I know it's old news, but ...

[masoo]

I record Spartak Moscow-Inter on ESPN Classic, where it is being shown on a delayed basis, and start to watch it on the DVR a little bit ago. The scrolling POS on the bottom of the screen tells the final score as the kickoff is taking place.

[simont]

That has been a big problem for long time. i too hate it when they show the final score of the game that they are going to show very shortly then following the showing of the final score they go on to say that the game can be seen on ESPN Classic at 5pm. A couple of weeks ago I actually emailed ESPN about htis - to complain - and told them that if you show the final score of the game you are going to show at 5pm on another ESPn channel, you are not going to get viewers. I thenwent on to say it gets me thinking; does ESPN actually want soccer viewers, or they want this to fail so they can show idiotic porgramming like cheerleading contests and the program "Cheap Seats".
SimonT

[masoo]

What made this especially irritating was that it came during the actual broadcast of the match in question. On the top of the screen you see the match begin, on the bottom you see the final score. When I emailed them, I said "instead of watching your show, and the advertisements that came with it, I'm sitting here typing an email to you."

[Kryptonite]

A lot of people will take dark paper (or something else) and cover up the lower part of the screen. Newer sets come with settings that allow manipulation of the image, dropping the scroll down off the bottom of the screen.

I know it's not ideal, but it is a work around.

[masoo]

A lot of people will take dark paper (or something else) and cover up the lower part of the screen. Newer sets come with settings that allow manipulation of the image, dropping the scroll down off the bottom of the screen.

I know it's not ideal, but it is a work around.

I have a zoom function I can use, and I have in the past. But I was naive enough to think that even though ESPN gives away scores of upcoming delayed matches, they would never go so far as to put the final score on the screen of the match being shown at that moment. Lesson learned.

[blackjack]

A lot of people will take dark paper (or something else) and cover up the lower part of the screen. Newer sets come with settings that allow manipulation of the image, dropping the scroll down off the bottom of the screen.

I know it's not ideal, but it is a work around.

But the point is that we shouldn't have to do it! This problem has existed for as long as I've been watching CL games on ESPN, we've emailed them about it ad nauseum, and they haven't done a damn thing about it. They clearly don't care.

[jkritchey]

I mean this very respectfully. I understand your frustration. But you and several other people on a chat board do not constitute the entirety of their viewing audience. People have different views.

I, for one, care not a wit about whether or not I know the result of a game I'm watching, or plan to watch. I am going to watch. Frankly, I don't read the the ticker. But if it's a game I care about, I check for the score first, before watching.

I realize this is groundbreaking. But with 200,000 viewers (give or take) there's bound to be a little variation.

[rangers00]

I realize this is groundbreaking. But with 200,000 viewers (give or take) there's bound to be a little variation.

200000 viewers? no chance. That's the audience of ESPN2, which has a penetration of 80M-90M households.

ESPN Classic only has a penetration of about 30M, about 1/3 of the ESPN2 penetration. How many of those 30M that receive ESPN Classic will watch the game is left as an exercise...

[blackjack]

It doesn't matter if there's one viewer or one billion viewers. If they're going to put a product on the air, they might as well do what they can to make sure those watching can actually enjoy it without having the result spoiled as they watch.

[geordienation]

Look, if they're doing it on ESPN2, it's a ***up.

But on Classic? On a delayed broadcast?

Can't get too worked up over that.

[rangers00]

It doesn't matter if there's one viewer or one billion viewers. If they're going to put a product on the air, they might as well do what they can to make sure those watching can actually enjoy it without having the result spoiled as they watch.

The problem is, they are putting a ****PROGRAM FILLER**** on the air, and you people treat this a product, or God's gift to CL fans!!!!!

Obviously they don't care whether people watch it or not, or they would have put it live on ABC, not delayed on ESPN Classic. How many people do you think watch ESPN Classic? a 1988 game between Notre Dame and Miami? or a 1986 game between the Mets and the Red Sox? or the 1974 Super Bowl highlights? This is a low-audience/low-budget niche channel, yet you folks think that this is ABC and a CL game on ESPN Classic is a real product...

Do you think they'll put Monday Nite football on ESPN Classic?

OK, assume they spoil the score at the beginning of each telecast, are you going to watch it? You have no choice. Beggars can't be choosers. For you whiners who are too cheap to get the real (live) broadcast on ESPN Deportes/Setanta, who are tied up with cable (that doesn't carry Deportes nor Setanta) for 9 years, who has signed an apartment (whose landlord doesn't allow Dish Network or DirecTV) lease for 43 years, I dare you not to watch the ESPN Classic telecast because they show the final score at the beginning. Go ahead, prove me wrong.

[blackjack]

Look, this is simple.

They clearly edit what shows up on the ticker, because soccer scores tend to only appear during soccer broadcasts. Can it really be that f*cking hard to edit one score out of the rotation? This is not about what sort of program it is.

There is absolutely no point, none whatsoever, in showing a game if you're going to give away the score before you're done showing it. This has ruined at least 3 or 4 CL broadcasts for me. Instead of watching their telecast and seeing their ads, I come and bitch about it on BigSoccer because they've ruined it. It is honestly just unprofessional and something you'd expect to see from a network on the budget of FSC, not the f*cking "Worldwide Leader in Sports"

[rangers00]

There is absolutely no point, none whatsoever, in showing a game if you're going to give away the score before you're done showing it. This has ruined at least 3 or 4 CL broadcasts for me.
I have a very simple solution for you: don't watch it. Your cohort here claims that as long as ESPN2 shows 2 live games per MD, there will be no complaints. So why can't you simply treat the ESPN Classic telecasts as non-existent?


