CBS To Make US World Cup Qualifier At Jamaica Available Only As Stream

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS, which has the U.S.-English language rights to the Americans’ World Cup qualifier at Jamaica next week, said Tuesday it will make the Nov. 16 match available only on its Paramount+ subscription streaming service.

CBS announced in March it had reached an agreement with IMG and Mediapro to acquire rights to qualifiers in North and Central America and the Caribbean that included all of the U.S. road matches except for the game at Mexico on March 24, 2022. CBS separately acquired that game, too.

Fox and ESPN share rights to U.S. home games, and ESPN2 will televise Friday’s qualifier against Mexico in Cincinnati.

Telemundo and Universo, part of NBCUniversal, have U.S. Spanish-language rights to six of the seven U.S. road qualifiers. The March match at Mexico will be televised by Univision.

The CBS Sports Network televised the opening 0-0 draw at El Salvador on Sept. 2 while CBS also streamed the game on Paramount. The 4-1 win at Honduras on Sept. 8 and the 1-1 draw at Panama on Oct. 10 were available with English commentary only on the streaming service.

Fox broadcast the 1-1 draw against Canada on Sept. 5, and ESPN’s networks broadcast the 2-0 home win over Jamaica on Oct. 7 and the 2-1 victory over visiting Costa Rica on Oct. 13. The home games were broadcast with Spanish commentary by UniMás and TUDN.