rankings. U.S begins its campaign in the tournament by contending against Australia on Jun 8.
With over 200 hours of extensive coverage, 21st Century Fox expects to provide viewers the best multi-platform coverage that the tournament has hitherto seen. 21st Century Fox recently acquired the telecast rights of 2026 World Cup.
At present, 21st Century Fox carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Another stock worth consideration in the media sector is The New York Times Company NYT which carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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