It is honestly just unprofessional
Why do you expect professionalism for a program filler? Do you expect professionalism for World Strongest Man? Cheerleaders competition? Spelling Bee?

In normal Classic game telecast (e.g. NBA classics), you can easily get a chunk of the game cut off without any announcement. Get used to "unprofessionalism".

[masoo]

Due respect and all that, but if you can't see that telling the final score of a match as it happens is a bad idea, you're a moron. It doesn't matter if it's on ABC, ESPN Classic, or if my neighbor down the street is relaying the action to me via two tin cans. We're not talking about a reshowing of the 1986 World Cup final ... we're talking about a reshowing of a match that happened a couple of hours ago. To know the score of such a match before watching it is to spoil the match for the vast majority of viewers.

Obviously ESPN doesn't care, or they wouldn't do it. They may have good business reasons for not caring ... I am not ESPN, I don't know how they think. But as a consumer of their products, I have a right to complain when that product is presented in an inferior fashion.

I can't stand Max Bretos, but if he is calling a match on FSC, I grit my teeth and enjoy the match. But it wouldn't matter if Martin Tyler teamed up with Toby Charles and Tony Tirado in the broadcast booth ... if they tell me the score of the match before it starts, the match is ruined for me. I admit I am baffled that anyone doesn't understand this.

I am not talking about coming onto Big Soccer after a match, when I haven't yet watched it, and seeing a post that gives away the score. That's my mistake. No, I'm talking about watching the damn match and having the final score placed on my screen as I watch it. That is simply wrong.

If I decide to watch a movie, say, Sixth Sense, and before I watch it, I read a summary of the plot and find out the "trick" before I watch it, it's my own fault that I've spoiled the movie for myself. But if I put the DVD in the machine and start to watch, and the first thing on the DVD is Bruce Willis telling me what the "trick" is, I haven't spoiled the movie for myself, I've had it spoiled for me. There is a difference. What ESPN did with the CL match was the latter, not the former.

[rangers00]

Due respect and all that, but if you can't see that telling the final score of a match as it happens is a bad idea, you're a moron.
If you can't see that ESPN Classic doesn't expect people to take this content seriously, you are a moron.

"but then why do they bother broadcasting it"? you ask?

Repeat after me:

Program filler, program filler, program filler....

So do I think telling the final score of some program filler/worse-than-garbage content as it happens a bad idea?

NOT AT ALL.


I can't stand Max Bretos, but if he is calling a match on FSC, I grit my teeth and enjoy the match. But it wouldn't matter if Martin Tyler teamed up with Toby Charles and Tony Tirado in the broadcast booth ... if they tell me the score of the match before it starts, the match is ruined for me. I admit I am baffled that anyone doesn't understand this.

Are matches called by Bretos, Tyler, Charles and Tirado program fillers?

Not at all, the soccer programs of FSC, SMIG, SIN, etc. are NOT program fillers. FSC in particular, soccer is their bread and butter. How dare you compare a bread-and-butter content on FSC vs the program filler on ESPN Classic!!!

[scaryice]

The attitude of people like rangers00 is pathetic. If you're going to air a program, then the viewer has every right not to expect to have it spoiled for them. That's not going out of their way, or being too demanding. It's the most basic thing you would expect a tv channel to do.

[jkritchey]

Again: Not everyone thinks knowing the score "ruins" the broadcast. It is not a universally accepted truth.

[TarheelJTK]

My problem with the score being shown on the ticker during that actual match is that it is something that should be easily fixed. My guess is that it would take an intern maybe 5 minutes to remove that from the ticker.

Has anyone ever watched one of the games that they show in the 3am-5am block on their networks? I'd be interested to know whether or not they have that score in the ticker as that is usually a delayed broadcast from earlier that night. If they do have that score in the ticker then everyone should just learn to deal with this issue because it has more to do with the way that ESPN deals with delayed broadcasts than it does with their treatment of soccer broadcasts.

[rangers00]

The attitude of people like rangers00 is pathetic. If you're going to air a program, then the viewer has every right not to expect to have it spoiled for them.
Your attitude is pathetic. Who granted you that rights? And who granted you that rights for a program filler that ESPN doesn't care?

That's not going out of their way, or being too demanding.
Sure it is. You expect the treatment of a normal match broadcast from a program filler. That's pathetic!!!

A first run CL delayed broadcast, to ESPN, is no more (even much less) valuable than a 2nd run NBA broadcast on the sports channels. Have you ever had the score spoiled when watching an NBA replay broadcast? I've had that in many occasions. It's either NBA TV, Raptors TV or one of the Rogers SportsNet. When you watch a replay broadcast in the wee hours of the night, you'll easily see the final score right in front of you on a ticker.

So this is "not too demanding"? who are you kidding? This is just one more proof that you whiners have no clue how sports are broadcast on this side of the pond, i.e. do not follow North American sports...

Of course, normal American/Canadian sports fans don't go insane like some CL whiners here in this forum...

[MasterShake29]

Even if there are some people for whom knowing the result of the match ahead of time doesn't spoil it for them, there are zero people who require the match be spoiled before watching.

Thus, the smart thing to do is not spoil the ESPN Classic match on either ESPN2 or ESPN Classic until 7:00 PM ET.

For some reason, ESPN can't figure this out. I can't understand why. If they can know to put the "Match airing on ESPN Classic at 5:00 PM ET", they can also know not to show the freaking score.

I know of the zoom or dark paper workaround, but that shouldn't be necessary.