Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer solidified their national-television presences Monday.
MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation announced a new, eight-year television and media rights partnership with ESPN, FOX and Univision Deportes.
FOX and ESPN will share the English-language rights to MLS and U.S. men’s and women’s national team games, while Univision has the exclusive rights to air them in Spanish.
The new deal gives MLS consistent time slots on national television, allowing fans to tune in at the same time each week. Univision will televise one exclusive MLS game on Friday evenings — primarily on UniMás — and a wrap-up show on Sundays.
ESPN and FOX will create an MLS doubleheader on Sundays by showing back-to-back games at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET, respectively.
All three networks will televise U.S. national team games. ESPN and FOX will split the men’s national team broadcast package of approximately 10 games per year and will share the schedule of women’s national team games.
Univision Deportes will show all of the men’s national team’s games and at least four of the women’s national team games.
The three networks will pay a combined average rights fee of $90 million per year through 2022, according to the Sports Business Journal. The reported fee is five times more than what current broadcast partners ESPN and NBC pay MLS and U.S. Soccer.
Photo via Twitter/@FOXSoccer
