After months of on-again/off-again negotiations, Fox Sports has secured the English-language media rights to this summer's Copa América Centenario, scheduled to be held in June at 10 venues across the U.S. A formal announcement is expected later today. It is not clear how much Fox paid as part of the one-year deal. Univision holds the event's Spanish-language rights. The deal gives Fox Sports cross-platform rights, with games set to air on Fox, FS1 and FS2, with authenticated streaming set for the Fox Sports Go platform. The broadcaster has not decided yet how many games it will put on its broadcast network or cable channels, but it plans to televise all of the tournament's 32 matches. Fox was close to cutting a deal for the event last year as the FIFA scandal broke, but that news caused the net to walk away from the negotiating table. CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, in conjunction with the local organizing committee led by U.S. Soccer, eventually brought SUM and IMG on board to sell its rights globally, making Fox more comfortable to do a deal. Last year's Copa America rights belonged to beIN Sport.
NOT TOO MUCH COMPETITION: Once Fox Sports was re-engaged, negotiations took about two to three months to complete. Fox Sports Head of Business Opeations David Nathanson said, "Once SUM and IMG decided to rep the media rights globally, we were in a position of feeling more comfortable moving forward. These are parties that we have done countless deals with in the past." Meanwhile, sources said that ESPN and NBC Sports did not show a lot of interest. The tournament starts in June at the same time that ESPN carries the UEFA European championships. There is not expected to be much overlap between the two tournaments, as ESPN will carry the Euros in the morning and early afternoon, with Fox carrying Copa America in the late afternoon and primetime. Nathanson: "We are sure that the new, re-organized partnership can put on a tournament that's up to par with any world class soccer event. There is no question that this is the biggest soccer tournament to hit U.S. soil since the 1994 World Cup."
