Union sign local TV deal with Channel 6
The Philadelphia Union just announced that Channel 6 (WPVI) will be its local TV broadcaster this season.
Union sign local TV deal with Channel 6
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
The Philadelphia Union just announced that Channel 6 (WPVI) will be its local TV broadcaster this season.
While the season schedule has not been released yet, a joint statement by the team and the station says that Philadelphia's ABC affiliate has a "commitment" to air "as many Philadelphia Union games as possible to be carried live on 6abc."
In addition, all games will be re-broadcast on 6abc’s digital channel 6.2, which is available over the air if you have a digital TV set. It is channel 245 on Comcast, but it's not available on satellite dishes.
As I noted yesterday, ABC is also broadcasting the World Cup, and has been the network home of soccer in the United States for quite a while now.
"The opportunity to partner with not only one of the best television stations in the nation, but one of the most respected brands in the Delaware Valley, is something very special and meaningful to us as an organization," Union president Tom Veit said.
“There is a definite buzz about the Union soccer club, and 6abc is thrilled to be their broadcast partner,” said Bernie Prazenica, Channel 6's president & general manager. “We believe the MLS will be a great success in the Delaware Valley, both on the field and in the community, and we’re excited to present this new team to our loyal viewers.”
A few more words from Veit, who I talked to this afternoon...
I put the question to Veit directly: will all of the team's games this season be televised?
"Yes," he answered.
That isn't the case with some teams in Major League Soccer. The combination of local and national broadcasts doesn't always cover every game, though games not televised are streamed on the league's website.
"We don't expect 6abc will be preempting 'Lost' for us," Veit said. "We think there will be a siginficant number of games placed on 6abc and i think that's their goal as well."
I asked whether there's a rights fee involved in the Union's deal, or whether the team is paying for the air time.
"We're not going to release financial terms of the agreement - it's a partnership, there's many different levels to it," Veit said. "It is a partrnership that we both believe that the Philadelphia Union and 6abc will be able to benefit from financially and we're very pleased with it."
Veit did add a few more details after he told me that the team plans to produce all of its broadcasts in high definition.
"Which is a huge cash commitment for us - production-wise it's probably 50 to 60 percent higher [cost] to do games in HD," he said, "It's going to be a money-maker for us because of sponsorships and all that."
I also asked whethere there will be a deal to broadcast games in Spanish for the region's growing Hispanic community.
"We're working on it - there could be some possibilities for an SAP broadcast," Veit said. "We do want to service our Hispanic fans as well. There's nothing immminent right now, but it's an area that we defwintely want to work on."
Comment removed.
I don't imagine that ABC is going to preempt its normal weeknight programming very often to show soccer games, which limits it to probably opening night, the first Linc game, the first real home opener, and anything on weekends. Anything else is going to get pushed off onto their no-name Live Well HD channel. So people without HD, people who don't get the channel, and people who don't know they have the channel won't watch.— Zeb- Sounds to me like they're going to do some on 6.2, not in HD, though. Also, most of these games are on a Sat. or Sun, so it's not like they'll be bumping prime time. And on the way by, as a Philly transplant now in Seattle, it's amazing to me how many people go out of their way in Philly to post something about how MLS Philly is going to fail. When you get out of the city for a while, you see how pessimistic you guys are. Soccer is perfect for TV. Constant action, no commercials, you can see the ball and the movement off the ball. Soccer is a game of chances not necessarily scoring. A 1-0 game can be thrilling if there are 20 shots on goal. I'm psyched for the Union to get in the league and Nowak looks like he's building something good there so far. But on all the blogs and whatnot, people are going out of their way to say how it's going to fail. Don't get it. I can't wait to take my buddy's speedboat to a game!— jamesington
Wow. Figured it would be comcast and maybe a few games on CW or 17. If they put a good amount of promotion behind it, seeing the games on network tv could go a long way to legitimising the team for casual fans.— Pelti- Very excited about this news - I didn't see how they would be able to squeeze onto Comcast given all the Phillies games and Channel 6 is a class station. I would imagine the Union will also be on a good number of ESPN and FSC broadcasts.— philsoc8
DOOP- Strange decision. I'm guessing 6ABC will use the Union broadcasts to promote local programming, especially Action News.— Phillies2008WSChamps
Thanks for clearing that up blackacre! Now I understand why millions of people don't watch soccer! It's too much like hockey! That's it! The ball is too small, you can't see it in the near corners, the line changes interrupt the flow of the game (too many subs!!!), and of course the ice is very slippery. And don't get me started about penalty shots. Well, actually penalty shots are ridiculous in both sports so I'll give you that one.— Osager- Thanks for clearing that up blackacre! Now I understand why millions of people don't watch soccer! It's too much like hockey! That's it! The ball is too small, you can't see it in the near corners, the line changes interrupt the flow of the game (too many subs!!!), and of course the ice is very slippery. And don't get me started about penalty shots. Well, actually penalty shots are ridiculous in both sports so I'll give you that one.— Osager
- In fairness to blackacre, televising hockey and soccer have similar challenges, in that both have continuous play. Baseball, Basketball, and Football all play in spurts of 30 seconds or so, then a lull, then another 30 seconds. They take frequent breaks that allow for commercials. Hockey has more stoppages then soccer, but can be played for several minutes straight. The big difference is that they have tv timeouts built in to allow for commercials at the pro level. Soccer has plenty of brief stoppages when the ball goes out of bounds, or when a penalty is called, but they start up right away. Watch some olympic hockey in the coming weeks, its real hockey that looks a lot more like soccer than the over-officiated disgrace the NHL has become— Pelti
- Pelti, yeah what you see in other countries sometimes (and I'm thinking mainly Mexico here) is quick pop-up ads during the free kicks and such.— joeyT
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
