ESPN2 & Champions League Games in HD

[cgarrettharc]

Sorry if this has been posted in the past, but how come the Champions League games on ESPN2 are not broadcast in HD? Whenever I pull up the information on the game on my DirecTv, it says the game is broadcast in HD when it really isn't. Aside fromt he Champions League Final last May, I have never been able to watch a Champions League game in HD. Any thoughts?

[Kryptonite]

Why are they not in HD? Money. It costs too much for the few viewers that watch.
I think several of the past few finals have been in HD. Last year's was, the 06 final was, and I think one or two before that were in HD, although not without several issues.

[huhe888]

Sorry if this has been posted in the past, but how come the Champions League games on ESPN2 are not broadcast in HD? Whenever I pull up the information on the game on my DirecTv, it says the game is broadcast in HD when it really isn't. Aside fromt he Champions League Final last May, I have never been able to watch a Champions League game in HD. Any thoughts?

The 2006 UCL final was in HD because ESPN needed to test HD video conversion equipment for the 2006 World Cup.

The 2008 UCL final was also in HD because ESPN presumably needed to test HD video conversion equipment for Euro 2008.

HD video produced by the host broadcasters at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 were in a different format (1080i, 25 fps) than the HD format the ESPN/ABC networks in the U.S. use (720p, 60 fps).

Trans-Atlantic HD video transmission is reportedly up to 5 times more expensive compared to Trans-Atlantic SD video transmission.

[DAGSports]

Indeed. Which is why if FSC launches an HD channel next year or in 2010, which has been rumored a few times, it might just be for MLS and CONCACAF Champions League until they can get carriage on multiple cable and satellite providers to pay the cost of beaming over the EPL and FA Cup.

Also, keep in mind that many Champions League games still aren't offered in HD within Europe. Games played in England and Scotland are notable exceptions.

That said, ESPN may do every Final in HD going forward as they have considerably deeper pockets (FSC is fairly low on NewsCorp's US totem-pole) and now imports HD feeds for quite a few non-US based events. We'll have to wait and see.

[djpower]

Fox Sports Australia has 1 HD channel (1080i) which does 2 to 3 EPL games a week in HD and they have just started to also show CC Championship games in HD. Locally they only show 1 A-league game per week in HD as well as all the home Socceroos games.

ESPN also has a HD channel (720p) with a direct link with the USA but I believe the only true HD soccer games on the channel is there Friday morning MLS game.

All of SD Fox Sports channels plus Setanta are televised in 16:9 576i but ESPN has a shocking cropped 4:3 480i SD picture.

[Kryptonite]

Fox Sports Australia has 1 HD channel (1080i) which does 2 to 3 EPL games a week in HD and they have just started to also show CC Championship games in HD. Locally they only show 1 A-league game per week in HD as well as all the home Socceroos games.

Does anyone know why US Soccer home games aren't in HD? I can see why away games aren't, especially from places like Cuba and Honduras, but IMO, home games should be in HD.

Is it a money thing?

[narko]

Does anyone know why US Soccer home games aren't in HD? I can see why away games aren't, especially from places like Cuba and Honduras, but IMO, home games should be in HD.

Is it a money thing?

Haven't the games on ESPN or ESPN2 been in HD?

[DAGSports]

Does anyone know why US Soccer home games aren't in HD? I can see why away games aren't, especially from places like Cuba and Honduras, but IMO, home games should be in HD.

Is it a money thing?

I think more because of scheduling conflicts. ESPN only has so many HD trucks they own or lease and most USA games are Wednesdays or Saturdays, when they usually have quite a few other live events (NBA, MLB, college sports). Possibly aside from games in the Northeast or against Mexico, these wouldn't be too high a priority.

MLS telecasts are normally Thursdays, which is a lighter night for them pretty much straight through the season. MLS Cup, besides being the championship game, is the weekend after NASCAR finishes up, so that also helps. Lastly, MLS/SUM's contract with ESPN specifically calls for league games to be produced in HD; they never really announced HD coverage of anything else.

[BSjanitor]

The 2006 UCL final was in HD because ESPN needed to test HD video conversion equipment for the 2006 World Cup.

