Soccer News

All World Cup games to be broadcast live in US

Mar 21, 2006, 21:35 GMT

Washington - Football fans in the United States will enjoy live coverage of every single game of the World Cup this summer on the ABC network and its sports affiliate ESPN, it was announced Tuesday. The decision marks a major commitment to the sport by the TV channels, which are devoting precious afternoon airtime to the tournament. Though ABC and ESPN also transmitted the 2002 World Cup live from South Korea and Japan, those games took place in the early morning hours in the US and did not displace other programming. The initial highlight of the coverage will be the US-Italy game on Saturday, June 17, on the Disney-owned ABC channel. All of the tournament matches will be broadcast in high definition for the first time ever. During the World Cup, ESPN will present World Cup Live - a daily highlight and analysis show of all the tournament action. Sports consultant Neal Pilson told Variety that audience levels may be artificially low because people at work may not have access to TV sets. But Pilson said American interest in the World Cup has grown in recent years because 'the U.S. men's and women's soccer teams have become much more competitive than they used to be.' © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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