Wall-to-wall World Cup Qualifiers on October 8

[joebloe888]

For the first time EVER, at least one World Cup qualifier from 5 continents (excluding Oceania) will be available LIVE in the US on non-pay-per-view channels on the SAME DAY, Saturday October 8.

Of the 17 meaningful matches to air on October 8, 10 of those will be available on non-PPV channels.

Let's see how many of these games can the daily highlights shows [FSW Report (FSC), Diario FOX Sports (FSE), Titulares Telemundo, Contacto Deportivo (Telefutura), and SportsCenter en Espanol (ESPND)] cover on October 8 so that we won't have to wait until VW Gol on GolTV on October 9.

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Scotland vs Belarus
Setanta Sports USA
Sa Oct 8 10am ET/7am PT LIVE

England vs Austria
FOX Sports International (FSI) PPV: $24.95
Setanta Sports CCTV (415-546-1022)
Sa Oct 8 11am ET/8am PT LIVE *** note time ***

Russia vs Luxembourg
FOX Soccer Channel (US)
FOX Sports en Espanol
FOX Sports World Canada
Sa Oct 8 11am ET/8am PT LIVE

Cyprus vs Ireland
Setanta Sports CCTV (415-546-1022)
Sa Oct 8 1pm ET/10am PT LIVE

Denmark vs Greece
Setanta Sports CCTV (415-546-1022)
Sa Oct 8 2pm ET/11am PT LIVE

Croatia vs Sweden
Setanta Sports CCTV (415-546-1022)
Sa Oct 8 2:15pm ET/11:15am PT LIVE

Czech Republic vs Netherlands
Setanta Sports USA
Sa Oct 8 2:30pm ET/11:30am PT LIVE

Italy vs Slovenia
RAI International
Sa Oct 8 3pm ET/12noon PT LIVE
Telemundo (US)
Sa Oct 8 4pm ET/1pm PT SDD (1-hour delay)

Portugal vs Liechtenstein
ESPN Deportes
Sa Oct 8 4pm ET/1pm PT LIVE
RTP Internacional
Sa Oct 8 4:15pm ET/1:15pm PT LIVE

Belgium vs Spain
Setanta Sports USA
Sa Oct 8 7pm ET/4pm PT SDD

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Colombia vs Chile
Circuito Cerrado CCTV
Sa Oct 8 5pm ET/2pm PT LIVE

Ecuador vs Uruguay
Circuito Cerrado CCTV
Sa Oct 8 5pm ET/2pm PT LIVE

Venezuela vs Paraguay
DISH Network PPV/CCTV (US)
Eurosport Event Management (Canada)
Sa Oct 8 5pm ET/2pm PT LIVE

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Uzbekistan vs Bahrain
ART Global America
Sa Oct 8 8am ET/5am PT LIVE
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Tunisia vs Morocco
TV5 Etats-Unis
TV5 Quebec/Canada
Sa Oct 8 3:35pm ET/12:35pm PT LIVE

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Mexico vs Guatemala
Telemundo (US)
Sa Oct 8 9pm ET/6pm PT LIVE (pre-game show at 8pm ET)

Costa Rica vs United States
ESPN2 (US)
Sa Oct 8 10pm ET/7pm PT SDD (1-hour delay)
Telemundo (US)
Sa Oct 8 11:30pm ET/PT, 10:30pm CT/MT SDD

[OldFanatic]

I'm curious in finding out if any of the matches on various CCTV mechanisms (Setanta CCTV, Circuito Cerrado CCTV, DISH CCTV) can also be seen (alternative feeds, whatever) on any of the free-to-air channels on Globecast. Not that I'll be chasing after any of them, but I'm curious about this for future.

I did a basic search on the various Canadian channels (TSN, Rogers SportsNet, TLN), and it doesn't look like those offer anything from this CCTV category.

BTW speaking of highlight shows, there are at least 2 shows not in the above list. I think CNN en Español covers some World Cup qualifiers in their Deportes segment. Also in the Pacific time zone, late at night, there is at least one highlight show on GolTV (GolTV Noticias?? I forget the exact name.), which covers the qualifiers very comprehensively. I'm not convinced that's what VW Gol is referring to above.

[The_Sandman]

Hahaha, FSC is such a joke. World Cup spots are on the line and they go with Russia vs Luxembourg followed by two teams who are already eliminated, Bulgaria vs Hungary. Intriguing stuff, wouldn't you agree? After all, who cares about

England vs Austria
Czech Rep. vs Holland
Denmark vs Greece
Croatia vs Sweden
Belgium vs Spain
Cyprus vs Ireland
Switzerland vs France

unless you selll them for $20 a pop, right?


