Fox to televise 35 of 64 World Cup matches on main network

Posted April 11, 2022 7:00 am

The Associated Press

Argentina's Lionel Messi controls the ball during a qualifying soccer match against Ecuador for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at Monumental Banco Pichincha stadium in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. (Franklin Jacome/Pool via AP) The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - 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.

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Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates at the end of the World Cup 2022 playoff soccer match between Portugal and North Macedonia, at the Dragao stadium in Porto, Portugal, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. Portugal won 2-0. (AP Photo/Luis Vieira) The Associated Press

United States' Christian Pulisic reacts during the first half of a FIFA World Cup qualifying soccer match against Panama, Sunday, March 27, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) The Associated Press

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