UEFA European Championship on United States television

Last updated

The UEFA European Football Championship, [1] commonly known as the UEFA European Championship and informally as the Euros, is the primary soccer competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), determining the continental champion of Europe. Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations' Cup, changing to the current name in 1968.

Contents

History

Setanta Sports (2000–2004)

Coverage of the 2000 Euros was only available to Americans via pay-per-view. More specifically, via closed-circuit television, DirecTV, the DISH Network, and iNDemand cable pay-per-view. Viewers had the option of paying $20 per match, or $149 for the entire tournament. [2] Setanta also charged bars $3,000 [3] for the privilege to carry their coverage. This often meant a $20 cover charge. Fox Sports World did however, offer the rebroadcasts of games on a week-long delay.

Pay-per-view was still the primary option come the 2004 Euros. This time, the price for the entire tournament was worth $179 while the price for bars rose to $4,000. Five live games were however, broadcast on Fox Sports World and Fox Sports Espanol. All quarters and semis would be broadcast on a five-day tape delay, with the final airing on a three-day delay. According to Setanta CEO Michael O'Rourke, they we offered the events to ESPN and Fox Sports Net. Setanta even offered to pay them to put it on, but there just was no appetite.

ESPN/ABC (2008–2020)

ESPN first aired the UEFA Euros in 2008 after reached an agreement with UEFA in December 2006. [4] With UEFA wanting the reverberations of the Euros to reach an international audience, ESPN decided to broadcast all matches live and online in 2008. After receiving good reaction from viewers, ESPN and UEFA continued to work by becoming official broadcasters of 2012, 2016 and 2020 tournament.

Distribution of match broadcasts

  • 2008: ESPN (7 matches), ESPN2 (17 matches), ESPN Classic (5 matches), ABC (2 matches including final) [5] [6] [7]
  • 2012: ESPN (22 matches including Final), ESPN2 (9 matches) [8]
  • 2016: ESPN (39 matches including Final), ESPN2 (12 matches) [9]
  • 2020: ESPN (40 matches including Final), ESPN2 (6 matches), ABC (5 matches) [10]

Fox Sports (2024–present)

In 2021, Fox Sports outbid ESPN for the rights of Euro 2024 and Euro 2028. [11]

On-air talent

YearNetworks Play-by-play Color commentator(s)ReportersStudio host(s)Studio analyst(s)
2024 Fox
Fox Sports 1 		Ian Darke
Derek Rae
Jacqui Oatley
Darren Fletcher 		Landon Donovan
Robert Green
Warren Barton
Owen Hargreaves 		Geoff Shreeves
Tom Rinaldi
Michael Times		 Jules Breach Giorgio Chiellini, Daniel Sturridge, Peter Schmeichel, Ariane Hingst, Alexi Lalas, Stuart Holden, Maurice Edu
2020 [10] [12] ESPN
ESPN2
ABC [13] 		Ian Darke
Jon Champion
Derek Rae
Steve Cangialosi
Mark Donaldson		 Stewart Robson
Taylor Twellman
Efan Ekoku
Alejandro Moreno
Matteo Bonetti		Sam Borden
Martin Ainstein
Archie Rhind-Tutt
Alexis Nunes		 Rece Davis [14] [15] [16]
Kelly Cates
Kay Murray
Sebastian Salazar
Dalen Cuff		 Steve McManaman, Alessandro Del Piero, Julie Foudy, Tim Howard, Chris Coleman, Sami Khedira, Frank Leboeuf, Nedum Onuoha, Kasey Keller, Craig Burley, Christian Fuchs, Luis García, Taylor Twellman, Efan Ekoku, Alejandro Moreno, Matteo Bonetti, and Mark Clattenburg (Rules) [17]
2016 ESPN
ESPN2 		Ian Darke
Jon Champion
Derek Rae
Adrian Healey
Mark Donaldson
Max Bretos 		Taylor Twellman
Steve McManaman
Stewart Robson
Tommy Smyth
Alejandro Moreno
Kate Markgraf
Paul Mariner 		Jeremy Schaap
Marty Smith
Alison Bender		 Steve Bower
Mike Tirico
Bob Ley 		Craig Burley, Michael Ballack, Santiago Solari, Vincent Kompany, [18] Steve McManaman, Taylor Twellman, Julie Foudy, Roberto Martínez, Frank Leboeuf, and Kasey Keller
2012 Ian Darke
Adrian Healey
Derek Rae 		Steve McManaman
Robbie Mustoe
Kasey Keller
Taylor Twellman 		Alicia Ferguson
Darrell Currie 		Bob Ley
Max Bretos
Rebecca Lowe 		Michael Ballack, Alexi Lalas, Kasey Keller, Tommy Smyth, Taylor Twellman, Glenn Hoddle, and Roberto Martínez
2008 [5] ESPN
ESPN2
ABC [6] [7] 		Adrian Healey
Derek Rae 		Andy Gray
Robbie Mustoe
Tommy Smyth 		Pedro Gomez Rece Davis
Rob Stone 		Julie Foudy, Alexi Lalas, Andy Gray, and Tommy Smyth

Notes

Spanish-language television

Euro 2012

ESPN Deportes giving comprehensive coverage of the event with more than 6.5 live hours daily with 27 matches is shown live, and 4 tape-delayed matches (due to simultaneous group stage matches on last matchday). Jorge Ramos and Hernan Pereyra led the broadcast teams with the other is included: Fernando Palomo and Rafa Puente, and Ricardo Ortiz and José Antonio Noriega. José Ramón Fernández hosted studio coverage with analysts Andres Agulla, Jose Hernandez, Mario Kempes, Richard Mendez, Noriega, and Barak Fever. Reporters included Martin Ainstein, Vito De Palma, Alex de la Rosa.

