It seems a BIG league for GOL TV to have the exclusive LIVE rights! It is then weakened with CRAP announcers! Is there not a chance that one of the other BIG networks would want to take on La LIGA? My question I guess is how long do GOL TV have La LIGA secure for? Thanks!
ESPN is already pumping resources for the league but they will probably delay games like they do here. Last round the only way to watch the Barca and Real Madrid game live was via ESPN HD which my provider does not offer. so I had to wait untill ESPN Pacific Rim showed it on delay. I would not mind games being exclusive to the HD channel just as long as they make it available to everyone
I love GolTV. Ray Hudson is awesome and they're one of the pioneers in providing live coverage of the Euro domestic leagues. They may not have many financial resources, nor the production value, but at least they're giving us something we never had before, which is the top games in La Liga each week, live. ESPN doesn't do much more than them - Derek and Tommy are always in the studio in Bristol, CT. They may not be perfect, but they do provide American soccer fans with good soccer coverage.
GolTv is now a new channel in Spain carrying many soccer leagues under spanish company Mediapro, Mediapro has the international LIGA rights, and they sold LA LIGA rights to GOLTV for the last 6 seasons, so I think is clear who will have the rights of LA LIGA for years to come, right CONSTANTINO????
You guys are confusing MEDIAPRO's "Gol TV" and Tenfield's "GolTV". They are two separate companies. Tenfield's "GolTV", which operates in the U.S. and Latin America (and operated by Insight Sports in Canada under license) buys La Liga video rights from MEDIAPRO. MEDIAPRO runs "Gol TV" in Spain. Note the difference in the names: GolTV is NOT the same as Gol TV.
I don't know about awesome but I find him quite good. I rather listen to him than what FSC offers in term of their own hired commentators. The guy who usually do the games with Hudson though needs to be replaced.
Well for ESPN to start covering the La Liga in the USA all they have to do is pay for the rights and hit a few button because the rest is already been done Commercials http://youtube.com/watch?v=r6M3fiF4bdg http://youtube.com/watch?v=taWVbSdtkLE Commentary http://youtube.com/watch?v=edjjrArSV00 (Dave Roberts & Dave Roberts) http://youtube.com/watch?v=KRuXnZdUgh8 (JP & Tommy Smyth) http://youtube.com/watch?v=iK2lmrcpcmY (Derek Rae & Tommy) http://youtube.com/watch?v=E1yGJI1Hu1w (Dave Roberts & Robbie Mustoe) there is just a few of there commentary combo some are good and some are not so good. There are some other commentators that mainly do Serie A games that people in the US can access via ESPN360 and there are some other casuals that do a few games here and there but Derek and Tommy are the main pair they use for the big games
And Ray and Phil are in the studio in Miami. Unless you think they jet from Stuttgart to Madrid every Saturday.
That would make no sense from a business perspective. The only weekend European domestic league that makes any sense for the ESPN networks in the U.S., if ESPN Inc. were to either 1) buy out Setanta Sports Limited and perhaps rebrand Setanta Sports USA as "ESPN World", or 2) add a weekend morning live soccer product to ESPN Classic U.S., is English Premier League (EPL). In the U.S., English-speaking international soccer viewers tend to watch EPL on weekends, while Spanish-speaking soccer viewers tend to watch the Mexican First Division on weekends. (Note: the Mexican First Division now commands almost $200 million a year in video rights fees from the U.S. market alone now that NBC Universal/Telemundo has decided to splash the big money to outbid Univision Communications for 70% of the Televisa package for October-December 2008: home games for Chivas Guadalajara, Atlante, Atlas, Monterrey, Pumas, Tigres, and Toluca.) The Spanish Primera Division, which will be asking for about $20 million in U.S. video rights fee per season starting with the 2009-2010 season, is way overpriced in my opinion. La Liga doesn't bring in enough TV viewers in the U.S. to drive enough 1) subscription demand (to make sure that a channel maintains its place on a distribution platform, as GolTV found out the hard way when DISH Network dumped GolTV on August 1), or 2) advertising sales (Real Madrid vs Barcelona draws less than 200,000 TV viewers) in my opinion to justify its asking price. ESPN Deportes currently simulcasts one Mexican First Division match each week from the Azteca package, usually live.
