Fox would not have to wreck their NFL schedule. All they would have to do is ask the NFL to make that week a CBS doubleheader week. When CBS had rights to US Open tennis, they showed the men's final on a Sunday afternoon in September; Fox always had the NFL doubleheader that week and all of the CBS games that week were early games.

On the other hand, Fox might think there's not much chance of the USMNT winning its group so they don't need to plan for that contingency, and/or they like the idea of having a lot of World Cup games on FS1. They haven't been successful in driving viewership on FS1 in general, and the World Cup gives Fox multiple opportunities to get sports fans to find FS1 and remember that it exists and televises live sports.

(04-15-2022 12:35 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Fox would not have to wreck their NFL schedule. All they would have to do is ask the NFL to make that week a CBS doubleheader week. When CBS had rights to US Open tennis, they showed the men's final on a Sunday afternoon in September; Fox always had the NFL doubleheader that week and all of the CBS games that week were early games.

On the other hand, Fox might think there's not much chance of the USMNT winning its group so they don't need to plan for that contingency, and/or they like the idea of having a lot of World Cup games on FS1. They haven't been successful in driving viewership on FS1 in general, and the World Cup gives Fox multiple opportunities to get sports fans to find FS1 and remember that it exists and televises live sports.

The doubleheader weeks the best games for the DH network are the 4:25pm starts. That's the difference. NFL isn't going to allow Fox to have a full schedule at 4pm to go against that. And then there is if the soccer goes into extra time or a shoot out- you're talking about joining in at 430 to 5pm.

If the soccer game was 4pm sure they could do it. But it's not.