FOX Sports has made a last-minute U-turn and has decided to broadcast the biggest Bundesliga game of the season between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich on FX.
Originally, FOX Sports announced on Tuesday that the high-profile game would only be shown on FOX Soccer Plus, the sports network that very few soccer fans in the United States have access to. But after an editorial published on World Soccer Talk on Wednesday questioned why FOX wasn’t showing the game live on its other FOX networks, the executives at FOX Sports decided to make a last minute U-turn and will feature the game both on FX and FOX Soccer Plus.
FX is in 92 million homes in the United States.
In addition to being featured live on FX and FOX Soccer Plus, the game will also be shown live on Saturday at 12:30pm ET on FOX Sports GO, FOX Soccer 2GO and FX Now. The match features the teams placed first and second in the league, and after Bayern Munich’s midweek loss, Dortmund has an excellent opportunity to close the gap with the Bundesliga powerhouse.
SEE MORE: Updated schedule of Bundesliga games on US TV and live streaming
FOX Sports originally planned on showing the game only on FOX Soccer Plus because FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports Net have basketball games scheduled at that time, while FOX Sports 2 has NASCAR. Why the network didn’t decide to take advantage of its relationship with other FOX networks to showcase the game is puzzling given that the network has done that before with the Premier League.
Thankfully, FOX ultimately made the correct decision to feature the game on FX. Credit has to go to the outraged fans who expressed their anger and disappointment with FOX Sports when the original news was announced. It shows that networks do sometimes listen to their subscribers. But you also have to wonder how much pressure, if any, the Bundesliga may have placed on the network given FOX’s poor original decision.
With today’s decision, soccer fans can now look forward to what should be an excellent game between Dortmund and Bayern Munich, which will be commentated by Derek Rae and Owen Hargreaves. FX has the following channel assignments on national video providers: AT&T U-verse – 129 (SD) & 1129 (HD); DIRECTV – 248; DISH Network – 136; Verizon FiOS – 53 (SD) & 553 (HD).
