EPL on The Score

[moralis]

I heard from one of my friends who works at CTV Sportsnet that

The Score Television Network outbid CTV Sportsnet for the rights to the 2007-2008 EPL season and possibly further seasons.

These are the saturday games.

Stay Tuned.

[joebloe888]

I heard from one of my friends who works at CTV Sportsnet that

The Score Television Network outbid CTV Sportsnet for the rights to the 2007-2008 EPL season and possibly further seasons.

These are the saturday games.


I can confirms this.

Rogers Sportsnet (formerly CTV Sportsnet) will be OUT of the EPL TV business after this season.

I am assuming that the Setanta-FOX Sports Int'l (FSI) consortium has the US and Canadian video rights to the EPL for the next 3 seasons, and that FSI sublicensed at least 2 Saturday games to The Score for distribution in Canada.

[GutBomb]

this REALLY sucks for viewers in canada for the simple reason that if you've ever complained about the ESPN ticker, watch out. The Score's ticker is almost half the screen (not an exageration, it's huge, and it's fully opaque and visible all the time)

Canadians are REALLY getting a raw deal on this. They had EPL on The Score last season and the much decried ticker wasn't moved or shrunken. Instead the game action was somewhat cut off on the top and bottom, and then squished into the remaining space leaving the players looking short and fat.

[joebloe888]

this REALLY sucks for viewers in canada for the simple reason that if you've ever complained about the ESPN ticker, watch out. The Score's ticker is almost half the screen (not an exageration, it's huge, and it's fully opaque and visible all the time)

Canadians are REALLY getting a raw deal on this. They had EPL on The Score last season and the much decried ticker wasn't moved or shrunken. Instead the game action was somewhat cut off on the top and bottom, and then squished into the remaining space leaving the players looking short and fat.

The Score's CRTC licence requires 1) a continuous sports news/score ticker, and 2) a sports news update at least once every 30 minutes.

[Golazo]

hey had EPL on The Score last season and the much decried ticker wasn't moved or shrunken. Instead the game action was somewhat cut off on the top and bottom, and then squished into the remaining space leaving the players looking short and fat.

Sucks for Rooney

[rangers00]

this REALLY sucks for viewers in canada for the simple reason that if you've ever complained about the ESPN ticker, watch out. The Score's ticker is almost half the screen (not an exageration, it's huge, and it's fully opaque and visible all the time)

Canadians are REALLY getting a raw deal on this. They had EPL on The Score last season and the much decried ticker wasn't moved or shrunken. Instead the game action was somewhat cut off on the top and bottom, and then squished into the remaining space leaving the players looking short and fat.

That's not the worst part. The worst part is video highlights of the games just finished. For example, for the 08:00 PT EPL game on Score, they'll show some goal highlights of the Serie A game of 06:00 that's just finished on TLN. A sure way to spoil the score for those west coasters who taped the Serie A game because it's too early...

And there is no way you can use a tape to cover up part of the TV for the goal highlights, because they actually have a studio guy telling you AC Milan just beat Parma 2-1...

So look for Score to show the goals of the earlier EPL games, with audio telling you who won...

[joebloe888]

I can now confirm that the FSI-Setanta partnership has retained the EPL video rights in the US and Canada for the next 3 seasons.

Even though I don't know the exact amount of the winning bid, I do know that FSI-Setanta partnership had to pay at least $60 million, or an average of $20 million per season, in order to fend off rival bidders.

We have come a LONG way, and I do mean a LONG way, from the days when:

1. Prime SportsChannel Networks (which has morphed into FSN) complained bitterly after losing EPL in the US to ESPN (ESPN2) for 1996-1997 through 1997-1998 for about $200,000 to $300,000 a season. A source at Prime allegedly said "ESPN took (Prime's) bid and added a zero to it."

2. A source at ESPN said to me "FOX paid $1 million (per year) for a pencil" after FSI launched FOX Sports World (now FOX Soccer Channel) and outbid ESPN for the EPL for the 1998-1999 through 2000-2001 seasons.

Over $20 million a year for EPL video rights in the US and Canada. Who would have predicted this 12 years ago?

[Kryptonite]

this REALLY sucks for viewers in canada for the simple reason that if you've ever complained about the ESPN ticker, watch out. The Score's ticker is almost half the screen (not an exageration, it's huge, and it's fully opaque and visible all the time)

Canadians are REALLY getting a raw deal on this. They had EPL on The Score last season and the much decried ticker wasn't moved or shrunken. Instead the game action was somewhat cut off on the top and bottom, and then squished into the remaining space leaving the players looking short and fat.


So it's WORSE than the ticker on ESPN News? (Acutally, I can live with that ticker, but primarily because I don't watch that channel much, and when I do, I expect to see a ticker, since it's a sports news channel)

[dah_sab]

The Score also broadcasts in HD on ExpressVu and some cable outlets. I doubt they'll broadcast the EPL from an HD source but even an SD program broadcast on their HD channel letterboxed will still look pretty great, even stretched.

ESPN2's Champions League matches, while presented letterboxed on ESPN2 HD, still present the best picture quality in comparison with any other soccer broadcasts in North America, excepting WorldSport's badass coverage of La Liga, while the UCL on ESPN's SD channels lack a lot of something in picture quality. Not that I want them to go away or anything.

