While most of us have spent the last few weeks preparing for the return of North American-style football (get our NFL Pick 'Em league info here), soccer fans in the US and France have been tracking the sudden rise of international TV network beIN Sport. Operated out of Qatar by Al Jazeera, beIN Sport USA has snagged the exclusive broadcast rights to Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, France's Ligue 1, South American World Cup Qualifiers and Copa America 2015, plus the away games for the US national men's team in their qualifying rounds. The bad news for those interested in viewing the games is that until just recently, there were no carriers for the channel, although DirecTV (which also recently added BBC America HD for Doctor Who fans) and Dish have subsequently added it to a few tiers. Most recently, Comcast announced the channel's availability on its Spanish MultiLatino package and for English viewers on the Xfinity TV Sports Entertainment lineup, with access also available via internet streaming. It appears Fox and ESPN have a new challenger at least for broadcast rights to soccer, and beIN Sport has expressed interest into other arenas as well, which could see it become a newer version of the now-defunct Worldsport HD channel for fans of sports that are more popular outside the US.

Continue reading beIN Sport USA soccer channel comes to Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

beIN Sport USA soccer channel comes to Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.