Euro 2016

ESPN Deportes airing 45 matches live, and six matches were tape-delayed (due to simultaneous group stage matches on last matchday). Fernando Palomo and José Antonio Noriega was the lead broadcast team. Other play-by-play announcers were: Ricardo Ortiz, Omar Orlando Salazar and Emilio Fernando Alonso. Color commentators: Mario Kempes, Roberto Gomez Junco, Ricardo Mayorga and Hernan Pereyra. Jorge Ramos leads studio coverage while Andres Agulla, Carolina Guillen and Tony Cherchi also presenting. Studio analysts were: Kempes, Mauro Camoranesi, Barak Fever, Richard Mendez, Ortiz, Alex Pareja, Pereyra, Rafael Puente del Rio and Jose del Valle. Martin Ainstein and Manu Martin are the reporters.

Euro 2020

This event marked a new era for Spanish language broadcasts with Univision being selected as the official broadcaster. 40 matches will be broadcast and streamed on PrendeTV, Univision's newly launched, ad-supported streaming service with the remaining 11 matches will airing on Univision and TUDN including the Turkey vs. Italy opening game at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, both semifinals, and the final. Coverage is led by presenters Adriana Monsalve, Lindsay Casinelli, and Alejandro Berry who joined by numerous commentators, such as play-by-play Luis Omar Tapia, Paco Villa, José Luis López Salido, and José Hernández, and color commentators: Diego Balado, Iván Zamorano, Hristo Stoichkov, Tony Cherchi, Marc Crosas and Hugo Salcedo. Also contributing as studio analysts and co-commentators is former players Carles Puyol, Mauro Camoranesi, and Javier Zanetti. Daniel Chanona and Cristina Romero reporting on location from Europe. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

Derek Rae is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter who currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball Liga for the English-language world feed as well as the Premier League coverage on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. He has provided the English commentary for the FIFA/EA FC video game series alongside former Arsenal players Lee Dixon in 2020 and Stewart Robson, who also played for West Ham United since 2021. He is also an ambassador for Berwick Rangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Tyler</span> English football commentator

Martin Tyler is an English football commentator. He worked as a commentator for Sky Sports from 1990 to 2023, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competitions. Tyler had previously commentated for ITV in the 1970s and 1980s. He provided his voice to the football video game series FIFA from 2005 until 2019. In 2003, he was voted the FA Premier League Commentator of the Decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Football Association of North America</span>

The Australian Football Association of North America (AFANA) is a non-profit organization that formed out of a campaign to save television coverage of Australian rules football in the United States and Canada in 1996. AFANA has an emphasis on the fan, and aims to help the game to develop and to improve its exposure in North America, including better TV coverage.

Jonathan Martin Champion is a British sports commentator currently working as an association football commentator for ESPN and NBC Sports. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the last 20 years. Champion currently covers the FA Cup for ESPN and the Premier League for NBC Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Healey</span>

Adrian Healey is an English football commentator, currently working for ESPN and most recently with MLS Season Pass broadcasts on Apple TV. He is a veteran football commentator in the U.S., working for networks such as ESPN; he was part of the ESPN commentary team in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. He has also been a fill-in host for Dan Thomas on ESPN's soccer show ESPN FC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rece Davis</span> American sports television journalist

Rece Davis is an American sports television journalist for ESPN/ABC. Davis works as an anchor on SportsCenter and serves as host of various other programs on the network, including College GameDay football road show and basketball show. Since 2021, he has been ESPN's lead host for international soccer events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Smyth</span> Irish soccer commentator (born 1946)

Thomas Michael Smyth is an Irish soccer commentator. Since February 1993, he has been employed by ESPN in the United States, where his primary role is as color commentator and in-studio analyst for major soccer events. He also commentates on Gaelic games, horse racing, harness racing, and American football.

Stephen Robert Bower is an English football commentator, one of the main voices for BBC TV's Match of the Day, culminating in being part of the commentary teams for the 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Bower commentated on New Zealand's historic draw with Italy and Argentina's 4–1 win over South Korea amongst others. He can also be heard on TNT Sports covering the Europa League, Serie A, and the Bundesliga, NBCSN covering the Premier League in the US, and ESPN covering international matches. He is the lead presenter on world feed Premier League Productions and presents Premier League football for Amazon Prime Video UK. Previous work includes Setanta Sports, ESPN UK, and MUTV.

