The U.S. television rights for the men's and women's World Cup through 2014, as well as every other FIFA event from 2007-2014, have been awarded to ABC/ESPN and Univision, FIFA announced Wednesday.
ABC/ESPN and Univision will lay out $425 million to broadcast 11 FIFA events during the eight-year span, which includes two men's World Cup finals in 2010 and 2014 and two Women's World Cups in 2007 and 2011. ABC and ESPN have secured English-language rights for those events, while Univision has acquired the Spanish-language rights.
Major League Soccer and its marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing, congratulated the networks on the deal. In 2001, SUM struck a deal with FIFA for the U.S. rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. MLS Commissioner and SUM CEO Don Garber lauded the agreement as a "significant step forward" for soccer in the United States.
The agreement is the largest for any single country in FIFA's history and is the first time soccer's world governing body has entered into an arrangement of this scale. The deal includes several different media platforms, including Internet and mobile devices.
Adhering to FIFA's mission of spreading the beautiful game throughout the world, the networks have agreed to run substantial promotions for FIFA events and the FIFA brand across the United States, in addition to raising soccer's profile in the nation through cross-promoting the game via ESPN's wide network of resources and affiliations.
"With these two well-known companies we have ensured that images of our events will be seen by the widest possible audience across the USA's steadily growing football market," said FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter. "I am extremely happy with this momentous deal. It is a major milestone in our new TV approach."
Garber weighed in on Wednesday's announcement by praising the agreement.
"Major League Soccer and SUM congratulate ABC, ESPN and the Univision network on securing the broadcast rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups," Garber said. "It was yet another significant step forward for the sport of soccer in the United States that five major U.S. networks were involved in making bids for English- and Spanish-language World Cup television rights that increased exponentially in value since SUM acquired them in 2001. These recent developments further solidify soccer's standing and value as a major television property in the United States with even greater future potential.
"Given the strong interest displayed by several of the major English- and Spanish-language networks and the belief that it was greatly beneficial to the value of soccer programming in this country, SUM opted to work in close partnership with ABC, ESPN and Univision throughout the FIFA bidding process."
Garber added that SUM and MLS hope to continue to work with the networks to build the sport, and more specifically, the MLS brand, within the United States.
"MLS and SUM now look forward to continuing our very positive discussions toward extending our longstanding relationship with ABC and ESPN and once again becoming part of the Univision family," Garber said. "These new television partnerships will provide Major League Soccer and the U.S. Soccer Federation with the most important broadcast agreement in the sport's history in America. In the immediate and long-term future, today's news will prove to be a historical turning point for the sport."
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story is not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
