The only difference is it will be streamed and not on cable. Which I think most soccer fans are either indifferent or prefer streaming.
Yea, so I am in the "non-most" category of soccer fans who doesn't stream but like to watch cable. For me it's not about the money, it's about the fact that I really don't care about "streaming" on my phone or my computer. And I haven't figured out streaming on my TV.
I know for a fact that between FS1, FS2 and Fox Soccer Plus, Fox shows about 5 or 6 Bundesliga games each weekend: 1 on Friday, usually 3 on Saturday, and usually 2 on Sunday. And they show many of those games more than once (live, and then in replay). I rarely watch (or at most 1 BundesLiga game), but I almost always watch the BundesLiga Highlights show on Saturday evening or Sunday evening, where you get all the highlights of all the weekend's games in 1 hour, just terrific.
Yeah, but Fox Soccer Plus costs $15/month a la cart on Verizon here in Richmond. That's $180 a year. That's a complete rip-off for not even a full slate of Bundesliga matches and a few random Cup matches. And like I said before, FS1 and FS2 are increasingly not being offered in basic cable packages so you may have to move up a tier or get a sports bundle to get those as well.
Compare that to NBC's Premier League packages which are $40 a year for all the games, and $65 for all the games plus all the highlight shows. And for $65, the games are on demand so you can watch them whenever and as many times as you want.
That's the advantage of streaming. The network paid for the exclusive rights to all the games and that price is being passed on to the consumer, so why don't they show you all the games? You can't do that if you only have three channels. But if you stream, then you are no longer bound by the available cable channels. People can select any game they want. Fox tried to charge yet another $20 a month for streaming match plus ON TOP of the other costs.
So theoretically, ESPN could charge you the same rip-off $40 a season for Bundesliga and maybe Turner can charge another $100 for Champion's League and UEFA. So for $180 you could have every PL, Bundesliga and Champion's League match for the price of Fox Soccer Plus.
Or maybe they don't go full into a la cart match streaming. You can still get ESPN+ for $5.00 instead of paying $15 for Fox Soccer Plus. And you also get Serie A, Coppa Italia, English Chocabo League Cup, English FA Cup, Eredivise and most of the USMNT matches, instead of poopoo MLS and Liga MX. Actually, I think you get the poopoo MLS and Liga MX too because FOX and ESPN split the rights. Or you can get ESPN+ AND HULU (and Disney+, if you care) for $12.99 a month. So even in the worst case scenario, where things stay the same but you just change channels from Fox Soccer Plus to ESPN+, you're coming out ahead.
Unless you really care about Liga MX, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox owning soccer rights has been a rip-off for years. They used to have the rights to ALL those leagues, but they did a shitty job of promoting them and making the games available. They're clearly moving in a different direction.
ESPN has committed to showing I think 8 Bundesliga matches a year on regular-ass basic cable ESPN, which is more than Fox showed. So for the casual consumer, they're getting more games. And for the die-hard consumer, they may get the option to pay to get EVERY game, or at the very least a comprehensive channel that covers a shit-ton more soccer
at a cost that is a fraction of what they were paying for FS1, FS2, and Fox Soccer Plus (and possibly streaming Match Pass). I don't know if that's what ESPN will do, but theoretically they could. If so, then what you have is a win for both the occasional big match viewer and the die hard fans.
I mean, no one should trust Disney. I'm sure they'll find a way to fuck it up eventually, and there's no guarantee it'll be that great in the first place. But it's hard to imagine that it would be worse than Fox. Will their commentators likely be bad? Sure. Will they be Alexei Lalas bad? Doubtful.
