Does anyone know if the MLS MatchDay Live will be available outside the US and Canada in 2011? It wasn't last year and that sucked big time (I live in Sweden)!
If so, would that mean that it will or won't be available this year? Sorry if it's a stupid question.
Yes. That means it won't be available. I'm debating on whether to get Match Day Live or Direct Kick. Does anyone have a preference and why?
I am wondering what changes there will be...the current page seems to imply that there will be some. Will they re-do the interface? Perhaps no longer in silverlight? I didn't realize that the limitations of ESPN3 (couldn't keep the game fullscreen on a 2nd monitor while working on the 1st) was a flash thing. But that's been fixed in the latest version of flash. So...bring on the flash for MDL... (Edit: if not something snazzier, say if html5 is feasible. Actually, yeah, that might make sense as that could help video for an iphone app.)
I've had both. I've even had both at the same time. If I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose MDL. Why? Simple: no matter where I am, I can watch the game. With DirectKick, I'm stuck in the house. If I'm away from home, no game. But if I'm away from home with MDL, no problem (as long as I have a good internet connection). Your choice might differ if mobility isn't an issue for you.
I don't know what I'll do if I can't buy the MatchDay Live this year! It's so damn frustrating. I mean, I would gladly pay $40 or whatever it costs, but I can't because I happen to live in Sweden! That's $40 that the MLS won't get, and I know that there are many people like me outside the US and Canada who want to buy MLS MatchDay Live but can't. That's a lot of dough that MLS are missing out on!
They did, but not much, as far as I could tell. The only games I remember being shown (in Italy, at least) were the ESPN matches that Sky Sports had the rights to. That has nothing to do with MDL, so what is their reason for restricting it?
I had MDL last year. I had Direct Kick the two years prior to that. I much prefer MDL. Pros of Direct Kick over MDL -- Easier to watch on the TV (if hooking up your computer to your TV is a hassle) -- Not dependent on your internet connection. But that's about it, IMHO. MDL has it all over Direct Kick in every other way: Pros of MDL over Direct Kick -- It's cheaper. -- You can watch as many games as you like. If you have Direct Kick, you're limited to how many games you can record with your DVR. Most DVRs have only two tuners, if there's three games on at once, you'll have to make a choice. -- You can see the nationally televised games. You can't watch them live, but you can watch them after about 48 hours. So if you don't get TeleFutura, you can still see the match (in English, no less). -- All games are in HD if a feed is available (less of a problem with Direct Kick than it used to be, but I know my cable system has only one HD Direct Kick channel, so it can't be all the games) Plus, the MDL service was, for the most part, very stable and easy to watch. There were some issues early in the season, but they quickly faded away as the season progressed. If you're a real MLS junkie, the interface implied that they were planning on keeping games from old seasons in the archive. (They made you choose the season from a drop-down with only one season. Not much point in that unless they'll let you watch 2010 games in 2011 if you're interested.) I was able to watch matches from a hotel on my laptop during a vacation. In short, MDL offered this MLS junkie as much soccer as I can possibly choke down. For one heluva great price. I'm just waiting for the details so I can re-up. ------RM
I was in contact with the MLS MatchDay Live support a while ago and they said that the service would be restricted to the US and Canada until MLS had secured an "international broadcasting contract". Apparently there is no such broadcasting contract yet, despite MLS games being shown in various countries around the world.
That likely means there is no international Internet broadcast contract. There are a few small international broadcast contracts.
It was an eight-figure deal to MP and Silva, a large international company. So they might not show up a ton of places, but this company has the rights. Don't blame MLS. They got at least $2M per season (eight-figure deal over five years). There is no way extending MDL internationally would bring in anything close to that.
What Knave said...MDL is available where you are and there is WWW. Having said that, I wish we could watch all the matches, it was so frustrating to have access to some matches and not others.
MDL does do local blackouts though. This was very frustrating for Rapids fans in the Colorado area but not in Denver last year. The Rapids TV rights belong to altitude, which is broadcast throughout the Rockies and into Kansas and Nebraska. So the MLD blackout was anywhere Altitude was available. Last season though Altitude re-sold the rights to games to KWGN, the Denver CW affiliate. So even though the games were only broadcast int he greater Denver area, they were blacked out anywhere Altitude was broadcast. When KWGN decided not to show 1-2 road weekday games the games were still scheduled to be blacked out, meaning that unless you had Direct Kick to get the home team's broadcast there was no way for Rapids fans to see the game. When the Rapids FO was contacted about this they worked with Neulion (who runs MDL) to lift the blackouts for that game, but they were unsuccessful in getting them to lift the blackouts for all games outside of KWGN's broadcast area.
See if you can find some sort of a proxy software. Someone on the YA board once linked to a package that lets a US based IP address watch all the EPL/Championship highlights off Sky Sport, a feature otherwise unavailable to folks outside the UK, I believe.
Get a VPN and you should be good to go. I live in China and my ip address is in San Francisco so everything works fine. I'm a little unfamiliar with MDL. My buddy bought the NFL package this year and it let him go back and watch any game throughout the whole season. Does MDL also let you go back and watch games from earlier in the season?
overplay.net is a great VPN.... it has options for servers on each US timezone (hence avoiding local blackouts), plus a bunch of other countries... Thats what i use in Mexico to be able to get MDL... among other stuff