Taylor Twellman @TaylorTwellman - .@ColumbusCrewSC fans, players & coaches should hold their heads up high for putting on such a show over the last 2.5 months. Enjoyed seeing it up close in the playoffs. #MLS The #MLSCupFinal matchup will be determined tonight. Western Conf 2nd leg #SEAvsHOU airs 1030p ET on ESPN & ESPN Deportes. @AdrianHealey @TaylorTwellman & @JSB_TV will have the call. pic.twitter.com/Fjh1RDSLDg— bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) November 30, 2017
Wheels up, Toronto! ✈️ couldn't be more excited to be on the sideline again for a re-match of MLS Cup, in my hometown! @torontofc @SoundersFC ⚽️🏆 #MLSCupPlayoffs— Julie Stewart-Binks (@JSB_TV) December 6, 2017 ESPN is presenting #MLSCup for the 21st time this wknd. On-site coverage begins today. Match team incl @AdrianHealey @TaylorTwellman & Toronto native @JSB_TV back in her hometown. https://t.co/6hhmMT021e pic.twitter.com/NATJ5aaSVO— bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) December 8, 2017 http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2017/12/espn-presents-2017-mls-cup/
ESPN will present the 2017 MLS Cup between Toronto FC and defending champion Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 4 p.m. ET: https://t.co/pqXYydWWfS pic.twitter.com/HGPDqB7b3O— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 7, 2017 ESPN will present the 2017 MLS Cup on Saturday, December 9, at 4:00 pm ET when Toronto FC hosts defending champion Seattle Sounders LIVE from BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A rematch of the 2016 MLS Cup won by Seattle on a penalty shootout, this years match features some of the league’s biggest stars - Toronto’s Sebastian Giovinco - Michael Bradley - Jozy Altidore and Seattle’s Nicolás Lodeiro - Clint Dempsey. Commentators Adrian Healey (Play-By-Play) - Taylor Twellman (Analyst) - Julie Stewart-Binks (Pitch-Side Reporter) will call the match with Max Bretos (Host) - Kasey Keller (Analyst) - Alejandro Moreno (Analyst) providing LIVE pre-match - half-time - post-match studio coverage on-site. ESPN International will televise 2017 MLS Cup on ESPN networks in 61 countries and territories covering more than 59 million television homes, including coverage in Australia, Brazil, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, New Zealand and South America. Commentators Richard Méndez (Play-By-Play) - Giovanni Savarese (Analyst) - Herculez Gomez (Pitch-Side Reporter) will call the match for ESPN in Spanish for Latin and South America. On Friday, December 8 - ESPN FC On TV - the daily soccer news highlights, analysis and information program - will dedicate the entire program to 2017 MLS Cup. The 30-minute edition on ESPN2 at 4:00 pm ET (re-air on ESPNEWS at 6:00 pm ET) will originate from Toronto’s BMO Field with Sebastian Salazar as the host alongside analysts Taylor Twellman - Kasey Keller - Alejandro Moreno - Herculez Gomez. The program will include appearances by players on the MLS Cup teams. http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2017/12/espn-presents-2017-mls-cup/
Seth Vertelney @svertelney - A look at ESPN's plans for MLS Cup - helicopters, new camera angles, storylines and more - http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/medi...include-helicopters/1tgwzo8xmm7e7zgfpvv1dnkzf #MLSCup2017: #ESPN senior coordinating producer for soccer @arosen4 shares #MLSCup coverage details tomorrow at 4 PM ET with @GoalUSA's @svertelney https://t.co/zyzvzUan9i— Mac Nwulu (@MacN_ESPN) December 8, 2017
#2017MLSCup on #ESPN: Here are the 34 camera assignments for #ESPN's presentation of @torontofc vs. @SoundersFC #MLSCup tomorrow at 4 PM ET, live from Toronto's BMO Field pic.twitter.com/GyX2lbsavY— Mac Nwulu (@MacN_ESPN) December 8, 2017
On Saturday @MLS will crown a #MLSCUP champion.@torontofc vs @SoundersFC watch it live on @MLSonTSN beginning at 3:30 pm et / 12:30 pm pt. TSN1/4/5 #championslivehere— TSN Soccer (@TSNSoccer) December 9, 2017 Kristian Jack @KristianJack - Our coverage LIVE from BMO Field begins at 3:30 pm ET. It will be a pleasure to be alongside @tsnjamesduthie @terry_dunfield @LukeWileman & @stevocaldwell as a champion will be crowned. Another busy day today. Join us starting at 9:30 am ET for our Premier League coverage including Tottenham vs Stoke on TSN4. Former Spurs man @clint_dempsey joins me as we also preview MLS Cup. What an insane workday for our friends @LukeWileman @KristianJack @stevocaldwell working #EPL coverage then #MLSCup later on today. Good work boys!!!!!— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) December 9, 2017
ESPN+ Streaming To Bring ‘Netflix-Like Aggregation’ Of Sports Content https://www.sporttechie.com/espn-plus-streaming-bring-netflix-like-aggregation-sports-content/
I'm convinced that the near-term future of TV/Sports streamed from a variety of disparate, paywall-protected providers is going to be a step backwards for the consumer. More difficult and more costly... compared to the current aggregated cable packages most of us have used for decades. Maybe down the road things will get better, but I think for the next several years anyway, many of us will be worse off and moaning about it. And yes I realize that I'm projecting my own view and opinion... and that many of you will disagree. So be it.
