FOX Sports Kicks-Off NFC Championship Sunday with Live Arsenal-Manchester United Match

While we’re weeks from knowing which teams will meet in the NFL Playoffs, FOX Sports kicks-off NFC Championship Sunday featuring two of the world’s iconic soccer clubs meeting in a Barclays Premier League match live on the network.

FOX Sports presents Arsenal and Manchester United from the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 22 (10:30 a.m., ET).  Later that day, FOX Sports presents its 18th consecutive NFC Championship Game (6:30 p.m., ET), one of the highest-rated, most-watched sports events of the year. FOX Sports’ Barclays Premier League coverage continues on Super Bowl Sunday, Sunday, Feb. 5, when the network airs “The Game Before the Game” featuring Chelsea hosting Manchester United, live from Stamford Bridge (10:30 a.m., ET).

“We see a tremendous opportunity to broaden exposure in the U.S. for the world’s best soccer competitions,” said FOX Sports Co-President & COO Eric Shanks. “We’ve broken viewership records with each subsequent FOX broadcast and we are thrilled audiences are responding as we make matches more widely available.”

FSMG’s investment in global soccer is clearly expanding. FOX Sports made U.S. broadcast history this fall airing regular-season Barclays Premier League matches, a first for US broadcast television. On Sept. 18, the network presented Manchester United vs. Chelsea, followed by Tottenham-Arsenal on Oct. 2 and Chelsea-Liverpool on Nov. 20. All three broadcasts were encore offerings which either preceded or followed the locally televised NFL on FOX game, and came after FOX Soccer’s live coverage earlier in the day.

FOX’s broadcast of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat of Chelsea on Nov. 20 is the most-watched Barclays Premier League match of the three on the network, delivering a 1.1 household rating, with 1.67 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Of the five international soccer matches broadcast on FOX since 2010, only this year’s UEFA Champions League Final between Barcelona and Manchester United drew a bigger audience (2.6 million) than Chelsea-Liverpool in November.

In October, FOX Sports Media Group acquired the exclusive U.S. media rights to the FIFA World Cup across all platforms (including radio) from 2015 to 2022, which includes the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and other FIFA events.