Dish and Univision team up for FIFA World Cup Channel

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As the FIFA World Cup tournament began play Friday in South Africa, Dish Network announced the launch of the first channel dedicated exclusively to coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Only available to DishLatino customers, the Univision FIFA World Cup Channel offers 24 hours of World Cup games and highlights from Univision, plus an exciting new interactive feature, all in Spanish.


Dish calls the Univision FIFA World Cup Channel “an exciting complement to the extensive World Cup programming Dish Network offers in HD exclusively from Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision.” The new “all FIFA World Cup, all the time” channel provides viewers access to Univision recaps, highlights and primetime replays of the most exciting games from the day before.

Located on Dish Network Ch. 826, the Univision FIFA World Cup Channel also includes an interactive feature that lets viewers vote with their remote on which team they think will win the upcoming game airing on Univision. Once their vote is cast, viewers will be entered into a sweepstakes where they can win an iPad each week, as well as a grand prize of a $5,000 home entertainment system.

“The Univision FIFA World Cup Channel, combined with Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision in high definition, offers our DishLatino customers unprecedented access to the best the World Cup has to offer,” said Dave Shull, senior vice president of Programming for Dish Network. “We’re proud to partner with Univision to deliver more World Cup coverage than any other pay-TV provider in the country.”

RBR-TVBR observation: We’re hearing and seeing more buzz about the World Cup this year than ever before. The sport has finally come of age in the United States. It looks to us like Granite Broadcasting is onto a good idea in helping to promote the bid to have the US host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022. Other broadcasters might want to jump onto the bandwagon.