Fox Soccer Channel is to be rated by Nielsen starting next month, measuring how many people across the U.S watch the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A and Saturday night’s Major League Soccer broadcast.
FSC, which began as Fox Sports World in 1998, is currently available in more than 33 million homes. It was rebranded as an all-soccer channel in 2005 and shares rights to the EPL with Setanta Sports. However, ESPN will be keeping an eye on the Nielsen numbers as it considers a bid for EPL television rights, starting with the 2010-11 season.
“We already know that English Premier League is a premier global sports property,” said Scott Guglielmino, ESPN’s vice president of programming, “much like FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League and Euro 2008 which have all been strong performers on our networks and platforms. I would expect strong numbers for the EPL in the homes that receive FSC.”
ESPN’s 27 Champions League telecasts last season were watched by an average of 255,000 households, even with matches being played on midweek afternoons. The final last May between Manchester United and Chelsea was the broadcaster’s most-watched Champions League match, drawing 798,000 homes and 1,097,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.
“The global appeal of soccer is unique and we will continue to expand key relationships with key soccer properties to meet the substantial and growing appetite for soccer across all media platforms,” Guglielmino said. Translation: ESPN has finally realized that soccer means money.