Q: What is Bleacher Report Live?
A: Bleacher Report Live is a brand-new legal streaming service that will broadcast sports to consumers in the United States. Bleacher Report Live, or B/R Live, will be a subscription service (pricing to be announced).
Q: Why should soccer fans be aware of it?
A: Beginning with the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League and Europa League seasons, Turner Sports will be the exclusive rights holder to the competitions in the United States. With Turner Sports owning Bleacher Report (who they bought for a reported $175 million in 2012), Turner has decided to stream most of the Champions League and Europa League games.
Every single game of the UEFA Europa League will be on B/R Live except for the final on TBS or TNT. Approximately half of the UEFA Champions League games will be available exclusively on B/R Live.
Q: What happened to FOX? Why won’t they have coverage?
A: FOX Sports lost the rights to the UEFA Champions League for the 2018/19 to 2020/21 seasons. FOX’s 2017/18 season will be their last as the broadcaster for the Champions League and Europa League in the United States.
Q: When will B/R Live launch?
A: It’s expected to launch in early April 2018. The UEFA Champions League and Europa League coverage will begin in late July or early August.
Q: What details have been revealed regarding the commentators and talent that Turner Sports plans on hiring to broadcast the Champions League and Europa League to viewers in the US?
A: As of press time, the only announcement has been that former NBA star Steve Nash will be one of the soccer analysts.
Q: What other sports, leagues or competitions will B/R Live include?
A: There are no other soccer properties. But the Bleacher Report Live paid service will also include NBA League Pass games, 65 NCAA Championships, PGA Championship, National Lacrosse League, The Spring League, Red Bull Global Rallycross, World Arm Wrestling League and more to be announced.
NBA League Pass, in particular, will provide an innovative, first-of-its-kind experience that will allow fans to purchase and watch live NBA games in progress at a reduced price. Available on B/R Live, the NBA App and NBA.com, the new offering for all NBA League Pass games will debut for the 2018-19 regular season.
There’s always a chance that Bleacher Report Live may try to acquire other soccer properties such as the FA Cup and Serie A as well as other leagues/competitions.
I hope they keep things simple on this streaming service and just use the world feed, I don’t even care about a pre/halftime/post show. They should do it like ESPN3 does right now and just show the matches.
The golden age of soccer on TV in the US is truly over. Will need to pay way more in subscription fees to various providers than cable/satellite ever cost just to approximate the access we once enjoyed.
Agreed. I’m hoping against hope that Premier League Pass was a massive failure this season for NBC. Enough with the corporate greed. Offer all EPL games in a single streaming package. Failing that, at least offer a la cart options by team.
Do you think that this will hurt the momentum gained by the free broadcasts in the States? It seems to me that it loses the casual or new fan and returns International Football to a niche sport broadcast only for those that are already fans and willing to pay a price to see it.
Nash is BFFs with Kyle Martino. While I was not a fan of Kyle when he started, I’ve done a complete 180 as time has gone on. Hopefully Nash gets some pointers
Kobe is a big Soccer fan also, he loves AC Milan, maybe they will hire him too.
Totally agree w/ ya mate!
Wasn’t a fan of Kyle at first, but he’s one of my favorites now!
Personally, I was NOT a fan of FOX’s Commentators for the World Cup (besides the guests like Ian Wright & others)! It really gave me a new appreciation for the EPL Crew on NBC!
…but it is bs that we can’t even get ‘Goal Rush’(coverage of 1 match, that also shows the goals/events from other matches being played at the same time) for Free Anymore!
What about replays of events you cannot watch live. Also the highlight & Magazine shows currently been shown on Fox . What platform will they show up on
They are going to say the make more on reruns of the big bang theory than live CL and EL? Pirate stream for me then.
Lol!
…but actually quite sad, tbh!
Wish NBC had UCL & Europa as well as EPL—seems like they value/respect it(but could just be cause of the god-awful timeslot?…lol)
but yeah, guess it’s gonna have to be FullMatchesAndShows.dotCom for me
It’s a shame that UEFA awarded TNT the rights even if they were the highest bidder. I assume they knew how TNT intended to broadcast the matches. I would think they would lose viewers when their matches are streaming only and I don’t see how that benefits UEFA.
Unless the subscription is super cheap I for one will not be paying more money to watch games that for the most part have been free…. well not really free but…. part of cable/satellite packages all of us here already subscribe to.
Which one will air semifinals and finals of UEFA soccer. Is TBS or TNT?
It makes sense when you consider what time the games air in the US. I’d wager that a majority of US viewers were streaming the games to their phone or computer already
Why won’t Turner Sports show the Europa League on TV?
