Gol TV loses rights to Serie A to FSC and RAI

From: soccertv.com: Click here

FSI and RAI acquire Serie A TV rights in the US

March 7, 2007

FOX Sports International (FSI) and RAI International have acquired video rights in the US to the Italian Serie A for the 2007-2008 through 2009-2010 seasons via agreements with the partnership of sports marketing agencies Media Partners/Ricardo Silva and SPORTFIVE.

FSI has outbid GolTV for the rights in English and Spanish. In the US, FOX Soccer Channel (FSC) will air live Serie A matches in English on Saturdays usually at 2:30pm Eastern Time and Sundays usually at 9am Eastern Time. FOX Sports en Espanol will have Serie A match telecasts in Spanish.

RAI International will air the Serie A in Italian throughout the Americas, with live matches on Saturdays usually at 12noon and 2:30pm Eastern Time, and Sundays usually at 9am and 2:30pm Eastern Time.

GolTV will have no access to the Serie A in the US during the new TV contract cycle.

I actually dont kno whether to be happy or sad about this...Gol TV was for me an excellent option, as I was able to see matches that FSC didnt carry...now, with RAI (which I have no home access to) and FSN sharing the matches, I feel sure to have a reduction in the number of Serie A matches I will be able to see...

I am not sure of this, but since I dont get RAI at home, I will indeed probably see less.

With FSC being so focused on the EPL, I really think there will be an overall reduction...not happy about this, not happy at all...

i dont get any serie A anymore because bravo stopped

The only difference is the commentators as the signal is the same... in this case, GolTV is MUCH MUCH MUCH better...

These are not good news to me... however, I still get the other channels.

This is not good news, simply because GOL TV was showing a lot more Seire A games. FSC will show 2 or 3. For example, even if GOL TV showed a different team at 9am live, there is always a great chance that they will show a Milan game later on in the day. They show almost all sunday night matches plus the sunday morning matches. On top of that, they showed morning and afternoon games on saturday.
FSC on the other hand will show 2 or 3 games a weekend and that's it because their schedule is FILLED with Premiership games. They show like 5 of those a day and then 1 Bundesliga and 1 Serie A game. They would rather show Reading-Blackburn then Fiorentina-Roma for example. This will suck bid time for those fully depending on Gol Tv to watch Milan and Serie A games.

Originally Posted by Kaka1899

i dont get any serie A anymore because bravo stopped

I don't get serie A anymore because CH4 stopped showing it

Unfortunately, the likes of ESPN and FSC think that Americans only go for the MLS (yawn) and EPL teams. ESPN has now jumped on the CL bandwagon and are showing repeats of certain games, but only the big names like Barca and Chelsea, of course.

FSC just announced that they're going to have three hours of MLS programming per week on game days for this season, with a pre-game show, the match, and a post-game show. ESPN2 has just announced MLS-related programming of their own.

God, sometimes it stinks being a football fan in America, especially one who didn't get wet with excitement over Becks' arrival.

Yea......it gets me really mad too. If it wasn't for online streaming I would go mad. This way I get to watch all the great games around Europe. Because US networks like ESPN only tend to show Premier League teams. It is ridiculous how we were forced to watch Chelsea-Levski instead of Bayern-Inter or whatever big game it was. Didn't they learn their lesson last year?........Man Utd - Lille 0-0......it was ridiculous how they showed Man U like 4 times last year even against teams that most of the people in the US haven't even heard about. I really don't expect anything different next year or the year after. With FSC now getting rights to Serie A, Italian Football lovers depending on TV will suffer so much. Just wait and see untill they make Inter-Milan a Pay-per-view event just like they do for the big teams in the Premiership.

Originally Posted by Kaka1899

i dont get any serie A anymore because bravo stopped

bravo were never that good tho, ok they bought back the sat Morning gazzetta. But they hardly ever put any games on. At least on Eurosport there was at least 2 games on over the weekend. 3 if your lucky! I think it might be still on setanta, but im not willing to pay for that.. easier to just watch games online..

Originally Posted by Graeme C

bravo were never that good tho, ok they bought back the sat Morning gazzetta. But they hardly ever put any games on. At least on Eurosport there was at least 2 games on over the weekend. 3 if your lucky! I think it might be still on setanta, but im not willing to pay for that.. easier to just watch games online..

yes but i got mezzanotte on a wednesday, Gazzetta on fridays and a game or two over saturday and sunday. but now we have nothing.

That's really annoying! Time to start writing to these no-minds and telling them not everyone can be cowed into watching the MLS and EPL!!

If Milan´s relationship with FSC is anything to go by, then we as Milan fans may not have too much to fear...if FSC does carry two or three games per weekend, then we should be one of the more featured teams.....I think the standard of the coveraget that FSC has now, will mean that we wont be forced to watch Cagliari vs Siena...but should have access to Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma and Lazio games this term...

Well, thats the hope at any rate....

Hopefully too, FSC will comtinue to carry Milan Weekly and Milan Classics....

My satellite provider JUST started to offer Gol TV....Great.
When and where is Milan Weekly again ? ......
For those in Canada, Toronto FC plays their first game today according to TSN. Seasons tickets already sold out. Might have to check it out.

Miss S!!! Good to have u back Staci! Milan weekly is on FSC, on a Tues and Thurs...check ur local listings for actual times...

FSC will carry the Serie A matches in North America Rai will carry them in Europe, I have also noticed more of a presence of RAI on TV here in NYC. They maybe start to place RAI on cable to TV or perhaps you can subscribe to it.