Popular streaming service ESPN+ has acquired the English-language and Portuguese-language rights to the 2019 CONMEBOL Copa América for viewers in the United States, a source revealed to World Soccer Talk.
With Telemundo Deportes already having acquired the Spanish-language rights in the United States, that means that soccer fans will have plenty of choices this summer when they watch the tournament that will feature a line-up of South America’s biggest soccer stars including Brazil’s Neymar, Copa América Winner Luis Suarez of Uruguay, Argentinian soccer legend Lionel Messi, and Colombia’s James Rodriguez, among many others.
All 26 games will be broadcast live in English and Portuguese on ESPN+, which offers a free 7-day trial to new users.
SEE MORE: Schedule of Copa América games on US TV and streaming
Hosted in Brazil, the 2019 Copa América runs from June 14 to July 7, which will be the 46th edition of the quadrennial international men’s soccer championship organized by South America’s soccer ruling body CONMEBOL.
The broadcast of the 2019 Copa America will be during a similar timeframe to the Women’s World Cup (June 7 to July 7) and CONCACAF Gold Cup (June 15 to July 7).
According to a World Soccer talk source, all of the games in English and Portuguese will be streamed exclusively on ESPN+ and not available on TV.
As of press time, ESPN declined to comment about the Copa America rights.
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Since I already subscribe to ESPN+, this is great news!!!!
Too bad beIN didn’t get it, they did a great job in the past promoting it. But with Telemundo already getting the Spanish language rights probably didn’t make sense for beIN to bid for English only and not be able to use for beIN En Espanol, where probably the most interest would be.
I agree
Great news! If you thought you might let your subscription to ESPN+ lapse over the summer, this is a great reason to keep/renew/subscribe!
Already looking forward to this tourney!
But it’s on free to air television via Telemundo. Much like the UCL and EL on B/R Live and Univision, makes sense to just watch the free telecasts in Spanish. Can see what’s happening, don’t need commentary.
It’s $4.99 a month… times can’t be that hard for you, surely?
They’re not and I already have it, but since the tournament will also be on Telemundo will let it lapse during the summer until Serie A starts up again. Never tried B/R Live thanks to having Univision and access to watch even non televised matches online through cable authentication.
Will ESPN have a commentary and studio team?
Since it’s just being shown on + rather than their regular channels, they’ll likely just used the English commentary world feed like they do for everything else.
I don’t think that Conmebol has a world feed.
They have a world feed. In 2016 the World Feed broadcasts were available on Fox Soccer Match Pass stateside. Dave Woods, John Roder, Dan O’Hagan, John Helm, and Tony Lockwood served as the World Feed commentators for the 2016 edition.
Apparently Ale Moreno and Fernando Palomo will be the match commentators. I don’t know anything else
ESPN Deportes should have acquired the rights to the Copa America in Spanish with ESPN3 in English. If the USMNT participated in the Copa, perhaps the games would be on TV.
Also, UDN is so much better than Telemundo.
You are dreaming if you think Disney en Español would pursue a policy contradicting Disney in English. Disney proclaimed that futbal would be on ESPN+ and it was done.
Hello John,
What should happen to ESPN Deportes in your opinion, if they’re not going to have any football? What happens if ESPN Deportes decides to leave the company? How would that affect ESPN/Disney financially? I hope they would leave, do something.
Stop being a parrot for Disney. I’m not interested in their talking points.
The joy of watching with friends and strangers in a pub is gone with ESPN +
I may just get the annual pass for ESPN+. Cancelling it in the summer, like I’d planned to, is a cheesy move anyway…now I’m not even tempted to.
By the way, what is the status of the US La Liga TV contract? I’d think that should be up for bidding soon. That’s really the last bit of prized inventory that BeIN sports holds.
LaLiga rights end in May 2020, so bidding for the rights for the 2020/21 season onwards will begin later this summer/early fall.
I see ESPN have required the rights to The International Champions Cup for the next 3years from Revelant Sports who by the way have the rights to La Liga for next 15 years so watch this space to see will ESPN get the La Liga rights after May 2020
What about Univision or Telemundo are they interested in getting la Liga and Copa del Rey rights after May 2020
Either would be massive.
Chris what’s the ballpark $$ ESPN paid for these rights? I think it was reported that beIN paid around $15M for the 2015 tournament
Instead, ESPN and ESPN deportes could get la Liga and copa de rey after bein expire in 2020
It could go ESPN or others ?
really getting tired of everything behind a paywall
Cable and Satellite TV are “Paywalls”, too…
The difference is a lot of the content behind new paywalls were being provided as part of other services we were paying for. Champions League and Europa coverage on FS1 and FS2 showed a lot of games. Now, our cable/sat bills are the same, despite the significantly reduced number of matches.