Are you telling me a stupid show like Lizard Lick towing on TruTV for example is more important and gets more revenue then a professional football/soccer game?
What in the world does Steve Nash know about the Champions League? We’ve seen this play out before when Fox Sports hired Gus Johnson. I know Steve Nash will be an analyst in the studio but please Turner Sports stop embarrassing yourself.
Millions of people are working during the day when the CL & EL are on, I’m curious how many subscribe to this service. Turner Sports can go to hell and take their bleach with them.
Aram, you are right: “The golden age of soccer on TV in the US is truly over.” Back to the late Nineties, pay-per-view and ethnic bars. But, I will like to know more about how Turner Sports management has calculated profitability of this project. Let do simple math: recently, the most watched UCL game on FS1 was Barca – Chelsea with almost 400.000 viewers. If all of them are ready to pay, let’s say, $50 per year to watch UCL that is $20,000.000. Is that enough? Or Turner Sports counts on silent majority of the white (not Latino) elitists and soccer lovers who hate everything that is cheap and affordable?
It’s a shame for soccer fans that this service launches in spring, because the free trial window won’t overlap with the UCL or Europa League. It’d be nice for consumers to get a feel for Turner’s soccer coverage before committing
to a standalone streaming service. (Granted, free trial periods could be offered later on, once the European competitions kick off. I hope that’s the case.)
For now, I’m interested in learning four things:
1) What’s the price point?
2) Will televised UCL games be available for streaming on other Turner apps via cable login?
3) Besides Steve Nash (an intriguing hire), which analysts and commentators will Turner bring into the fold? Personally, I don’t watch studio shows. On the other hand, match commentators can make or break the viewing experience.
4) Will match commentators call UCL games on site or from monitors in the studio? I wouldn’t expect Turner to send commentators to every single Europa League fixture; not even the earliest rounds of the UCL. But I sincerely hope they learn from FOX’s missteps and feature live, on-site commentary for the knock-out rounds. Failing that, offer consumers access to the world feed commentary.
Three requests. 1) Please don’t charge a ridiculous price. 2) Please use the world feed. 3) Please have some on-demand or DVR feature.
All that said, I may be better off learning some Spanish.
What happens to Multimatch 90? Is that a Fox only production? I am going to miss that. It is a great way to either watch multiple games if a team of interest is not playing or a good way to catch up if one cannot watch anything live.
I am not buying this as i have a job and its hard enough to watch UCL or UEL. I never had a problem with Fox and you can bet your ass if Fox still had rights this would not be an issue.
They will try to rip us off . Learn spainish and watch the games on UNIVISION as part of your cable package . I have been watching games on the spainish channel the Concaf Champion League and it is easy to follow
They are not showing UCL. TNT has exclusive rights
Turner (including TNT) has exclusive English-language rights. Univision has exclusive Spanish-language rights to the Champions League and Europa League.
I renewed my annual subscription with fox at the beginning of this year, just to watch the ucl….what a waste of money….
The B/R Live website is still in beta and has a pop up about being free until June… It is July 23. What a train wreck. I hope this crashes and burns.
Any info on when the app will be availble on Roku and price? I have Sling Tv at the moment, anyone know how many games will be available on the Turner channels there?
B/R Live has just been added to Roku as a free download. No word yet on pricing or how many games will be available.
Thanks. So far so good.
Downloaded no problem . I suspect they will charge for the games individually . say $2.99 a game . U have 16 games from the Champions League spread out over 2 days ( Tuesday& Wednesday ) . 2 each on cable over the 2 days . So u will have 12 games left . It would be madness to charge a flat fee for everything . Fans simply will not buy the full package . As for the Europa League 24 games on a Thursday . It makes sense to sell them individually instead of a package . I personally will only buy Chelsea & Arsenal matches as I don’t know much about the other teams . I hope they include the Magazine & Highlight shows like what NBC Gold are doing . U can watch it at your convenience .
It looks like BRL has the rights to the Belgian league. They are offering the games for free currently. Not a major league but more soccer is a good thing!
It seems they also have some cup competitions, from Sweden, Poland, Switzerland. They also have the Asian Continental Competition…
I noticed for a few replays (non-soccer related), there is a $2,99 price tag to watch. I hope they don’t do that as a poster suggested above. If so, I’ll just settle for what is on the linear channels and fill in any gaps with Univision. I don’t know any Spanish, but it is not that hard to follow along.