They have a supersonic jet transformer that transports them instantly from Barcelona to Madrid and onwards to Germany. Unfortunately their still analyzing the possible side affect of brain damage on the announcers.
if they put la liga on ESPN or FSC they we will have less games, i hope gol tv keeps the rights, this way i can seegmore than just real and barca, also how annoying is it whebn you watch a delayed game on ESPN and they start speeding up the action? i hate that and they do it all the time, or they show all the halftime highlights but cut the first 5 minutes of the second half
Yeah you're right about that. ******** ESPN. The only main things I would like to see changed on goltv when they show games is we need to hear more of the crowd. It's almost fully muted.
I love GOL TV. Espn would just be utter hell and would prioritize over American sports and show game son delay They finally got rid of the Mexie Vargas he was the worst announcer covering the premium Liga games KEEP GOL TV . I could care less about their quality programming as long as they give us satellite live feed games
umm theres couple of em with deep voices. He was the one that co hosted the Mexico lindo show which got cancelle . Terrible show BTW He was given the primary gig last season as soon as Sammy Kerida left for Telemundo unfortunately. He would narrate the primary games such as when Barca and Real played for the most part. Thats when I would switch over to English. I dont mind Ray Hudson excpet for the fact of his love for Madrid and the galacticos love fest
agreed Ray Hudson is the only reason I watch commentaries in English, that guy is awesome and really gets into the game ;o [youtube]gS6Np-g_h5w[/youtube]
My distaste for Hudson would go down by 50% if he lost his "aye! aye!" shtick every time there's a half-chance. What the hell does that add to the game? I don't mind him at all when actual full sentances come out of his mouth.
The best La Liga announcer without doubt was Paul Breen-Turner who for many years did the top games live from Spain (not sure where to find a clip of him on the web?) anyone know where he is now days? GOL TV used him when they did not have in house announcers, go figure that, the guy is a legend and GOL TV decide they have better in house guys? Jeez!
I can tell he's passionate without him squealing like a hyenia any time a ball is played into the box.
A few years ago ESPN did have the US rights to La Liga. They would show one game a week, and it would be tape delayed and shown Monday afternoon at 2:30pm. I prefer the multiple matches that GolTV shows and the fact that they're live. Could do with them mixing the audio better (more crowd noise) and Ray gets on my nerves (I used to enjoy him for a little while, but he's way over the top for me), but better than what we used to get from ESPN when they had it.
In my original post I was simply pointing out that GolTV was the first channel that played La Liga games - they were taking a bit of a risk and brought the league to the American audience for the first time. I respect them for that and hope that they continue to carry it, even if ESPN could outbid them. Hey, call me a fan of the little guy, I guess, but I like to see innovation and/or risk rewarded. Obviously. I'm just saying that it's not like ESPN is outdoing them by much - their commentators are still in the studio, just like GolTV's. ESPN has a smoother presentation and they're able to disguise the fact that they're not at the stadium a bit better, mainly because of the audio.
The way I understand things is that 99.9% of soccer games that reach the USA feature announcers that are covering the game off a small screen in a studio somewhere, even the guys from the 'original feed' are covering the games in an identical way to the likes of Ray and co, this shows just how superior they are to the USA based guys, they have no 'special advantage' at all!!
I could see ESPN going for both the Premiership and La Liga when the next bidding is up in two years time. I could see ESPN simulcasting games in Spanish on Deportes and either a rebranded ESPN Classic, a ESPN 3, or if they purchase Setanta and get it on cable systems across America. ESPN I could see outbidding Fox and Setanta and have a schedule looking like this in two years time: Saturday 7:30am Prem Game 10am 2nd Choice Prem Game 12pm Prem Game 2pm La Liga 4pm La Liga 6pm wrap up show Sunday 11am Prem Game 2pm La Liga 4pm La Liga I saw an article recently in which an Vice President of ESPN said he wants to see more live games and less entertainment like movies on the network. He also said they are looking to get more live Tennis, Golf, Auto Racing, and Hockey on the network as new contract cylces for those sports start happening. He said that they are looking at using all the different media platforms like online with 360 and mobile phones which he see's huge growth in the business for extra revenue streams to make it possible to get rights to more sports. Personally, I would love to see an ESPN World which would feature all the different world and olympic sports shown on 1 network. A network that features soccer as the main property with sports like tennis, golf, rugby, track and field, swimming/diving, downhill skiing, figure skating, auto racing all being featured prominently giving fans in the US the best sporting events that take place everyday outside of the US.