Their coverage has improved as the season went on. Early on there were literally weekends with just one live game and only 2 tape delayed games, showing a total of 3 per weekend.
The point is I could have watched it on FSC, FSC2Go, or ESPN3 (and in HD). I didn't need to be home to watch a game live, now you need to be on a provider that carries beIN Sport.
Chris and Chris = quality coverage I remember way back when Webster/Wynalda was calling the games. Max Bretos did a few games alone... At least BeIN's #1 and #2 can murder FSC's....
About 90% of the time FSC used the international feed, Paul Visca, Richard Whittle, and Max Patrick were quality. ESPN only used the international feed. It wasn't until about a month or two before the season ended that FSC started using in house "talent". Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen are abysmal. Hudson's antics are tiresome and stopped being entertaining years ago.
oh yes they did. I remember watching an Inter game from the Ranieri era. ESPN guys were always on the mic...
For ESPN3, they used their own in house talent. No Serie A games were on ESPN Networks that i've seen
I can't recall ever hearing US ESPN announcers on ESPN3 doing Serie A. I've only heard the UK ESPN announcers or the international feed of Paul Visca, Max Patrick or Richard Whittle.
For those that LOVE ray... I think it's mostly latin american/south american fans. His passion, and word play may come off as unprofessional, and too 'loose' but hits right at home for us latin americans. Thats how the announcers are that we are used to. It may rub the 'english' lovers the wrong way, because it's the exact opposite of calling games that they are used to....
FSC started using C&C in mid February. There was even a thread started in the forum about it. So the last three months of the season.
FSC only put the crap crew out after they knew they LOST the rights.. hoping to piss off BeIN and devalue what they had... they did a good job too.. ratings really dropped off.. which shows the commentary teams DO affect viewing.. Lets think if BeIN had the Premier League and kept their current business model.. ALL HELL WOULD BREAK LOOSE... noone would accept the third rate talent of Phil and Ray on the mic.. and they would not accept limited access to matches.. AND NO digital platform for live or on demand games.. NOT ACCEPTABLE.. now you understand that BeIN Sport is a huge step backwards in viewing for the US soccer consumer. The wannabe internationals that think Ray and Phil are "cool" can keep their Majesterial and Orgasmic 8yrl old titilations.. but football fans that want true insight and analysis demand more.... do you want your international channel to be at the game..at the stadium.. in the country..interviewing the players.. OR.. at a studio in Miami.. look at what happened today.. Arsenal v Bradford.. who did you have doing the pxp... Ray and Phil.. WHY? talent onsite at the stadium.. more insight than this displaced geordie and baseball announcer will ever have.. REALLY.. this is a BACKWARD step for football in the USA... again this is result of Briceno management team in Miami... WAY TO GO... Cantona---
They did...not all the Serie A games on ESPN3 but some - I recall Adrian Healey and Janusz Mil... whatever his last name is, doing games.
they did it for ESPN Australia and Carribean.. and sometimes was put on ESPN3.. for the most part ESPN did use the international feed. Cantona---
just a guess, i think Phil and Ray did the Arsenal v. Bradford City game today because Phil is a big Gooner fan . A chance to call games for his favorite club don't come often....
OR BeIN just didn't want to use that lone pbp man that the international feed had. Two heads are better than one...
You're missing the point. Not to mention that ESPN3 had over 60 ISP's signed up. beIN doesn't even offer games in an online format.
I disagree. More games on TV has always been the first priority. Things like commentary, picture quality and online availability are secondary. Actually when I think back to watching football on ESPND and GolTV, I'd have to say picture quality is priority "2a" for me, but I can understand those who say commentary is as important. There is certainly room for improvement in regards to beIN's coverage. But I think we'll see improvement over the next couple of years. The coverage of La Liga/Serie A on GolTV/FSC was unlikely to ever improve.
Unless FSC was going to somehow show every Serie A live game live they couldn't improve on what they were doing. Every Saturday and Sunday night game was shown live and on Sunday mornings at 9 they showed a live game. Saturday's early game was never on a set schedule, but they always showed one. The Milan derby would have been shown live in its entirety on FSC, on beIN they cut in during the second half.
Well, I was talking in general terms not specifically Serie A. We get more French and Spanish games, with the trade-off being 1 fewer live Italian game per round (but we also get more tape-delayed Serie A games now I think). FOX did not always show the early Sunday match and they generally only showed 1 of the 15.00 CET kick-offs on Sunday so lets not pretend they showed the maximum amount possible. FOX is and always will be run on a shoe-string budget. Their coverage was never going to reach the level of ESPN's coverage of the weekly EPL game in terms of quality of the broadcasts. And while beIN is far away from that right now too, there is potential. This was the next logical step in the evolution of soccer coverage in the USA.
FSC showed on average 4 live games every weekend. The Sunday night game, and there's usually just one Sunday night game, was alway aired. The Sunday morning game was either on FSC or FS+
^ I agree w/ the potential BeIn offers, but as of right now the winners are fans of CONCACAF/COMNEBOL qualifiers and La Liga, while fans of Serie A, Championship and Ligue Un are not so well off(yes FOX only showed 1 French game a week, but the other 9 were available on FS2GO). This midweek is a case in point, with 3 European domestic cups that Bein owns rights to going at the same time, obviously someone has to get bumped to tape delay as Bein has no online service.