Washington Freedom

Women’s Professional Soccer and Fox Soccer Channel Announce Television Rights Agreement

Monday, October 06, 2008

from womensprosoccer.com

Fox Soccer Channel to Televise Exclusive WPS Sunday Night National Game of the Week; Postseason Featured on Fox Sports Net

SAN FRANCISCO & LOS ANGELES, CA (October 6, 2008) – Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) and Fox Soccer Channel today announced a multi-year partnership to televise a live national Sunday night WPS game of the week on America’s premier soccer network beginning in 2009, the inaugural season for WPS.

The agreement covers three years with a fourth-year option and guarantees national coverage and appointment television to over 34 million homes for an exclusive WPS Sunday night game of the week as well as the league All-Star Game on Fox Soccer Channel, while postseason coverage will reach over 80 million homes nationally on Fox Sports Net’s owned and affiliated regional sports networks. The announcement coincides with today’s WPS General Draft – taking place at league headquarters in San Francisco – the results of which will be announced on Fox Soccer Channel’s Fox Football Fone-In at 8pm ET (5pm PT) on Monday, October 6.

“Fox Soccer Channel has become the go-to place for global soccer coverage in the United States and is a tremendous broadcast platform for our league,” said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. “Between the FSC flagship, the Fox Sports Net regional networks and FoxSoccer.com, FSC is the right partner to bring WPS, the world’s best women’s soccer league, to sports fans and soccer fanatics alike.”

“Fox Soccer Channel takes great pride in showcasing the ‘beautiful game’ at all levels, and the addition of Women’s Professional Soccer to our programming lineup will add an exciting new dimension to our network,” said David Sternberg, executive vice president and general manager of Fox Soccer Channel. “With the women’s game enjoying an unprecedented surge in popularity, we are eager to showcase the world’s elite players during Fox Soccer Channel’s live and exclusive WPS game of the week telecasts.”

The agreement, which begins next April, covers a minimum of 20 games over the course of the regular season and the WPS All-Star Game on Fox Soccer Channel. Fox Sports Net’s postseason coverage features all games: two semifinal games on August 15/16 and the WPS championship game the weekend of August 22/23. Fox Soccer Channel’s coverage also features WPS pregame and postgame shows and WPS round-up segments on Fox Soccer Report plus content sharing across womensprosoccer.com and FoxSoccer.com.

“In addition to live and exclusive match telecasts, Fox Soccer Channel will give WPS added exposure through our multi-platform offerings including original studio shows and our market-leading website, foxsoccer.com,” Sternberg added.

Fox Soccer Channel and WPS have also agreed to extensive cross-promotional and tune-in initiatives on-air, online and on-site including FoxSoccer.com and other marketing considerations.

About Fox Soccer Channel

Fox Soccer Channel offers the most comprehensive coverage of world-class soccer available in the United States, including Major League Soccer, England’s Barclays Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, the Argentine First Division and Australian Hyundai A-League, as well as such global tournaments as the UEFA Cup, English FA Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, CONCACAF Champions League™ and 2010 FIFA World Cup™ qualifiers. The Official Broadcast Partner of the United States Youth Soccer Association, Fox Soccer Channel also televises the United Soccer Leagues, NCAA Division I college men’s and women’s soccer and – beginning in April 2009 – the newly-formed Women’s Professional Soccer. The Nielsen-rated channel reaches more than 34 million cable and satellite households in the U.S. and Caribbean.

Fox Soccer Channel is one of 28 national and regional programming networks within Fox Networks Group, an operating unit of the News Corporation (NYSE:NWS). These broadcast, cable, satellite and telephony delivered networks reach more than half a billion U.S. television homes, and represent one of the media industry’s most diverse collections of programming operations. Fox Networks Group consists of FOX Sports, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Cable Networks and Fox Networks Engineering & Operations. For more information, visit America’s most visited online soccer destination at foxsoccer.com.

About Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS)

The mission of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is to be the premier women’s soccer league in the world and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured. Play kicks off in the spring of 2009, with WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league will expand in 2010 with the inclusion of Atlanta, Dallas, and Philadelphia. For more information, visit www.womensprosoccer.com.