beIN SPORTS has acquired the the English- and Spanish-language rights to broadcast CONMEBOL’s Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana tournaments in the United States for the next four years.
The news is a landmark move for the Miami-based broadcaster who takes over the rights previously held by FOX Sports. The annual tournament finished the 2018 season on a high with the most-watched Copa Libertadores final ever on US television after 1.15 million tuned in to watch River Plate defeat Boca Juniors in a game that generated enormous publicity.
The acquisition of the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana rights come at a perfect time for beIN SPORTS. Adding to their rights that include LaLiga and Ligue Un, the addition will strengthen the programming that beIN SPORTS has to offer. Even if beIN SPORTS loses the rights to LaLiga when they expire in the summer of 2020, the network will still have a strong stable of rights that also includes the Turkish Super Lig, motoGP and tennis.
It’s also a statement of intent from beIN SPORTS that the network isn’t going under as some had first feared.
Last but not least, it renews the hope that beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español can be added back to DIRECTV and Comcast in the near future particularly if soccer fans continue contacting the broadcasters to demand that beIN SPORTS be added back to their programming.
SEE MORE: No beIN SPORTS on DIRECTV or Comcast? It’s time to take action
DIRECTV used to be the number one provider of soccer programming in the United States until recently, but with DIRECTV deciding not to renew its agreement with beIN SPORTS, the satellite provider has fallen down in the pecking order of must-have providers for soccer fans.
beIN SPORTS continues to urge consumers to go online to demand that AT&T DIRECTV brings back beIN SPORTS to soccer fans throughout the United States.
For the last several months, sources to World Soccer Talk revealed that beIN SPORTS had been working diligently to try to acquire the rights to the CONMEBOL tournaments despite a lot of interest from several other U.S. broadcasters. And that hard work has paid off for beIN SPORTS.
SEE MORE: Schedule of Copa Libertadores games on US TV and streaming
For a long time, the Copa Libertadores tournament has been the jewel of South American club soccer featuring many of the great teams and rivalries from Latin America. For many English-speaking soccer fans, the competition has flown under the radar. But after December’s memorable River-Boca final and now the acquisition of the rights by beIN SPORTS, the Copa Libertadores has a huge opportunity to win over new and old soccer fans throughout the United States for years to come.
One person, in particular, who’ll be ecstatic about the news is beIN SPORTS co-commentator and analyst Ray Hudson who has been a fan of South American soccer for decades. This will give beIN SPORTS an ideal opportunity to fill weeknight primetime programming with the best of Latin American soccer in an English-language voice, as well as Spanish-language commentary on beIN SPORTS en Español.
SEE MORE: Why beIN SPORTS acquiring Copa Libertadores is a big deal for soccer fans in US
The 60th year of the Copa Libertadores runs from January 22 to November 23, while the 2019 Copa Sudamericana begins February 5 and ends November 9, 2019.
Hopefully they will broadcast as many matches as they can on the connect channels!!!
I’m not too familiar with these tournaments. Do they have matches in the summer as well or is there a break? If there is summer action that’s ideal for beIN as I think most of use stop watching them for the most part once the leagues end, although I did choose their nightly World Cup recap show this summer over Fox and ESPNFC
*most of us
@JP:
You can see their schedule, they pretty much run from January to November (Not sure they’re going to be airing from the pre-group stage,which begins next week.). The group stage ends in may, and the knockout stages start in July, so there is a bit of a summer break.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Copa_Libertadores
The Sudamerica has a summer break as well, but there’s no group stage in that tournament (it begins in about 3 weeks)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Copa_Sudamericana
Thank you Sir! So yeah a bit of a hiatus from June to late July, but not terrible. We get some real competitive soccer late summer (if no EURO/WC) instead of just exhibitions like the ICC and various friendlies.
There has to be a hiatus in the summer for International tournaments. This summer is the Copa America (which will be on Telemundo).
Who can get Copa America tv rights in English this summer?
from BEin Sports USA twitter page
“Watch every second of the @Libertadores and @Sudamericana right here, live and exclusively starting January 22nd.”
https://twitter.com/beINSPORTSUSA
Here is the link to the release from BEIN: VIDEO
https://www.beinsports.com/us/copa-libertadores/video/bein-sports-the-new-home-of-copa-libertadores/1087632
“strong stable of rights that also includes the Turkish Super Lig, motoGP and tennis”
Geesh, if that is a strong stable, NBC Sports must be riding Dinosaurs.
That was my favorite line of the article.
In all seriousness, I’m glad they got the rights.
If they loose la Liga bein sports is dead channel just like Gol TV
Why have Bein Sports stopped the Xtra Show from Tuesday to Thursday at 7pm . They are only showing it Monday & Friday like the Locker room at 7:30 pm . They still have it weekends at 4;45pm
If BeIn Sports cannot settle their differences with COMCAST, DIRECTV or any other provider, Why not just have BeIn Sports connect available to everyone? Forget TV, Let us watch LaLiga and the rest streaming online instead of this war with TV providers. I don’t wanna buy FuboTV. Make a deal for just the streaming service, it’s better than nothing.
sling world sports for $10.00 a month gets you all of the beIN sports channels including the connect channels in the sling app. As more people cut the cord, beIN might be better served by trying to work out deals with YouTube TV, Hulu TV, Playstation Vue and the other streaming companies.
Bein sport in english wasnt even in high def on comcast in Chicago.
When is the Copa America 2019 draw on tv
Watched a bit of this on Tuesday and Wednesday night, mostly Tuesday. While the quality of play is decent, it’s difficult to get emotionally involved in the match not knowing which club is historically good/bad…if a certain result is unexpected…and normal things like that we take for granted when watching the bigger leagues and competitions. beIN would be wise to do a brief overview of the history behind the clubs playing before the match so we have a bit more context (this many league titles….last year advanced to such and such round of this tournament, etc)