Fox Soccer Plus is an American premium channel dedicated to soccer and rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

. It was formed as a spin-off of Fox Soccer when its owner Fox Entertainment Group

Fox Entertainment Group

The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties...

 re-acquired rights from competitor Setanta Sports USA in January 2010, putting the latter channel out of business. It launched on March 1, 2010.

Coverage rights

The channel airs matches from Italy's Serie A

Serie A

Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

, France's Ligue 1

Ligue 1

Ligue 1 , is the French professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division of the French football league system. Ligue 1 is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the other being Ligue 2....

, UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

, England's Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

, the Carling Cup

Football League Cup

The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...

 and England's Football League Championship

Football League Championship

The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

. Moreover, Fox Soccer Plus has acquired the rights to a handful of English national team matches, for both the senior and junior squads.

For rugby union, it has picked up rights to major competitions in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Fox Soccer Plus has rights to the Europe-wide Heineken Cup

Heineken Cup

The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...

 plus England's Aviva Premiership and the Magners League in the Celtic nations and Italy (although Magners League matches are non-existent in Fox Soccer Plus' schedule for the first six weeks of the season). The channel also has rights to all major properties in the SANZAR

SANZAR

SANZAR is the body which operates Super Rugby and Tri Nations competitions in rugby union. It is a joint venture of the South African Rugby Union, the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Australian Rugby Union, formed in 1996.Created shortly after rugby's move to professionalism in 1995, SANZAR's two...

 countries—the Tri Nations involving the national teams of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia; Super Rugby, involving franchises from each of these countries; South Africa's Currie Cup

Currie Cup

The Currie Cup tournament is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring , featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces...

; and New Zealand's ITM Cup. In 2010 it secured the rights to broadcast the 2010 Rugby League Four Nations

2010 Rugby League Four Nations

The 2010 Rugby League Four Nations tournament was played in Australia and New Zealand in October and November 2010. The tournament was the second time the Four Nations had been held, following on from the 2009 edition held in England and France....

.

As of 2011, Fox Soccer Plus will no longer have broadcasting rights for the Super 15 and Tri Nations.

Carriage

Dish Network

Dish Network

Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

, DirecTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, and Verizon FiOS

Verizon FiOS

Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...

 began carrying the channel at launch. Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

 added the channel in various markets in March and April 2010. Brighthouse Networks added it in June 2010. Cablevision began adding the channel on December 14, 2010.

High Definition

Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse Networks carry Fox Soccer Plus's 720p

720p

720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...

 HD feed in select markets. Cablevision also added the HD channel to its iO Sports Package on January 27, 2011. DirecTV began carrying an HD feed on August 11, 2010, however it is only activated for live game broadcasts. AT&T Uverse added the channel in HD only on February 21, 2011.