Gaffer,
I noticed when searching on the help section a Soccer Match Subscription for B/R Live. However, there was no mention of cost or how to subscribe. Have you heard anything?
No details have been announced yet but they should be releasing pricing information soon.
Can we get a handy guide of what competitions are on what channel/service?
You read my mind. I’ve been working on it for the past few weeks. It should be out next week.
$2.99/match, $9.99/month, or $79.99/year
What is included in a Soccer Pass Subscription?
• 2018-19 UEFA Champions League
o All 137 games starting from the play-off round on 8/21/18 through the Final on 6/1/19
o The UEFA Super Cup on 8/15/18
o Select qualification matches from the 1st–3rd round in July/August 2018
o Over 70 additional supplemental programs (Draws, Magazine Shows, Match Night Highlight Shows)
• 2018-19 UEFA Europa League
o All 205 games starting from the Group Stage on 9/20/18 through the Final on 5/29/19
o Select qualification matches from the 1st round through play-off round in July/August 2018
o Over 35 additional supplemental programs (Draws, Magazine Shows, Match Night Highlight Shows)
• 2018-19 Scottish Premier League
o An average of 2–3 matches per round
• 2018-19 Belgian Pro League
o An average of 2–3 matches per round
• 2018-19 UEFA Youth League
o 39 games starting from the Group Stage on 9/18/18 through the Final on 4/29/19
• 2018 UEFA Men’s U-21 Euro Qualifiers
o Select qualification matches
• 2018-19 Scottish League Cup
o Approximately 10 matches
• 2018-19 Scottish Challenge Cup
o Approximately 5 matches
• 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup
o 26 games from the Group Stage on 11/8/18 through the Finals on 12/15/18
• 2018 SAFF Championship
o 12 games from the Group Stage on 9/4/18 through the Final on 9/15/18
• 2018-19 Polish Cup
o Select knockout round matches
• 2018-19 Swiss Cup
o Select knockout round matches
• 2018-19 Swedish Cup
o Select knockout round matches
Pass Perks: In addition to watching live events, subscribers can enjoy the following bonus content.
• B/R Football MatchDay
• B/R Football Halftime
• B/R Football PostMatch
• UEFA Champions League Magazine Shows
• UEFA Champions League Matchnight Highlight Programs
• UEFA Europa League Magazine Shows
• UEFA Europa League Matchnight Highlight Programs
If you are a subscriber, can you watch games after they have aired? Essentially what a DVR would do? Is that included or will there be a fee for that?
Games on B/R Live are available on replay so you can watch them at a later time. As long as you subscribe to their Soccer Pass, you can watch the replays at no extra charge.
when are the replays made available?
Your best bet is to contact B/R Live support via https://support.live.bleacherreport.com/ContactUs
Did you hear back about this? I have the same question. How long after the game is completed, will the replay be available?
Usually within a couple of hours after game has ended.
Nightmarish broadcast. Choppy stream but I don’t want a stream: I want a channel to watch the game on. FIFA really screwed up with this for the U. S.
What a nightmare this is, we used to be able to watch any game we wanted on a TV . Now i can’t ever watch the Europa league and only had one choice for the champions league. Ridiculous, if TNT are thinking they are going to break into the soccer market like this, they have another thing coming. Why on earth would i want a basketball player commentating on football. Total crap, thanks very much T.NT
This is utter nonsense. Don’t buy the rights if you’re not going to show all the games. One of the best games of round two, Liverpool vs Napoli, and it’s nowhere to be found. Just give these rights back to someone that knows what they are doing.
I’ve been saying, the day The U.S. (corporate not the fans) gets their dirty hands on world soccer, will be the downfall of the game .
Turner is only broadcasting 2 games a day on tnt. Luckily for me I can watch other games on Spanish channels IF Univision didn’t remove their channel from Dish Network.
Turner, give the broadcast rights to a network who cares about the game and fans. Stick to what you know like the NBA.
as is always the thing in this world MONEY TALKS. I live for football [ENGLISH PAT] but i will not be conned out of more cash after my tv subs each month.I only wish all football fans would say NO!!!
no one paying then turner might get the message.
I refuse to pay any more. It was great the way it was before. They have made a mess of it now and people are losing interest. If this continues it will kill soccer in the US. Bring back the old TV format.
tnt’s coverage of the ucl is absolute rubbish !!! no lyon v barca 1/4 final ?? no univision on dish net . can’t stream because we have wi-fi hotspot internet and it uses all our data to stream anything . tnt is the worst thing that ever happened to soccer tv in the us . why buy the rights to the ucl if you’re not going to make matches available ? total shiite .