Come on FSC, get your heads out of your asses. You're embarrassing yourselves with these pitiful matches.

[BocaFan]

Hahaha, FSC is such a joke. World Cup spots are on the line and they go with Russia vs Luxembourg followed by two teams who are already eliminated, Bulgaria vs Hungary. Intriguing stuff, wouldn't you agree?

Come on FSC, get your heads out of your asses. You're embarrassing yourselves with these pitiful matches.

Come on, FSC has showed some pretty good WCQ matches 'til now. Anyway, I'm glad they're not showing any of the games I want to see this Saturday. At least that'll be one day that I don't have to put-up with their amateur commentary skills. :o

[California Jack]

Hahaha, FSC is such a joke. World Cup spots are on the line and they go with Russia vs Luxembourg followed by two teams who are already eliminated, Bulgaria vs Hungary. Intriguing stuff, wouldn't you agree? After all, who cares about

England vs Austria
Czech Rep. vs Holland
Denmark vs Greece
Croatia vs Sweden
Belgium vs Spain
Cyprus vs Ireland
Switzerland vs France

unless you selll them for $20 a pop, right?


Come on FSC, get your heads out of your asses. You're embarrassing yourselves with these pitiful matches.


Better yet, they then replay the Russia-Luxembourg and Bulgaria-Hungary match something like 10 times each. If they can't even get the rights to rebroadcast matches on a day's delay, at least put together highlight shows. Anyone who cares enough about Bulgaria-Hungary (both eliminated), will TiVo it or watch it the first or second time. Showing it again and again seems, to me, utterly pointless.

[Cannon]

Come on FSC, get your heads out of your asses. You're embarrassing yourselves with these pitiful matches.
They certainly seem to buy the least interesting matches. Might as well show paid programming for all the interest there will be in those games.

I'm really beginning to hate not having Setanta Sports USA available on my comcast system. Otherwise it is a great system since I get FSC, Goltv, FSE, plus S.American domestic leagues on a few channels.

[OldFanatic]

I'm really beginning to hate not having Setanta Sports USA available on my comcast system.

Setanta USA can always be added a-la-carte with a Globecast system.

[SueB]

Chandu, can you describe Globecast briefly or point me to a thread which already discusses it. I checked out their website, but I'm still not sure I know what it's all about - it sort of sounds like a DBS company with subscription programming but one that's based on a big-dish system? Are they new, or has this been around for awhile. Just wondering because I hadn't heard of it, but I'm not very familiar with big dishes.

[OldFanatic]

Globecast is not a big dish. You can start from here:

http://www.globecastworldtv.com/ch_setanta.htm

There are a number of dealers who know how to do installation of a Globecast dish, or you can do it yourself figuring out the angle from their azimuth calculator. I don't know of any DVR receiver for Globecast dishes right now. If you need DVR capability, you may need to build it with a hardware capture card and some software with a laptop. It's not that hard to do. Let me know if you need more info along those lines as well.

[rangers00]

Chandu, can you describe Globecast briefly or point me to a thread which already discusses it. I checked out their website, but I'm still not sure I know what it's all about - it sort of sounds like a DBS company with subscription programming but one that's based on a big-dish system? Are they new, or has this been around for awhile. Just wondering because I hadn't heard of it, but I'm not very familiar with big dishes.

A DirecTV round dish is 18". A Ku-band dish is 30". Globecast is a Ku-band service that needs the 30" dish and a MPEG2/DVB receiver with a card slot.

In case you don't know, Ku-band starts at 10750 MHz, while DBS-band (DirecTV, Dish) starts at 11250 MHz. Many people consider DBS-band part of Ku-band. The DBS signal is much stronger. It doesn't require that much precision to lock the signal.

Setting up a Globecast dish is not difficult. 5 years ago, when I setup the dish for the FTA ethnic channels on that same satellite, it took me just a couple minutes. Of course, setting up dish is a lot of fun for a hobbyist like me. If you are not into this hobby, it would be a hazzle.

Since I have had a dish pointing to the same satellite for years, adding Globecast/Setanta (by simply connecting a 2nd receiver to the dish, where the LNB has two outlets) is just a piece of cake. The most difficult part is to buy a 2nd hand receiver at a bargain price. It took me more than a month to get one...

[The_Sandman]

Come on, FSC has showed some pretty good WCQ matches 'til now. Anyway, I'm glad they're not showing any of the games I want to see this Saturday. At least that'll be one day that I don't have to put-up with their amateur commentary skills. :o


Of course they have. In addition to ignoring the entire qualification zones of S. America, Africa, and Asia, they were ultimately able to redeem themselves by showing me the teams I really wanted to see: Moldova, Latvia, Andorra, Azerbaijan and Armenia. If we're lucky, we'll get a Faroe Islands match (keep those fingers crossed).