Well, that's the crux. "Most of us" are not using those cable packages anymore. There are ~50 million cable tv households in the US now, down from a 2000 peak of ~70 million. That's now under 50% of the 125 million or so US households. The new world may well be worse for some hardcore cable TV users. But I'd also posit that (particularly from a sports perspective) there is more content available than ever before. And if this all breaks up giant bundles then the consumer will win. But that's a big if. I'd be more than happy to pay $10 a month for ESPN+ if I could also save $10 by shedding networks I never use. We'll see if that's out there on the horizon.
I hear what you're saying Kev, and there's no doubt there will be more choices (streaming) than ever before. But just as having 1000 cable channels (compared to 500) didn't really substantially improve the end-product for the average cable customer, I'm not sold on the more choices argument. Certainly not when you take monthly costs or simplicity into consideration. And that is where I'm most worried: if each content provider literally provides & bills separately, it could be an expensive hassle for the consumer. I'd love to see a one-stop-shopping middleman/aggregator who could (a) make it easier/simpler to subscribe to various content providers, and (b) provide cost-savings by buying content services in bulk and reselling them, either a la carte or in bundles. You seem to follow the TV/Internet media business more than I do. Have you ever heard anyone talk about this aggregator concept in the streaming world?
Watching ESPN3 right now for our League Cup match. And I'm glad to report that It's back to it's old stunningly simple, fast, high-res stream. With a few exceptions (i.e. our last League Cup match) I find ESPN's quality to be above the rest that I've tried. I guess their BamTech platform is paying dividends.
I'm watching the Napoli Coppa game right now since I have no ability to watch that on delay. I'll save the Arsenal game for when I get home lol
Watching ARS-CHE right now on ESPN3 in the "Caribou Cup". The quality has been OK but not great... fair amount of freezes (which could be from anywhere in the bandwidth path) plus frequent satellite "noise". But the most noticeably strange thing is that they stick their scoreboard right on top of the EFL feed scoreboard, but without completely covering it, so you can still see the original one underneath. Also they're using the Spanish feed, including the halftime stats. Have they been doing these things all along? I didn't notice it in prior rounds. Would this meet ESPN's production standards??
I'm sad to report the quality of my LIVE stream of ARS-CHE yesterday was quite poor. It started OK but got steadily worse. Certainly the worst WatchESPN experience I've had so far. As mentioned above there were some clear problems with their satellite feed, but that fell more into the annoying cosmetics category, i.e. weird Minecraft-like green boxes covering the top 20% of the screen. Worse that that were the frequent freezes, which seemed to be more Internet/server-related. Someone else on the Arsenal matchday thread said they just gave up and went to a pirated stream from reddit which was flawless quality for them. I don't know the root causes from yesterday, but I just hope it was a rare aberration from ESPN, who otherwise put out a very high quality stream. But it does reinforce what I've been saying in various threads, that streaming live sports with PC/Internet/Wifi is still a nascent technology compared to cable TV broadcasts. They're just not on par in terms of quality & reliability yet, let alone ease. I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll get there quality-wise, but the caution comes from the seemingly more uncontrollable variables that streaming implies. Time will tell. p.s. Let's just pray that they don't charge us more $ in the aggregate for streaming what we used to get via TV. But sadly I suspect that's what they will end up doing, whether that's planned consciously or not.
FWIW when streaming ESPN3 live on my desktop I notice things are smooth but if I open another tab, that's when I start getting issues. Streaming it on my TV through my Chromecast tho, no problems.
Weird. I watched it live on my Roku 3 and encountered none of your reported issues. What is your internet download speed? What device are you using to access ESPN 3?
I watched on my Windows laptop, which has been my preferred device for streaming for several years now. My Internet download speed is ~75Mbps. Someone else on this forum reported problems. Who knows... both of our problems could be our client hardware... or it could be bottlenecks on the back end... or somewhere in between. If I continue to have problems, I'll look at Task Manager to see if there's any obvious culprit like another process hogging CPU. Or maybe I'll try streaming the same game on my desktop during the same game, to compare. But there are so many variables with Internet/streaming, it's just not usually an easy analysis, even if your technically inclined to be able to do that. When you click that PLAY icon, you just want streaming to work without issues, the way watching on cable TV or on a DVR typically just works. Hopefully someday it'll be something like that reliable.
Yes, I fear the same thing. Especially in the short-term. I fear we will probably look back on the 2011-2016 period as the glory days, despite beIN's best efforts to frustrate soccer fans. Quick question to those who pay for a streaming service like NBC Gold or Fox Soccer 2 Go: do you still get commercials on those streams like with the free streaming channels (BeIN, etc.)? I still can't bring myself to pay for streaming but if they are commercial-free it might motivate me to take that leap (OTOH if I still have to watch commercials - even if its just 30 seconds - it would be a permanent deal breaker for me)
I've used NBC Gold a few times and I don't recall any commercials. For EPL matches it's the raw feed from IMG which has the halftime stats/highlights and other EPL/history segments... and sometimes the pre-game stadium sounds before the announcers start yapping. Just like those wonderful Live Extra TV channels they used to have, which have now gone the way of the dodo bird.
- Cost savings (cutting bandwidth on provider platforms) - Revenue (from Gold) --- Both almost certainly just offset loss margin, not to actually make a profit.
News! Bob Iger, on CNBC, just announced the sub fee for the upcoming ESPN OTT service. $4.99 per month.— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) February 6, 2018