The 2008 UCL final was also in HD because ESPN presumably needed to test HD video conversion equipment for Euro 2008.

HD video produced by the host broadcasters at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 were in a different format (1080i, 25 fps) than the HD format the ESPN/ABC networks in the U.S. use (720p, 60 fps).

Trans-Atlantic HD video transmission is reportedly up to 5 times more expensive compared to Trans-Atlantic SD video transmission.
I hope that cost will go down considerably with more efficient MPEG-4 compression.

A lot of CL games are being produced in HD this season. Games in Germany, England, France, Italy, and Real Madrid's home games. Also games at Romania, Basel, PSV, Aalborg are at least SD Widescreen. UEFA is picking up the widescreen feed for their highlights. ESPN supposedly gets their CL feeds directly from UEFA... so maybe we'll see at least some SD wide soon? ESPN already did that for some British golf and Tennis awhile back.

[7spencer7]

The thing about all those HD feeds and then the UEFA feeds. Yes the highlights package distributed by UEFA contain SD widescreen, but the live feeds themselves from UEFA are still SD 4:3 only for now. Sky in England produces their own broadcasts of games played in England in HD, as do the broadcasters broadcasting HD versions of the games in europe, but the trend over there for games not played in the home country is to actually ZOOM the 4:3 UEFA clean feed and cut off the top and bottom, then put their own graphics on the screen. The picture quality suffers A LOT when they do this, and things are framed incorrectly you can see tops of heads or bottoms of legs being cut off, not to mention the few graphics UEFA provide get cut off, and it looks absolutely horrible.

You can see this firsthand in north america on some games broadcast by setanta because they take this one step further and centrecut it, so not only is sky cutting off the top and bottom to make it widescreen, setanta is just rebroadcasting sky's coverage and cutting off the sides of it to make it 4:3 again.

[diamonddnice]

Why are they not in HD? Money. It costs too much for the few viewers that watch.
I think several of the past few finals have been in HD. Last year's was, the 06 final was, and I think one or two before that were in HD, although not without several issues.

Bingo!

HD signals take up much more satellite bandwith, require special trucks and equipment to broadcast the signals all of which raises the costs of a broadcast. If they don't have the viewers it's not profitable. If they were drawing lots of viewers they'd have lots of sponsers and it would be in HD.

[Kryptonite]

What would the costs, benefits, and drawbacks be of doing the highlight show in HD, or at least the studio coverage? We'd see shots from within the studio in HD, but match highlights would be in 4x3 SD.

Would this be too annoying to TV viewers as they'd cut back and forth between the formats frequently, or is a little bit of HD better than no HD?

At the end of the day, though, I do consider myself lucky for what I can watch. I remember only 3-5 years ago when all we got was ONE game per week on ESPN2. Now, I have access to two live games per week, two more on delay, a highlight show, and espn360, and that's just at my house.

[MasterShake29]

What would the costs, benefits, and drawbacks be of doing the highlight show in HD, or at least the studio coverage? We'd see shots from within the studio in HD, but match highlights would be in 4x3 SD.

Would this be too annoying to TV viewers as they'd cut back and forth between the formats frequently, or is a little bit of HD better than no HD?

Interestingly, CBS' NFL half times do this same thing, where some of the highlights get shown in non-HD (for God knows why, being that all the games are actually in HD). So it's not without precedent.

[Real Corona]

What would the costs, benefits, and drawbacks be of doing the highlight show in HD, or at least the studio coverage? We'd see shots from within the studio in HD, but match highlights would be in 4x3 SD.

Would this be too annoying to TV viewers as they'd cut back and forth between the formats frequently, or is a little bit of HD better than no HD?

At the end of the day, though, I do consider myself lucky for what I can watch. I remember only 3-5 years ago when all we got was ONE game per week on ESPN2. Now, I have access to two live games per week, two more on delay, a highlight show, and espn360, and that's just at my house.


My question would be why bother with HD if it's only going to be in the studio? I personally don't need to see Tommy Smyth in HD, just like Julie Foudy in HD during the summer was a crime against humanity. Its the highlights that I want, the highlights man.