[OldFanatic]

Of course they have. In addition to ignoring the entire qualification zones of S. America, Africa, and Asia, they were ultimately able to redeem themselves by showing me the teams I really wanted to see: Moldova, Latvia, Andorra, Azerbaijan and Armenia. If we're lucky, we'll get a Faroe Islands match (keep those fingers crossed).

Come on man. As Oliver posted above, even if you ignore PPV, there are a lot of matches to be seen on a number of channels. Compared to 4 years ago, when you required obscure pirated systems or grey market dishes, things have never been easier and better. (You don't need a pirated signal of the South African cable from a NASA satellite, as you said in another post somewhere else.) A lot of the non-PPV channels can be obtained without much hassle.

Is your complaint about the basic existance of PPV? If so, it is because of the basic economic principle of supply and demand. The very fact that there are so many blokes willing to shell out money to watch "England vs. Austria" in a pub means there is no motivation for the likes of FSC to bid for those matches. FSC only bid for the rights of England home qualifier matches on weekdays, which there aren't that many. I think the last England World Cup qualifier shown live on FSC was "England vs. Azerbaijan".

[rangers00]

Come on man. As Oliver posted above, even if you ignore PPV, there are a lot of matches to be seen on a number of channels. Compared to 4 years ago, when you required obscure pirated systems or grey market dishes, things have never been easier and better.
Not so.

4 years ago, there were also a lot of WCQ, and they were available for free.

This is what we had 4 years ago:

- Dubai sports covered 4 out of 5 matches from South America on almost all matchdays. Dubai Sports didn't have the rights of broadcasting those games in the Americas. The rights belonged to CCN or whatever, a close-circuit carrier, but somehow Dubai Sports sneaked under the radar....

- there were an abundance of Euro's WCQ on Dubai Sports, as well as other FTA ethnic channel. Take Sept. 1, 2001. These were the games available:

- Ireland X Holland, the game that doomed Holland's campaign
- Croatia X Scotland
- Slovakia X Turkey
- Bosnia X Israel
- Lithuania X Italy
- Andorra X Portugal

Again, somehow the rights were not that strictly enforced at that time. That allowed Dubai Sports to show some games that they would not be allowed to otherwise. Besides, during those days, RAI International and the Israeli Network were available on FTA. Better yet, Turkey's DFH was also available FTA (preview mode) that allowed me to watch some of their epic WCQ, especially their decider against Sweden.

- Asian WCQ, all the games on the final stage were available on Dubai Sports. I supposed Asian WCQ would still be available had Dubai Sports stayed in the American sky. They stopped their feed in April this year.

- African WCQ. That was the time when ESC (Egyptian Satellite Channel) was available FTA. There were actually two of them (ESC1 and ESC2). On the deciding date of Group C, ESC1 and Dubai Sports were showing Algeria X Egypt while ESC2 was showing Namibia X Senegal. That's the game that Senegal earned the J/K ticket. Nowadays, all the ESCs have disappeared into the encrypted world of Dish Network.

Today, there are only two FTA channels that you can get on American sky that carry the European national teams: RTPi (Portugal) and TV Romania International. As the TV business is getting more mature, the less ethnic channels will be avialable on FTA. Most of them get on Dish Network or Globecast for a profit. Even for those who don't get on Dish Network, these government sponsored channels lost the rights of the national team to the highest bidder. The most notable case is Turkey's TRT International. They used to have the Turkey away games. Nowadays, all the Turkey games belong to Setanta close-circuit.

To a hobbyist like me, hunting for the game on these FTA channels is half of the fun. Sometimes if Dubai Sports is not carrying a Brazil WCQ, TV Syria or Jordan TV is carrying it. It's as interesting as watching the game itself, because the games were free. Nowadays, there is no such thing. Games are readily available. You pay for it, you can watch it...

Of course, nowadays the fun is to hunt for the stream on Guangdong TV sport, CCTV5, Shanghai Dragon TV sports, Shangdong TV Sports, ESPN China, Thai SuperSports Gold, etc.

[SueB]

Globecast is not a big dish. You can start from here:

http://www.globecastworldtv.com/ch_setanta.htm

There are a number of dealers who know how to do installation of a Globecast dish, or you can do it yourself figuring out the angle from their azimuth calculator. I don't know of any DVR receiver for Globecast dishes right now. If you need DVR capability, you may need to build it with a hardware capture card and some software with a laptop. It's not that hard to do. Let me know if you need more info along those lines as well.

Thanks for the info. I'd looked here:

http://www.globecast.com/

I guess they ought to take the images of all those big dishes off their web page since it confuses neophytes like me. :o Thanks for the offer of help - I actually get more games than I can watch at the moment and can't do without my plain-old DVR. Just wanted to understand what was out there nowadays.

