Fox to televise 35 of 64 World Cup matches on main network
Fox will televise 35 World Cup matches on its main Fox broadcast network
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Fox will televise 35 World Cup matches on its main Fox broadcast network, including all three U.S. first-round games in Qatar and all from the quarterfinals on.
The total on the Fox network is down from 38 at the 2018 tournament in Russia. There will be 29 on the FS1 cable network, an increase of three, Fox said Monday.
This year’s tournament was shifted from its usual June-July period until Nov. 21 to Dec. 18 because of the summer heat in Qatar. With the NFL in season, the four Sunday group matches on Nov. 27 and the two Sunday round-of-16 matches on Dec. 4 will be on FS1. Twenty-seven of the FS1 matches are in the group stage.
All matches will be streamed on the Fox Sports app.
Fox will be televising the second of three World Cups for which it bought U.S. English-language television rights. ESPN and ABC had U.S. English-language TV rights from 1994 through 2014.
U.S. Spanish-language television rights are held by NBCUniversal’s Telemundo.
Fox’s main network will televise 21 group stage matches and six round-of-16 matches. Among the Fox matches, all but one kick off at 10 a.m., 11 am. or noon EST, with the exception the tournament opener between the Netherlands and Senegal, which starts at 5 a.m. EST.
The Thanksgiving schedule includes an FS1 doubleheader between Switzerland and Cameroon at 5 a.m. EST and Uruguay-South Korea at 8 a.m. EST. That will be followed by a Fox doubleheader of Portugal-Ghana at 11 a.m. EST and Brazil-Serbia at 2 p.m. EST.
U.S. games include a Black Friday matchup against England on Nov. 25. The Americans close the tournament’s opening day against Scotland, Ukraine or Wales, and they also play Iran on Nov. 29. All U.S. group games kick off at 2 p.m. EST.
The final at Lusail starts at 10 a.m. EST, an hour earlier in U.S. time than the 2018 championship match in Moscow. Nine of 10 World Cup finals from 1978 through 2014 started in the 2-3:30 p.m. EDT range. The exception was the 2002 finale in Japan, which began at 7 a.m. EDT.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports