22 May 2008Fox wins hunt for England TV rights in the US

Football Sponsors/ Sponsorship and Media | Other Football News

Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel have won the chase to broadcast rights in the United States for the English FA Cup and England's national football team matches by winning four-year contracts with the FA.

The deals will last up to and including the 2011-12 season, and encompass live rights for the FA Community Shield (formerly known as the Charity Shield) and FA Cup matches, including the final.

All England senior and under-21 national team home matches will also be screened by the companies, who will be given access to ancillary FA programming, preview and review shows, archive matches and magazine programmes.

The broadcasters have agreed to share live matches, clips and internet rights but will both show the FA Cup Final live.

England are due to play the USA on May 28th as preparation for their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Football has never caught on in America the way that the sport's administrators hoped it would after the likes of Pele, Beckenbauer and Worthington graced its leagues in the 1970s.

The country's hosting of the 1994 World Cup failed to lead to an explosion in the sport's popularity, although David Beckham is currently attempting to change all that by occasionally turning out for LA Galaxay.

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