[jammybastard]

England vs Austria
FOX Sports International (FSI) PPV: $24.95
Setanta Sports CCTV (415-546-1022)
Sa Oct 8 11am ET/8am PT LIVE *** note time ***

The days of charging 24.95 for a crap match like this one and making back your investment are numbered due to streaming services like PPLive, etc...
If those services start showing 1MB feeds you have the same broadcast bandwidth available via streaming that you would have on your dish.

[wiswis]

Not so.

4 years ago, there were also a lot of WCQ, and they were available for free.

This is what we had 4 years ago:

- Dubai sports covered 4 out of 5 matches from South America on almost all matchdays. Dubai Sports didn't have the rights of broadcasting those games in the Americas. The rights belonged to CCN or whatever, a close-circuit carrier, but somehow Dubai Sports sneaked under the radar....

- there were an abundance of Euro's WCQ on Dubai Sports, as well as other FTA ethnic channel. Take Sept. 1, 2001. These were the games available:

- Ireland X Holland, the game that doomed Holland's campaign
- Croatia X Scotland
- Slovakia X Turkey
- Bosnia X Israel
- Lithuania X Italy
- Andorra X Portugal

Again, somehow the rights were not that strictly enforced at that time. That allowed Dubai Sports to show some games that they would not be allowed to otherwise. Besides, during those days, RAI International and the Israeli Network were available on FTA. Better yet, Turkey's DFH was also available FTA (preview mode) that allowed me to watch some of their epic WCQ, especially their decider against Sweden.

- Asian WCQ, all the games on the final stage were available on Dubai Sports. I supposed Asian WCQ would still be available had Dubai Sports stayed in the American sky. They stopped their feed in April this year.

- African WCQ. That was the time when ESC (Egyptian Satellite Channel) was available FTA. There were actually two of them (ESC1 and ESC2). On the deciding date of Group C, ESC1 and Dubai Sports were showing Algeria X Egypt while ESC2 was showing Namibia X Senegal. That's the game that Senegal earned the J/K ticket. Nowadays, all the ESCs have disappeared into the encrypted world of Dish Network.

Today, there are only two FTA channels that you can get on American sky that carry the European national teams: RTPi (Portugal) and TV Romania International. As the TV business is getting more mature, the less ethnic channels will be avialable on FTA. Most of them get on Dish Network or Globecast for a profit. Even for those who don't get on Dish Network, these government sponsored channels lost the rights of the national team to the highest bidder. The most notable case is Turkey's TRT International. They used to have the Turkey away games. Nowadays, all the Turkey games belong to Setanta close-circuit.

To a hobbyist like me, hunting for the game on these FTA channels is half of the fun. Sometimes if Dubai Sports is not carrying a Brazil WCQ, TV Syria or Jordan TV is carrying it. It's as interesting as watching the game itself, because the games were free. Nowadays, there is no such thing. Games are readily available. You pay for it, you can watch it...

Of course, nowadays the fun is to hunt for the stream on Guangdong TV sport, CCTV5, Shanghai Dragon TV sports, Shangdong TV Sports, ESPN China, Thai SuperSports Gold, etc.
Don't forget the Abu Dhabi sports channel that just started couple of weeks ago (much better than Dubai sports in its best)!

[Gioca]

Just curious rangers00,

Is it possible to get RAI International through any other means besides Dish Network or digital cable? Are there other satellite options?

[GutBomb]

Don't forget the Abu Dhabi sports channel that just started couple of weeks ago (much better than Dubai sports in its best)!
is that one on T5?

[rangers00]

Just curious rangers00,

Is it possible to get RAI International through any other means besides Dish Network or digital cable? Are there other satellite options?

It was possible on C-band until a while ago, when the feed on PAS9 got encrypted. I don't remember when exactly was that, probably early this year.

You can also get RAI International if you have a gray market dish. It's available on DirecTV Latin America and both Canadian systems (*C and BEV).

It will also be available on Verizon's FiOS (Fiber optic) TV, which has just launched in Texas...

[rangers00]

Don't forget the Abu Dhabi sports channel that just started couple of weeks ago (much better than Dubai sports in its best)!

So far Abu Dhabi Sports hasn't shown me anything interest. It's already October, and it's still repeatedly broadcasting the South American World Cup quals from early September.

The thing I miss most from Dubai Sports are the Classic games, the 1978 World Cup, the 1982 World Cup, the 1992 European Championship, etc. These are gems. Some of the older games on Dubai Sports were games I've never seen before, at a time I just came to America and those were the dark days of following foreign soccer.