Sportsnet and Sportsnet World have announced they have signed new contracts to show various 2014 World Cup qualifying matches. These will include home qualifiers and friendlies for England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Here is the press release.
Sportsnet, Canada’s premiere destination for all things soccer, today announced it has secured the Canadian multimedia rights to more than 250 soccer matches, including qualifiers and friendlies, leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.
The new package features a comprehensive suite of multimedia rights including television, online and mobile – headlined by all qualifier and friendly home matches for Germany, France, Italy, Spain and England from the Road to Rio.
Today’s announcement marks the third premium soccer rights acquisition recently secured by Sportsnet. In the past month, the network also announced multiyear, multiplatform rights agreements for the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Champions League.
“Sportsnet is committed to fueling fans with premium soccer content across multiple platforms,” said Navaid Mansuri, Vice-President of Finance & Sports Programming, Rogers Media. “We are thrilled to be leading Canadians down the exciting road to the 2014 FIFA World Cup for the next two years and providing soccer fans with access to matches featuring the world’s top ranked teams as they prepare for the most illustrious soccer event in the world.”
Sportsnet’s coverage leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup includes teams from Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal, England, Croatia, Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic. Coverage kicks off on June 8 with Canada vs. Cuba. (Full broadcast schedule to be released at a later date).
A Rouge Point 
This is one of last big frontiers that Cdn sports networks have been missing and finally now are getting on board. Next is getting rights for South American qualifying involving Argentina. I would also like to see Aussie qualifying matches and the major African country matchups.
And they should be having a Super Saturday during the latter stages of qualifying when the matches determine who makes it or not – can start early in the morning in Asia, late morning to the Middle East, afternoon to Europe & Africa and late evening to the Americas. Sportsnet can have programming for World, One & regional stations for a good solid 12 hours.
I don’t think Sportsnet has any Asian rights, I could be wrong though. Those matches simply wouldn’t sell very well in Canada.
GolTV has American rights to Argentine and Brazilian games. I think GolTV Canada is showing them too. They had an Argentine friendly and a Brazilian World Tour game back in February.
I thought FIFA was going to Friday/Tuesday international dates again for the next 2 years. Maybe I’m wrong though.
Yes, the primary match days have switched to Tuesday/Friday. I experienced Super Saturday during last WC qualifying where in one day you saw about 15 teams qualify. I had to resort to a mix of mostly web feeds with some matches on tv. I missed the early matches before 9 am but was able to watch non-stop with at times watching 2-3 matches at the same time from 10am to 11pm.
It’s a one or two day event that is positioned a la Hockey Day in Canada or March Madness or New Year’s Day bowl matchups. When you know you’re going to see the joy or agnoy of a team qualifying or not for the World Cup, the neutral footy fan is more likely to watch. Plus, you get the bonus of a world cultural tour in one day a la the Olympic opening ceremony.
And with Sportsnet buying rights left, right & centre and buying 2nd tier properties like Europa League, getting South American rights when available is a no brainer. Plus, they should be looking to snatch la Liga rights whenever they can do it.
I’m not sure how 2nd tier Europa League is anymore when there are six huge English clubs (and only 4 can make Champions League). Sportsnet bought rights knowing they might get Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool next season.
They probably are looking at La Liga. It would fit nice with SN World’s coverage of the Premiership.