FOX Sports is faking their soccer announcers being at stadiums in England during UEFA Champions League broadcasts. For the second Champions League gameweek in a row, the US broadcaster has gone to elaborate measures to trick viewers into thinking that their announcers are in the stadium when they are, in fact, in a studio in California. The first time they did this was during the first leg of the UEFA Champions League game between Manchester City and Monaco where both John Strong and Stu Holden pretended to be in the stadium calling the game. http://worldsoccertalk.com/2017/03/07/fox-sports-fakes-soccer-announcers-champions-league-games/
This kinda stuff does not bother me. I think Spanish Language TV and Radio has been doing this sorta thing for decades.
Are there people who watched yesterday who wouldn't have watched if they had known the broadcasters were in California? People can dislike a channel and/or their announcers but still watch because that channel has the rights to the games.
The annoying part is that they are provided with the big guns like Tyler and Champion that cover the games live in stadiums and they are discarding those commentators in favor of using their own for some reason. A big event happened mid-replay yesterday and no one knew what the hell was going on, which is hilarious.
Yeah I noticed this too. And thought it was stupid. John strong admitted as much when he said (paraphrased) "based on all the camera shots away from the field, we can only assume that a fan is running on the pitch."
In this case maybe not. But when there are several things on the menu - like on a Saturday morning (Bundesliga v La Liga v EPL) the quality of the broadcast often has a direct impact on which match I'll end up watching. Another thing that will get me to turn to a different channel is showing the final score of the Lyon v Roma match while I'm watching a replay of that very game.
I can't say for sure either but I can speculate. 1) They want Strong and Holden to get as many games under their belt before the World Cup next year so pairing them up for Champions League games, Gold Cup games and Confederations Cup games provides them with a testing ground for cohesion and chemistry. 2) The two can talk about things pertinent to the USA audience and promote other soccer related things on their Network (Bundesliga, Women's soccer, the aforementioned Confederations and Gold Cup, etc.)
Well now that they are losing the CL rights, they might let the in-house guys "practice" on the telecasts. I recall some folks on these boards claimed that they did this in their final season of Serie A.
I am talking about Telemundo and the now Defunct Radio Unica in the States. They did not go to all the matches they broadcasted. In many cases they pumped in fake crowd noise sound effects. Especially on the radio side of things.
So for reasons I still can't determine my DVR won't record champions league matches on both FS1 and FS2 at the same time, and for what ever reason prioritizes the Fs2 match. Which meant the only way I could watch Leicester v. Sevilla was as the fs2 replay. Got 3o minutes in before my eye was drawn to the scroll at the bottom and my brain went, "wow awesome Leicester went through" before I realized that was the game I was currently watching. I realize why it happens, they set up one crawl for all channels. And I understand that it probably only impacts 100's maybe a 1,000 people. But still conveys a total lack of "giving a S***" and makes you feel like you're watching a 2nd class network.
No Monchengladbach-Bayern this weekend. Not even on Deportes. Relegated to fox soccer plus and goltv. That's a game and time perfect for Fox network, not to be buried on obscure channels. But, it's fox, so what else is new. They must be starved for cash if that's the game they sublicensed.
It's a motorsports alphabet soup this weekend on Fox - NASCAR,IMSA & NHRA all given priority over Bundesliga. Fact is the ratings have been dismal for BL, although putting marquee games on FS2 doesn't help. Sure Fox has done a poor job marketing the league, but the league and Bayern Munich themselves probably need to do better building a US presence
During Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Bayern Munich, Fox Sports 2 is showing Burton High Fives, Burton Rail Days, and NASCAR RaceDay. It's bad for the Bundesliga if Bayern Munich would get worse ratings than those. Fox is showing a movie called The Bounty from 1984. Fox has the NASCAR race, but Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Bayern Munich will be over by then. Fox Deportes is shoiwng Fox Deportes en Vivo and Central Fox. What European club other than Premier League clubs, Barcelona, and Real Madrid gets the highest ratings in the USA? Is it Bayern Munich, Juventus, or another club?
The Sebring 12h is on Saturday, and the first hours are not aired. NHRA and Nascar are in the evening. FS1 and FS2 could feature European soccer without any trouble.
Fox as a whole seems to be in a state of regression. There seems to be some kind of disease that infects programmers who think that they are going to make things better by making things worse. We've seen it happen with many of the networks in the US. For example, although I don't like that Fox needs to show scores for other games on the screen while those games are happening, I can understand the move. But why do the US announcers feel the need to read this information? We almost never hear UK announcers spoil scores for other games, yet US announcers love to make this move. Jon Strong is especially bad with this. He feels the need to read every single graphic that appears on the screen. The other move the producers seem to make now that they didn't do early in the season is to fill the screen with graphics about playing with 10 men or about the total goals across both legs (e.g., MU leads random number over random number on away goals). Put this junk up by the score like every other broadcaster.
I've complained about the "Team X is playing with 10 men" graphic for a while now, it's too big, taking up too much of the screen. All they need to do is add a little "red card" next to the team's name or right above it in the score box like everyone else does, and there's no reason the announcer can't periodically mention the fact (i.e., "10-man Team X", "Team X is playing down a man"). Seems like it's aimed at the stupid and/or inattentive.
I'm trying to plan for WC qualifiers and have a quick question. When a game is airing on FS Plus and Fox Sports Go app, can I watch it through the Fox Sports Go app even if I don't have FS Plus as part of my subscription?
The most ridiculous thing was to say that Manchester United leads on away goals a few minutes into the game when Rostov hardly had a chance to score an away goal. I like providing the aggregate on the screen at all times, but I think a specific reference to away goals shouldn't be made until the second half.
My feature on John Strong, who's bringing The American Soccer Announcer back https://t.co/CLHAURfY9J pic.twitter.com/gfhqVNDYGk— Seth Vertelney (@svertelney) March 23, 2017
Do you mean the fox sports go app or the fox soccer app? These are entirely different things. The fox sports go app generally mirrors what you have in your tv subscription. The fox soccer app is completely independent of tv. I just logged in to the fox sports go app through my DIRECTV subscription and it didn't show me any fox soccer plus content.
Do you get Fox Soccer Plus on TV? There's a difference between the app blocking everything from Fox Soccer Plus and the app letting you watch a game while it is on Fox Soccer Plus only if you get Fox Soccer Plus on TV. It would hurt the demand to pay $14.95 a month (or more if it went up recently) for Fox Soccer Plus if the games were on the Fox Sports app.