FOX Sports’ exclusive coverage of the 2015/16 Bundesliga season will feature games that will be shown live across FOX Sports 2, FOX Soccer Plus and streaming service FOX Soccer 2GO.
UPDATE: FOX SPORTS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES BUNDESLIGA TV COVERAGE PLANS.
As of press time, here’s what World Soccer Talk can reveal so far: about the first season of a five-year deal that FOX Sports has with the Bundesliga:
• Every single game of the 2015/16 Bundesliga season will be shown live and on-demand on FOX Soccer 2GO via the web, mobile and tablet apps (US residents only),
• Select Bundesliga games will be shown live on FOX Sports 2 (see Bundesliga TV schedule for full details),
• We anticipate that select games will be shown on FOX Sports 1. However, as of press time, there are currently no Bundesliga games listed on FOX Sports 1’s TV schedule for the first three weeks of the season,
• Reruns of the Bundesliga games on FOX Sports 2 will be limited. In the first 3 weeks of programming, there’s an average of 1 game a week shown on rerun.
SEE MORE — Preliminary TV schedule for Bundesliga on US TV.
As an indicator of what soccer fans can expect from FOX Sports’ coverage of the Bundesliga, the first game of Bayern Munich’s season will be shown live on FOX Soccer Plus, while their next two games are scheduled for FOX Sports 2.
In the leaked documents we’ve seen thus far, there are no games scheduled to appear on FOX Sports 1. Of course, schedules are subject to change.
What the schedules do indicate, however, is that FOX Sports will often feature two Bundesliga games with Saturday morning kickoffs on FOX Sports 2.
SEE MORE — FOX’s lack of communication about Bundesliga coverage is worrisome
A typical weekend schedule of Bundesliga coverage on FOX Sports will feature:
• Friday: The 2:30pm ET game will sometimes be shown live on FOX Soccer Plus, but will always be available live on FOX Soccer 2GO,
• Saturday: FOX Sports 2 will feature a 30-minute game preview show beginning at 9am ET, followed by coverage of the one featured match from 9:25am to 11:30am ET on FOX Sports 2.
At the same time of the 9:30-11:30am ET game on FOX Sports 2, a different Bundesliga game will be televised on FOX Soccer Plus.
The other three 9:30am ET Bundesliga games will be shown live on FOX Soccer 2GO.
Following the 9:30am-11:30am ET game, FOX Sports 2 will air a rerun of UFC.
Then, at 12:25pm ET, FOX Sports 2 will feature 5 minutes of pre-game before the 12:30pm-2:30pm ET game is shown live. At 2:30pm ET, FOX Sports 2 will return to showing UFC reruns.
• Sunday: There are two games on a Sunday — one that kicks off at 9:30am ET, followed by one that starts at 11:30am ET. In addition to all of these games being shown live and on-demand on FOX Soccer 2GO, select Sunday morning games will be shown on either FOX Sports 2 or FOX Soccer Plus.
For the first 3 weeks of the Bundesliga season, week 1 has one of the Sunday morning clashes on FOX Soccer Plus, week 2 has one of the games on FOX Sports 2 while week 3 has both games on FOX Soccer Plus.
On an average Bundesliga weekend, 2 matches will be shown on FOX Sports 2 while 2-3 will be shown on FOX Soccer Plus.
So where does this leave fans of German soccer?
Soccer fans face three major hurdles:
One, not everyone has access to FOX Sports 2. There are still many TV providers (some regional Comcast ones, for example) that don’t offer FOX Sports 2. Currently, FOX Sports 2 is in 46 million homes, while FOX Sports 1 is in 84 million.
Two, for many viewers who are able to get FOX Sports 2, the coverage is not available in HD.
Three, after being in existence for more than five years, FOX Soccer Plus is still not available via many TV providers in the United States. For those who do offer it, it’s a premium channel priced up to $20/month and won’t provide access to every game.
The only way to gain access to every Bundesliga game live and on-demand during the season is via FOX Soccer 2GO. A monthly subscription to FOX Soccer 2GO is $19.99, but an annual subscription is available for $99.99 (which works out to be $8.33/month).
Share your thoughts regarding the coverage in the comments section below.
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