Fox Sports won the English-language TV rights to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, a big get for the network, who are making the most of it despite the fact that the United States failed to qualify.
Fox Sports and NBC Sports will now both be televising World Cup matches
NBC Sports is now getting into the World Cup.
Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images
The results of their making-the-most-of-it? Mixed, maybe! We don’t really know yet, though the Guardian sure lit them up pretty good. Also, now they’ve got some competition.
On Wednesday, NBC Sports announced that they would also be televising a World Cup match. It’s just they’ll be doing so in Spanish.
Telemundo owns the Spanish-language rights to the 2018 World Cup in the United States, and Telemundo’s parent company is NBCUniversal, which also owns NBC Sports. So NBCUniversal, for a few matches at least, will be simulcasting the Spanish-language feed on multiple channels they own.
For NBC Sports, it’s a pretty smart bet: A lot of people are going to want to watch the World Cup this summer, and if you can put it on, you might as well. There is no shortage of Spanish-speaking soccer fans in this country, and on top of that, NBC Sports might be able to snag some English-speaking people who aren’t in any mood to listen to, let me just pick a name at random here, Tony Meola.
I’m mostly just hoping this leads to a Anchorman-style broadcaster street fight, one that I am invited to watch, and will be simulcast as a second-screen viewing experience during the third-place game. Don’t just broadcast the content, NBC and Fox. Become the content.
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