ESPN, ABC Land World Cup
The World Cup finally has an English-language TV home in the United States--ESPN and ABC.
The Walt Disney Co. networks will air the games from the May 31-June 30 tournament in South Korea and Japan under a broad deal with Major League Soccer announced Wednesday.
Most games will start between 11:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. Pacific time. The final will be June 30 at 4 a.m.
Unlike in 1998, though, ESPN and ABC won’t be paying upward of $20 million for the broadcast rights to the world’s most-watched sporting event. Instead, the networks are turning over time slots to MLS, which will sell ads and cover production costs.
The package, which reportedly cost MLS $40 million to $50 million, includes the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the 2003 Women’s World Cup in China, and five seasons of MLS games through 2006.
Of the 2002 World Cup’s 64 games, 17 will be shown live on ESPN, 46 live on ESPN2 and the final live on ABC, which will show eight other games on tape.