ESPN is the Brazilian division of ESPN Inc. Launched in March 1989 as Canal+, it was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States, launched in June 1995. The channel has covered major sporting events, like the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics; the 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 1999, 2003 and 2007 Pan-American Games. High ratings and prestige in the segment have been marks of the channel; it also won the APCA award twice, in 1995 for "Best Sports Programming" and in 1998 for "Best Coverage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup".

In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Soccer Plus</span> American sports-based television channel

Fox Soccer Plus is an American sports channel dedicated to soccer and rugby league football. Launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the United States and Caribbean, it was rebranded on March 1, 2010, as a spin-off of the now-defunct Fox Soccer after its owner News Corporation acquired the channel and its coverage rights from Setanta in January 2010.

Jorge Ramos is an Uruguayan sports commentator, who started out in the U.S. as a writer and editor in La Raza, a top Spanish-language newspaper based in Chicago. Before joining ESPN, he and Hernan Pereyra co-hosted Univision Radio’s national program, Locura por el Futbol.

Major League Soccer has been broadcast live in the United States nationally since the league's inception in 1996 and in Canada since 2007. As of the 2023 season, Apple Inc. is the primary global rights holder and streams every regular season and playoff match on MLS Season Pass – a service in the Apple TV app. Some matches are also broadcast on television via Fox Sports in the United States, and Bell Media in Canada.

<i>MLS Soccer Sunday</i> American TV series or program

MLS Soccer Sunday is a presentation of Major League Soccer produced independently by ESPN and Fox Sports. Sunday afternoons are primarily aired on ABC and Fox while Sunday evenings primarily on ESPN, ESPN2, and Fox Sports 1. Spanish-language simulcasts are broadcast on ESPN Deportes and Fox Deportes.

Fox currently airs soccer matches in the United States. These matches are from the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Women's World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, the Gold Cup, Copa América, MLS, and Liga MX. Fox formerly aired the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, the Serie A, and the FA Cup.

Soccer on ESPN and ABC is a number of programs that currently airs soccer matches in the United States. These matches are from European competitions.

Major League Soccer has been broadcast live in the U.S. nationally since the league's inception in 1996 and in Canada since 2007. In the United States the game is broadcast in English on Fox Sports 1 and Fox, in Spanish on Fox Deportes. In Canada, MLS is broadcast on TSN in English and RDS in French.

The UEFA Champions League is an annual club soccer competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners. The competition attracts an extensive television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The final of the tournament has been, in recent years, the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. The final of the 2012–13 tournament had the competition's highest TV ratings to date, drawing approximately 360 million television viewers.

References

  1. ↑ "Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship 2018–20". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. March 9, 2018. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  2. ↑ "DISH Network Satellite TV offers Euro 2000 three-week soccer tournament on pay-per-view". Business Wire. June 7, 2000. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
  3. ↑ Penner, Mike (June 1, 2000). "Euro 2000 Options Limited". Los Angeles Times.
  4. ↑ Welsh, James (December 11, 2006). "Euro 2008 matches to air on ABC, ESPN". Digital Spy. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Barbaro, Nick (June 4, 2008). "Euro 2008 Around the Corner". www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  6. 1 2 "MLS Sunday Preview: D.C. United - L.A. Galaxy | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Euro 2008 Final: Spain vs. Germany (Your Running Commentary)". SBI Soccer. June 29, 2008. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  8. ↑ "ESPN Inc. at UEFA EURO 2012". ESPN Press Room U.S. June 7, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  9. ↑ "ESPN Inc. at UEFA EURO 2016". ESPN Press Room U.S. June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  10. 1 2 "ESPN Networks and ABC to Present All 51 Matches of UEFA European Football Championship 2020, June 11 – July 11". ESPN Press Room U.S. May 24, 2021. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  11. ↑ "FOX Sports Scores Media Rights to UEFA European Championship in Landmark Deal". foxsports.com/presspass. Fox Sports. November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  12. ↑ Hipes, Patrick (December 3, 2019). "European Soccer Championships Returning To U.S. Network TV In 2020". Deadline. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  13. ↑ "ABC to broadcast five Euro 2020 matches". SportBusiness Media. December 4, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  14. ↑ "ESPN Re-Signs Veteran Studio Host and Play-by-Play Commentator Rece Davis". ESPN Press Room U.S. March 1, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  15. ↑ "ESPN re-signs Rece Davis as 'College GameDay' host". AP NEWS. April 21, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  16. ↑ "ESPN re-signs Rece Davis as 'College GameDay' host". USA TODAY. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  17. ↑ "ESPN Assembles an All-Star Roster of Hosts, Analysts and Reporters for UEFA EURO 2020, June 11 – July 11". ESPN Press Room U.S. May 27, 2021. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Vincent Kompany Joins ESPN for UEFA EURO 2016; ESPN and ESPN Deportes Commentator Assignments". ESPN Press Room U.S. June 7, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  19. ↑ Hipes, Patrick (June 8, 2016). "ESPN To Air Muhammad Ali Funeral Live". Deadline. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  20. ↑ "UEFA EURO 2016 Programming Update: France vs. Romania Opener Moved to ESPN2". ESPN Press Room U.S. June 8, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Univision's TUDN Unveils Multi-Platform Coverage for UEFA EURO 2020". Univision. May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.