ABC/ESPN originally said it would be live, then changed their minds. Probably after the ABC affiliates complained. A few games were selected to be shown on ABC on Sat/Sun afternoons that should be most popular for a US audience, including England/Sweden. The ABC affiliates don't want those games to be shown earlier on ESPN, they want them exclusively. If the games were to be broadcasted earlier, then ABC would be breaking the terms of its contract with the affiliates, and I assume the local affiliates would be free to preempt the taped games, which ABC doesn't want. Whatever.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC and ESPN are eliminating live coverage of six games
during the World Cup.
Instead, the six will be shown on tape delay on ABC: the first-round game
between Ireland and Cameroon on June 1, the first-round game between
England and Sweden on June 2, second-round games on June 15 and 16, a
quarterfinal on June 22 and the third-place game on June 29.
ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 are owned by The Walt Disney Co. In January, the
networks said all games would be broadcast live.
``We had a conflict with our affiliate agreement, that ABC would not
create programming that would compete against ourselves,'' ABC spokesman
Mark Mandel said.
ABC, according to Mandel, was able to get affiliates to waive that clause
for two first-round games, between Argentina and England on June 7, and
between the United States and Poland on June 14.
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