Behind the Broadcast: Fox Sports gets World Cup broadcast rights from 2015-2022

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Some random thoughts and other news as I remain bitter that I can’t watch my Philadelphia Phillies play in the World Series.

u Some very big news came down late Friday when FIFA awarded the United States broadcast rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to FOX Sports.

The rights also include the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and 2019.

FOX also secured all radio rights.

“We are truly honored for FIFA to award the FOX Sports Media Group these extremely important rights,” FOX Sports chairman David Hill said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup and Women’s World Cup are two of the world’s biggest competitions. It is our privilege to be entrusted with these rights in the United States from 2015 through 2022.”

FOX beat ESPN, which had the rights. ESPN will televise the 2014 World Cup.

The Spanish brodcast rights, which had been with Univision, were awarded to Telemundo.

u Had the Phillies and/or the New York Yankees made it to at least the league championship series, there would probably have been more viewers.

Both FOX and TBS experienced drops in the ratings for the LCS. The American League Champ-ionship Series, between the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers, averaged a 4.4 over six games for FOX. That was down 20 percent from the 5.5 for the six-game Giants-Phillies National League Championship Series on the network last season.

TBS had the NLCS between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, and it wasn’t must-see TV. The six games averaged a 2.9 rating. That was down 43 percent from the 2010 ALCS on TBS, when the six-game Rangers-Yankees series averaged a 5.1.

And the Game 1 World Series rating wasn’t much better. The Cardinals’ 3-2 win over the Rangers on Wednesday earned an 8.7 rating and 14 share for FOX. That’s down two percent from the 8.9/15 for Game 1 in 2010 between the Rangers and the Giants.

Maybe it’s a lesson to all the networks that it’s time to show more teams than the Phillies, Yankees and Boston Red Sox. But those teams in the major markets drive the train, and that isn’t stopping any time soon.

u Buffalo Sabres fans in the Capital Region can now watch their team’s games in high definition.

Time Warner Cable has added a Sabres HD channel. It’s located on channel 1710.

Sabres games have been shown in standard definition on MSG and MSG Plus. For some reason, MSG HD and MSG Plus HD never showed the Sabres. Now, that is resolved.

Now if only we could get the NHL to drop that silly little blackout rule that prevents MSG and MSG Plus from showing the Devils, Islanders and Rangers when the Sabres are home on the same night.

* Tonight’s Union-Rochester Institute of Technology men’s college hockey game will be televised by Time Warner Cable Sports channel 3. Game time is 7 p.m.

* If you look at the NFL schedule below, I wonder if NBC and ESPN would like to have different games to televise.

To be fair, NBC thought the Indianapolis-New Orleans Sunday night matchup looked good when the schedule came out. But then Colts quarterback Peyton Manning had a neck surgery, and the team is struggling without him.

As for putting a 1-5 Jacksonville on Monday night against Baltimore, the NFL must be conceding a ratings loss to Game 5 of the World Series.

Football schedules

Here are the college football games and NFL games that will be televised over the next several days.

The game schedule will also include Internet broadcasts on ESPN3.com. Most ESPN and ESPN2 games will be on ESPN3.com.

Announcers, in order of play-by-play, analyst and sideline reporters, are in parentheses. Announcing pairings and game broadcasts are subject to change.

NFL

Sunday

CBS6 and CBS6 HD — San Diego at N.Y. Jets, 1 p.m. (Jim Nantz/Phil Simms).

FOX23 and FOX23 HD — Washington at Carolina, 1 p.m. (Chris Myers/Tim Ryan/Jaime Maggio); Green Bay at Minnesota, 4:15 p.m. (Thom Brennaman/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver).

NBC13 and NBC13 HD — Indianapolis at New Orleans, 8:20 p.m. (Al Michaels/Cris Collins­worth/Michele Tafoya).

Monday

ESPN and ESPN HD — Baltimore at Jacksonville, 8:30 p.m. (Mike Tirico/Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski).

College Football

Today

Time Warner Cable Sports-3 and TWCS-3 HD — Cincinnati at South Florida, noon (Mike Gleason/John Congemi/Eamon McAnaney); Louisiana Tech at Utah State (joined in progress), 3:30 p.m. (Trey Bender/Jay Taylor).

ESPN and ESPN HD — North Carolina at Clemson, noon (Dave Pasch/Chris Spielman and Urban Meyer/Quint Kessenich); Georgia Tech at Miami, 3:30 p.m. (Bob Wischusen/Bob Davie/Samantha Steele); Wisconsin at Michigan State, 8 p.m. (Brent Musburger/Kirk Herbstreit/Erin Andrews).

ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD — Illinois at Purdue, noon (Beth Mowins/Mike Bellotti); Nebraska at Minnesota, 3:30 p.m. (Carter Blackburn/Brock Huard); Tennessee at Alabama, 7:15 p.m. (Mark Jones/Ed Cunningham/Jeannine Edwards).

FX and FX HD — Oklahoma State at Missouri, noon (Gus Johnson/Charles Davis/Tim Brewster).

MSG and MSG HD — Arkansas at Mississippi, noon (Dave Neal/Andre Ware/Cara Capuano).

MSG Plus and MSG Plus HD — Kansas State at Kansas, noon (Bill Land/Dave Lapham/Emily Jones); Oregon at Colorado, 3:30 p.m. (Joel Meyers/Brian Baldinger/Jim Knox); Tulsa at Rice, 7 p.m. (Ron Thulin/JC Pearson/Jeremy Bloom); Oregon State vs. Washington State, 10:30 p.m. (Craig Bolerjack/Joel Klatt/Petros Papadakis).

Versus and Versus HD — Yale at Penn, noon (Randy Moss/Ross Tucker/Carolyn Manno); Air Force at Boise State, 3:30 p.m. (Paul Burmeister/Shaun King/Anthony Herron).

Big Ten Network and BTN HD — Indiana at Iowa, noon (Eric Collins/Chris Martin/Dionne Miller); Penn State at Northwestern, 7 p.m. (Tom Hart/Derek Rackley/Lisa Byington).

ESPNU and ESPNU HD — Jacksonville State at Kentucky, noon (Rob Stone/Danny Kanell); North Carolina State at Virginia, 3:30 p.m. (Pam Ward/Dan Hawkins); Army at Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. (Clay Matvick/Brian Griese/Allison Williams); Florida A&M at South Carolina State (same-day tape), 10:30 p.m. (Adam Amin/Jay Walker).

ESPN3.com — Northern Illinois at Buffalo, noon (Michael Reghi/Doug Graber); Boston College at Virginia Tech, 3 p.m. (announcers TBA); Texas A&M at Iowa State, 3:30 p.m. (Mark Neely/Ray Bentley); Temple at Bowling Green, 3:30 p.m. (announcers TBA); Ohio at Akron, 3:30 p.m. (announcers TBA); Fresno State at Nevada, 4 p.m. (announcers TBA); Miami (Ohio) at Toledo, 7 p.m. (announcers TBA); Washington at Stanford, 8 p.m. (Sean McDonough/Matt Millen/Heather Cox); Middle Tennessee at Florida Atlantic, 8 p.m. (announcers TBA); New Mexico State at Hawaii, midnight (announcers TBA).

MY4 and MY4 HD — Duke at Wake Forest, 12:30 p.m. (Steve Martin/Dave Archer/Scott Pryzwansky).

TWCS-1 — Ithaca at Utica, 1:30 p.m. (announcers TBA).

CBS6 and CBS6 HD — Auburn at LSU, 3:30 p.m. (Verne Lundquist/Gary Danielson/Tracy Wolfson).

ABC10 and ABC10 HD — Maryland at Florida State, 3:30 p.m. (Mike Patrick/Craig James); Texas Tech at Oklahoma, 8 p.m. (Brad Nessler/Todd Blackledge/Holly Rowe).

CBSN and CBSN HD — East Carolina at Navy, 3:30 p.m. (Josh Lewin/Randy Cross/Kaylee Hartung); Southern Methodist at Southern Mississippi, 8 p.m. (Dave Ryan/Rich Rodriguez).

NBC13 and NBC13 HD — Southern California at Notre Dame, 7:30 p.m. (Tom Hammond/Mike Mayock/Alex Flanagan).

Tuesday

ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD — Troy at Florida International, 8 p.m. (Dari Nowkhah/Danny Kanell).

Wednesday

ESPN and ESPN HD — Connecticut at Pittsburgh, 8 p.m. (Joe Tessitore/Mark May and Lou Holtz/Quint Kessenich).

Thursday

ESPN and ESPN HD — Virginia at Miami, 8 p.m. (Rece Davis/Craig James and Jesse Palmer/Jenn Brown).

CBSN and CBSN HD — Augustana at Minnesota State, 8 p.m. (same-day tape).

Friday

ESPN and ESPN HD — Brigham Young vs. Texas Christian, 8 p.m. (Joe Tessitore/Rod Gilmore).

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