CONMEBOLCopa América (CONMEBOL America Cup), known until 1975 as theSouth American Football Championship (Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol in Spanish andCopa Sul-Americana de Futebol in Portuguese),[1] is the main men'ssoccer tournament contested amongnational teams fromCONMEBOL. It is the oldest international soccer competition.[2] The competition determines thechampion ofSouth America.[2][3][4] Since the 1990s, teams fromNorth America andAsia have also been invited to participate.
Matches in1995[5] were only offered byPrime Network[6] to Americans viapay-per-view or inclosed-circuit theaters.
In1997,[7] seventeen out of 26 matches, including all elimination games, were offered through satellite distributorsPrimeStar and Fox Sports Direct. The other eight first-round games and third-place match could be seen via satellite onFox Sports Americas. The cost was$12.95 for each first-round game and $15.95 for each of the others. Commentary was made available both inEnglish andSpanish.
Two years later,Fox Sports offered 17 games fromParaguay on pay-per-view at $15 per match or $100 for the whole tourney. Thefinal however, betweenBrazil andUruguay was made available onFox Sports Español.
2001 saw a breakthrough whenUnivision andcable cousinGalavisión provided coverage of Copa América to broadcast television for the first time. Univisionaveraged 1.4 million viewers[8] for their efforts. Univision was once again the exclusive American television home for the Copa in2004, where the average improved slightly to 1.75 million.
GOL TV acquired the English-language rights[9] forCopa América 2007. This came at the same time that theUnited States was making its first appearance in the tournament since 1995. Meanwhile, Univision's average audience grew again, to 2.5 million. Not only that, but they offeredonline streaming for the first time.
AfterESPN tried and failed[10] to acquire the2011 Copa América English-language broadcasting rights for their then-nascentESPN3 streaming service,Traffic Sports swooped in and put all the games onYouTube for free.[11] While Univision's ratings fell from 2007, they still attracted 2 million-plus viewers for the semis andfinal.
beIN[12] served as Copa América's mainstream English-language home in2015. This consequently, also took away Univision's Spanish-language rights. Univision, however, would return comeCopa América Centenario[13] one year later.fuboTV meanwhile, offered fans a chance to watch the tournament via streaming. fuboTV accounted for 50,000 subscribers.[14] Unfortunately for beIN, they were only available 17 million homes[15] at the time, which is only 14.6% of American TV households. Despite beIN's limited reach, they still managed to snag 1.5 million viewers for thefinal.[16]
Fox Sports[17] beat out both ESPN and beIN for the English-language broadcasting rights toCopa América Centenario in 2016. This meant that the first time ever, most Americans had the ability to watch Copa América. Fox Sports made the matches available onFS1,FS2,FX, and the over-the-airFox network. An average of 4 million viewers tuned in.[18]
In 2019, ESPN's streaming serviceESPN+ acquired both the English-language andPortuguese-language[19] rights for the2019 Copa América.[20]Telemundo meanwhile,Telemundo[21] secured the Spanish-language U.S. TV rights.
Univision through its sports programming divisionTUDN,[22] retained Spanish-language rights for the2021 edition. TUDN will make matches available onGalavisión andTUDN and on over-the-airUnivision andUniMás. English-language rights return to Fox Sports after a six-year deal until 2026 that will allow them to air the next two championships.[23]
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