[OldFanatic]

ESPN2's Champions League matches, while presented letterboxed on ESPN2 HD, still present the best picture quality in comparison with any other soccer broadcasts in North America, excepting WorldSport's badass coverage of La Liga...

Picture quality for MLS matches on HDNet is incredibly good as well.

I also remember HDNet did a couple of Barcelona pre-season friendlies in the summer, with top-notch picture quality.

[GutBomb]

the video feeds that are sent across the atlantic of EPL are already really low bitrate. it's not FSC or Setanta that make them look like crap, they look like crap at the source. even upconverted to HD (and still smashed and stretched) on Score HD it will still look like garbage.

and yes, it's worse than the ESPNNews ticker. it's about the same size but it's 10 times as garish.

[rangers00]

I can now confirm that the FSI-Setanta partnership has retained the EPL video rights in the US and Canada for the next 3 seasons.

Even though I don't know the exact amount of the winning bid, I do know that FSI-Setanta partnership had to pay at least $60 million, or an average of $20 million per season, in order to fend off rival bidders.

What a deal for North America!

NowTV in Hong Kong pays US$200 million for the rights of Premiership for 2007-08 thru' 2009-10, at the average of $66M per season. And that's for a city of only 7 million people, and a current subscriber base of 700K.

Every Premiership fan in Hong Kong now expects to pay a mortgage and a first-born to watch English football starting at 2007-08.

Even the current contract, held by Hong Kong's i-cable (and exclusive only on cable TV), from 2004-05 thru' 2006-07, cost US $100 million, at $33 million per.

So the league can only rip-off $20 million per season from North America for a new contract? Americans and Canadians sure are lucky...

[joebloe888]

What a deal for North America!

NowTV in Hong Kong pays US$200 million for the rights of Premiership for 2007-08 thru' 2009-10, at the average of $66M per season. And that's for a city of only 7 million people, and a current subscriber base of 700K.

Every Premiership fan in Hong Kong now expects to pay a mortgage and a first-born to watch English football starting at 2007-08.

Even the current contract, held by Hong Kong's i-cable (and exclusive only on cable TV), from 2004-05 thru' 2006-07, cost US $100 million, at $33 million per.



Actually, SportCal.com reported that i-Cable paid USD$77 million for the EPL video rights in Hong Kong during the 2004-2005 through 2006-2007 contract cycle. PCCW (Now TV) came in to blow i-Cable completely out of the water with the USD$200 million bid for the EPL video rights in the next cycle.

Now TV will be the platform of choice for soccer nuts in Hong Kong, as Now TV will have exclusivity on the two products that matter in Hong Kong starting with the 2007-2008 season: EPL and UEFA Champions League (via ESPN STAR Sports). Now TV also carries Goal TV 1 and 2, which has Ligue 1, Scottish Premier League, and Dutch Eredivisie.

[joebloe888]

One correction: FSI-Setanta had to bid at least $60 million to land the EPL video rights in the US only.

FAPL Limited chose to auction off the EPL video rights in Canada separately.

Given that TV ratings in Canada for the 2 EPL games on Saturdays at 10am and 12noon ET are now at an ALL TIME HIGH (over 100,000 households for each game), and that there are now too many sports TV channels in Canada that are chasing too few products that can deliver 100,000 households per game (NASCAR does NOT really sell in Canada, and NBA does do all that great either), the Canadian video rights to EPL are now worth serious money in today's market, i.e. at least USD $5 million per season.

[joebloe888]

The Score will have the Saturday 10am ET "B" game and the 12:15pm ET game starting with the 2007-2008 season.

The Saturday 7:45am ET game will air on Setanta Sports Canada starting with the 2007-2008 season, as will the 10am ET "A" and "C" games.

[OldFanatic]

Setanta Sports Canada

What's that? Did I miss an announcement somewhere?

[GutBomb]

What's that? Did I miss an announcement somewhere?
Announcements? Ollie don't need no stinking announcements? Are you new here? ;)

[OldFanatic]

Announcements? Ollie don't need no stinking announcements? Are you new here? ;)

Haha, speaking of Ollie, I think there was a messup about past weekend's WorldSport HD match (Real Madrid vs. Athletic Bilbao) on his website. The match had a Sunday kickoff. But if I remember it right, soccertv.com listed it with a Saturday kickoff 24 hours in advance. It helps checking the official La Liga schedule, as worldsporthd.com doesn't list exact kickoff times in their schedules.

EDIT: Actually, looking closer into this I think worldsporthd.com itself messed up with this schedule.

worldsporthd.com listed Saturday Dec. 3 12:58 PM ET for this match

while there was no such day as "Saturday Dec. 3". So I don't think I can completely blame Ollie for the mixup. In any event, I'm sending an email to WorldSport HD for their goof-up.

Now you can return to your regularly scheduled discussion.

[Montréal United]

Announcements? Ollie don't need no stinking announcements? Are you new here? ;)

We're still waiting on something concrete on Setanta Canada. Hopefully, they'll be up by August 2007. That way Bell can screw it up and add it late 2008...

I know the ticker is not the greatest, but between that and paying a PPV package, I'll live with the ticker.

Did Sportsnet "lose" on purpose to keep the money for the next hockey negociations round?

[Montréal United]

Old Setanta Canada article: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Brodie/2006/08/25/1775528-sun.html