In a press release sent out within the past hour, ESPN has detailed it’s plans for World Cup 2010 coverage.The most refreshing piece of news is that all coverage will be provided on air from South Africa. Bob Ley who was ESPN and ABC’s lead US National Team play by play announcer for many years returns to studio duty for this World Cup and Chris Fowler of College Gameday fame joins the team.
While on the whole a major upgrade over the coverage for World Cup 2006, the dropping of Rece Davis who has been the studio host for the last three major International Football Tournaments on ESPN or ABC in favor of Mike Tirico is a bitter pill to swallow for a true football fans. Tirico is a professional having done a credible job on ABC’s Golf Coverage when he replaced Roger Twibell years ago in addition to his work on American team sports. But Davis is also a consumate professional and has demonstrated his quality on air with his work in previous major football tournaments.
ESPN will show all 64 matches of the tournament live and in HD oneither ABC, ESPN or ESPN 2.
Here are ESPN’s Coverage Plans:
* SportsCenter at the FIFA World Cup;
* World Cup Live – the daily, 30-minute news, highlights and analysis program (30 episodes) aired each night of the tournament on ESPN or ESPN2;
* Live 30-minute pre-match, halftime (15 min.) and post-match shows on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2;
* World Cup segments on ESPNEWS, First Take on ESPN2, and Outside the Lines.
Also from the ESPN Press Release:
In the United States, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will combine to present high definition coverage of all 64 matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa June 11 – July 11, 2010. Beyond its English-language exclusive coverage in the U.S., ESPN Inc. is a World Cup rights-holder in Brazil (ESPN Brazil) and in the ESPN Star Sports (ESS) territories of India, Pakistan, The Maldives, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Middle East.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
FWIW, the WaPo’s Goff Soccer Insider calls ESPN’s Sunday Confed Cup final broadcast “what is believed to be its largest audience for a non-World Cup men’s soccer game ever.”
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And Goff is now reporting that Sunday’s game garnered a preliminary 2.7 rating:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2009/06/miami_likes_soccer.html
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I got a text that we got a 2.8 overnight. The truth is 2.7 is probably right. As these ratings are adjusted they tend to go down.
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Which would make it around 3 million actual viewers, right?
So when I think of soccer’s position in the USA, and see that the UEFA Champions League Final (on a weekday) got a million and change, that’s gotta be good, right…?
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Whoops — apparently that doesn’t include Univision’s numbers, which coulda been a lot higher.
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Yeah, waiting for the Univision numbers. According to Goff, on ESPN, Miami/Ft Lauderdale was the top market. I’m guessing on Univision it will be LA.
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Not bad actually, for a sport that’s even less visible in the US than hockey at the professional level, it nearly matched the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on English TV alone. Once the spanish coverage is included, it will surpass it. I think that’s success.
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Tirico isn’t a soccer guy, I think Rece Davis would be a better choice.
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Sounds to me that ESPN is bringing some of it’s heavy hitters. Tirico is a professional and ESPN’s go to guy. Having him on board the WC coverage means the ESPN is serious about it’s coverage and expects a large audience.
Same words for Fowler. This is all good news.
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I agree on Davis. His work on this tournament and the Euros was very good. He was a much needed upgrade over Steve Bunin who they tried to use that first day of the Euros.
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Mike Tirico? Are you joking?
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All games called from on site. WOO HOO!
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Great news! ESPN brings out all the heavy guns
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Let’s hope that they don’t use those American commentators with their poor commentary!
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Please tell me they aren’t going to have Brent Mussberger doing coverage at the World Cup again. He is completely clueless.
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Any idea if ESPN will be showing any replays of the Cup matches each day? Some of us have to work.
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JC, no official news yet, but I can guarantee they’ll replay the games each night on one or more of the ESPN networks.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
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