When NBC won Barclays Premier League rights away from Fox in October, it was apparent that time was starting to run out on Fox Soccer Channel.
Fox to shut down Fox Soccer, replace it with youth-oriented comedy network
With Premier League and MLS gone from the network, Champions League and other soccer programming will move to Fox Sports 1.
Buda Mendes
Today, it appears that Fox has determined a definite date for that time to expire, as Fox Soccer Channel will close its doors in August this year. The network will be replaced by FXX, a sort-of comedy, “youth-oriented” spinoff of FX. The network will target younger viewers with movies, original comedy series like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League, reruns of shows like Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, and also Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management. The network won’t exactly be the “very funny” counterpart to FX’s knowledge of drama, but you get the idea.
Fox still does have rights to Champions League programming from various regions, including UEFA and CONCACAF, as well as the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and 2019 and the World Cup in 2018 and 2022. The new network, Fox Sports 1 -- which debuts on Aug. 17 of this year -- will carry all UEFA Champions League programming. It will also be one of the main networks televising the World Cup.
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