June 14th is quickly approaching and our excitement is building for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The USMNT might not be there, but there’s going to be no shortage of talent and storylines in Russia this summer from the 32 teams involved.
Even without U.S. Soccer, that’s not stopping FOX from going all in on their broadcast and digital coverage. Earlier this week, they announced their broadcast schedule for all 64 matches and it’s impressive.
The biggest piece of news? 38 of the matches will be on national, over-the-air FOX. That’s more matches on broadcast television than the last four World Cups combined. Let that sink in for a minute. Due to the time zone difference between Russia and the States, many of the matches will be played on weekday mornings and early afternoons. With FOX not having any national programming during weekday mornings, it makes it a lot easier to put those higher profile matches on broadcast television, which should ultimately lead to higher ratings.
The remaining matches will all be shown on FS1 and all the matches are available to be streamed via FOX Sports GO and FOX Soccer Match Pass. Having previously announced exclusive coverage/shows on Twitter and Snapchat, FOX is making sure that U.S. fans will have all sorts of access to everything happening with the tournament.