{"id":709137,"date":"2026-06-17T08:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709137\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:08:10","slug":"fox-is-frustrated-by-lack-of-world-cup-coverage-by-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709137\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox is “frustrated” by lack of World Cup coverage by ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Cup is up and running, in 11 NFL stadiums. The United States won its opening game convincingly, with an eye-popping TV audience of nearly 25 million<\/a> across Fox, Telemundo, and Peacock.<\/p>\n

And Fox, which holds the American broadcast rights (English language), is reportedly not pleased by the amount of coverage the World Cup is receiving from the self-styled Worldwide Leader in Sports.<\/p>\n

Via Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, \u201c[s]ome Fox executives are frustrated<\/a>\u201d that ESPN is apparently giving international soccer the cold shoulder. The article points to ESPN\u2019s lack of focus on the 4-1 win over Paraguay, the first three-goal victory by the U.S. in a World Cup since 1930.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a historic performance by Team USA,\u201d an unnamed source told McCarthy. \u201cWhere in the hell was ESPN?\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN previously had the rights to broadcast the World Cup. Fox took over in 2018. This year, Fox is reportedly paying only $485 million for the full tournament. (And Fox is reportedly making $250 million from the made-up \u201chydration breaks\u201d during what usually are two 45-minute halves of uninterrupted play.)<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s broadcast rules don\u2019t help matters. As explained by McCarthy, ESPN can show no highlights from a given day\u2019s games until all games for the day have ended and Fox\u2019s coverage has concluded. FIFA\u2019s rules also confine highlights to SportsCenter, and not to other programming.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning\u2019s edition of Get Up!, host Mike Greenberg promised that the World Cup will be addressed on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll cover this every day for you here, because obviously this is a major international happening taking place on national soil,\u201d Greenberg said, per McCarthy.<\/p>\n

With the NBA and NHL seasons concluded, and with the NFL offseason programs almost fully wrapped up, there\u2019s plenty of real estate to talk about the World Cup. All that\u2019s left at this point is Major League Baseball and the College World Series.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s no surprise that ESPN would embrace certain sports and shy away from others. Now that ESPN has a deal with the WWE, there\u2019s plenty of ESPN integration of something that really isn\u2019t a sport, because the outcomes are scripted. (That doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t physically demanding and grueling for the wrestlers.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always an element of force-feeding by networks as to the sports they televise or partially own. When ESPN took an equity stake<\/a> in the Arena Football League 20 years ago, the Arena Football League suddenly became far more relevant to ESPN.<\/p>\n

Making this particular fight a little more intriguing is the fact that the NFL now owns 10 percent of ESPN, and that Fox has been consistently antagonizing the NFL through the American political process.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it\u2019s in ESPN\u2019s interests to cover the events its viewers care about. And its viewers clearly care about the World Cup. To get nearly 25 million people on a Friday night in June to watch an opening-round match proves it.<\/p>\n

The usual choices are lead, follow, or get out of the way. Even if Fox is leading the World Cup coverage, it would be foolish for ESPN to get out of the way. <\/p>\n

Especially if the U.S. keeps winning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Cup is up and running, in 11 NFL stadiums. The United States won its opening game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-709137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}