FA Cup is gone, but the cable/sat bills haven’t dropped. It is costing more for the content we used to pay less for.
Try living elsewhere around the world where sport on TV is considered a premium product. As far as I’m aware, the US is the only country to have live sports so frequently in basic to mid-tier packages. Pretty much every other country in the world charges an extra subscription for it, in a HBO/Showtime kind of way.
I am also tired of thing going behind a paywall, but we (in hour house hold) are streaming more things anyway. Our cable company will never add BeIN, and the only reason I have it now is by splitting the FuboTV service with my son (he gets nascar and I get La Liga out of this). Cable has been kept around for ESPN and some other things.
But at least we will get access to Copa America which is better than not getting it at all.
About La Liga going to ESPN+, I am not so sure about this. If they they just use the world feed, then the league won’t get to much promotion. Since BeIN is not spread so thin, more games are available with English commentary than in previous seasons (not every provider supports SAP).
If ESPN+ gets La Liga or other competitions, when does the price go up? I am expecting a rate increase this fall. Does it get to a point where some of us have to make decisions about cutting something else? This year it was an easy one… no B/R live for me. I didn’t watch too many of the Europa league games, and I miss a lot when the ULC games are on weekdays. Plus, it sound like that the coverage is a train wreck. At least ESPN+ is reliable (in our house at least).
It sucks that Playstation Vue couldn’t come to an agreement with BeIN because it is clearly the best streaming service with all the ESPN owned channels, NBC Sports channels, Fox Sports channels, CBS Sports, Telemundo, local cable sport channels, and locals. The only thing you don’t get is the Univision owned channels and BeIN channels. Also probably the best DVR service among the streaming TV services and best picture quality except for maybe Fubo’s 4k steams of certain games.
Agreed, I dropped Playstation Vue when they dropped beIN.
If I drop cable TV I will go back to PS Vue even though it doesn’t have BeIN. I don’t really watch La Liga much so it doesn’t mean that much to me.
Agreed, from a promotion stand point beIN is great for La Liga. On + they would likely get lost in the shuffle like Serie A with the one odd match shown on TV a weekend….and probably not even Barca or Real Madrid as they’d want to keep most of that on + to entice subscribers. Juve is usually shown on +, marquee matches never on TV.
Espn said they denied Copa America Rights.
Righ here.
https://media.sportbusiness.com/news/espn-denies-copa-america-2019-deal/
Hah, they actually call out this article.
Does World Soccer Talk stand by its reporting? Why would ESPN deny the deal?
David, we stand by our reporting. My source says that ESPN+ will broadcast the tournament. But they may not be ready to announce the deal yet until either (a) all of the legalese has been completed and/or (b) CONMEBOL gives them permission to make the news public.
THIS article is try to trick people by saying ” will be streamed exclusively on ESPN+ and not available on TV.” All the games will be on Telemundo FOR FREE!!! this all has to do with PC bull crap. they don’t want people watching copa America because fifa purposefully made the women’s world Cup , copa American ,and the CONCACAF Gold Cup all during he same time. A lot of people at ESPN thought this was a huge slap in the face to the womens world cup because it was going to take people away from watching womens soccer. Here’s a thought , how about not being but hurt at the fact that the womens world cup will never have the same broadcast rating and corporate sponsors that Copa America and mens wold cup have , and just let people enjoy the fact that there are three different tournament to watch on tv . but instead ESPN wants to have people pay to watch games on their phone
Telemundo is only in SD in many markets with black stripes on the screen, no HD. Comcast and others simply don’t care about the channel. Who wants to watch the beautiful game in SD with a narrowed screen and a foreign language in the 21st century? not me. I might just subscribe to ESPN plus and enjoy the Copa America online. The Copa should have gone to Univision or ESPN Deportes as both networks are in HD.
I can’t believe another major sports tournament will pass by and a national HD signal hasn’t happened yet. Olympics, Women’s WC, World Cup and now Copa America. Will have to go through Apple TV once again. Comcast/NBC/Universal truly don’t care about Telemundo.
I find it funny that if ESPN got the rights to it in English you would think they would want to start promoting it. They haven’t even mentioned it on ESPN FC yet.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/copa-america/story/3863372/espn+-to-stream-this-summers-copa-america
Question for WST. After the 2016 copa america centenario I asked who had the rights to the 2019 Copa America. WST said it was Bein sports. What happened in the since then? Wonder since at the time it seemed fox wanted future joint Copa America Centenario
TV right because they couldn’t get the rights for the official Copa tournament. Excited to see how ESPN covers it.
Thanks
Hi Robert, that was a mistake on my part. I thought beIN SPORTS had a very good chance of continuing the rights they had.
Thanks for the clearing that up.
ESPN FC this week started promoting that they have the English rights to the Copa America
ESPN Deportes Radio will have all the matches.