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Fox VP details soccer HD plans
Ever since FSN made it's 24/7 HD for 2009 proclamation futbol fans have wanted to know if that applies to them too, and the Goal soccer blog on the New York Times has the news on what to expect as the UEFA Champions League comes to Fox. Fox Sports International VP David Sternberg let it be known that Fox Soccer Channel isn't going to be high definition until the end of this year, so don't expect any FSC games in HD until February 2010. The good news? After the wait, we can expect broadcasts of proper HD feeds, rather than upconverted widescreen SD feeds seen sometimes on ESPN.They do plan 16 live games on FSN, plus the 2010 final on FX, while broadband viewers can expect streaming from Setanta, so if FSC isn't on your lineup yet, there can still be some HD of the Beautiful Game in your future.
Fox going all-HD in 2009, with help from Motorola
We knew Fox was getting serious about high definition next year for sports production, now comes word it's switching all program distribution to HD: the Fox broadcast network, national cable channels, regional sports networks, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. Starting in the first quarter they'll use Motorola MPEG-2 HD equipment exclusively, converting in real time to SD when necessary. All the new equipment should mean higher quality broadcasts, although as we've recently heard, they may be switching again before too long. Remember the old days when a lack of capacity held back HD NFL action, and we were happy to hear about college football coming to FSN HD?
All FSN's College Football games will be presented in HD
This may really turn out to be the year for HD football. We kinda expected the NFL to go all HD, but we were shocked to hear that all of ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN U games would be presented in HD; and we are even more shocked to hear that all 31 of FSN's College Football games will be presented in HD this year. This really just leaves the smaller providers like Jefferson Pilot in the SD world, but at this rate we wouldn't be one bit surprised to hear that it is going HD too.
FSN: 24/7 high definition in 2009, more HD than any other sports provider
FSN's been all over HD in the last year, rolling out MLB broadcasts and even 3D NBA games, but according to President Randy Freer, HD telecasts will "skyrocket" in '09 as the network rolls over to 24/7 HD broadcasting. Wth the capability to produce all of its 3,000 MLB, NBA, NHL, college football and basketball games in HD would give it more than any other sports provider (read: CBS Sports & ESPN) in the U.S. All this HD will be made possible by the new Fox Network Houston, a 184,000 sq ft facility that it claims can handle more signal traffic than any other similar facility, with up to 40 live games in one day. HD rollouts will vary in each region based on distribution agreements, and team telecast rights, but if there was ever a time to avoid Big Ten Network-type squabbles, we'd say all this sports action in HD is one of them. We've come a long way from just 31 college games.
