The Nations League Review Show really is excellent. Of course, by the time I got around to watching a replay on Tuesday night only the most recent couple versions were anywhere to be found among the ESPN streaming app's "Recent Replays," which never wants to go back more than 1-2 days on Roku, etc. I would go so far as to say the way the match highlights are presented is even better than on the Premier League Review Show because the audio for most of the highlights is purely stadium noise and announcers' commentary is only added when there's a goal. There was a full recap of all six days of matches that covered less ground, but took a more artistic, storyteller's approach with field-level shots, heavy narration, etc. I thought it was cool to see highlights of the big matches presented in a couple different ways.
That's good news. Streaming has led to this new thing with rights news where you are rooting for the subscriptions you have to win everything. I can't even remember who had the rights previously.
GolTV had the rights last year, I had GolTV in HD luckily and was able to watch them. Since I cut the cord I no longer have access to GolTV so I was selfishly hoping ESPN would get it. ESPN+ has worked awesome for me so far.
BTW if you are watching ESPN+ through Roku or Android TV (probably the same for Apple TV and any other app-based viewing), you may have already noticed that your access to content is radically diminished compared to the phone apps and watching through a browser. I sent them an email asking them to update the TV viewable apps to mirror the quantity of content available via the phone apps and the web viewing. If you want to do the same thing, that would be great. This link will show an email address to contact: https://support.espn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000862292-Why-do-I-see-a-blank-screen- I stressed that I am paying for the service and the TV apps are not providing access to the content that I am paying to see. You will receive some generic email in response but if enough people write them, maybe they will update the TV apps.
There’s also a Nations League matchday review show (easy to confuse with the Nations League match night review show). It recaps the full matchday (3 days worth).
Just saw that. Not for nothing, EPL and La Liga gain their popularity because you could turn on the channel and watch the top teams. Thx, Jay!
Do people still think that it was a good move for Serie A to come to ESPN considering how first couple of months has worked out? Leaving marquee games behind paywall and televising subpar games on various channels at different times does not seem encouraging to me if I am serie A. Yes, it's better for fans you already have but not a good way to grow your brand. Do people even watch ESPNews channel anymore other than in bars? I don't think bein would have been that much better, but I expected little more effort from ESPN.
I have no $ invested in Serie A so the question of whether they grow their brand in the USA matters not one whit to me. It's not like they're going to go bankrupt if they don't get prime coverage on ESPN. They made the deal with ESPN knowing how ESPN was going to show the games, so if they're happy with it, why should the rest of us care? Meanwhile for the first time in US history, every Serie A match is available for viewing.
This is all that matters. beIN is on like two TV providers at this point and aside from Fubo it is generally behind some sort of sports package or higher channel tier paywall. It's not like people signed up for basic cable and got beIN Sports. Even if zero Serie A matches were on ESPN's TV channels, the league is better off being on ESPN+ than beIN Sports, especially now.
Especially since the ESPN+ app actually works and works well. The production quality is better as well, and the preview and review shows are top notch too. For me, as a cord cutter, it's far easier to watch Serie A now than it's ever been.
It is tough to judge the TV part because ESPN has no where to put Serie A games on given all of its college and pro football content. I would bet you will see better Serie A games on ESPN TV from February on. Last weekend, I watched the Juventus game on ESPN+, it was very easy to find and stream. I don't recall the previous time I had sit to watch a Serie A game.
a) let's not forget that beIN is currently in ~6 million American homes. Less than 5% of the country. Yeah those without can get it over-the-top online but at that point who wouldn't prefer ESPN+ b) side note on ESPN, of all the streaming services I like the fact that I actually know what's going to happen when I try to log in. Simple process getting in and staying in.
ESPN says that its ESPN+ streaming service has more than 1M subscribers five months after launch. https://t.co/kRHIo4FOSE— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) September 20, 2018
Even as a non-cord-cutter, it's never been easier to watch Serie A. I know technically BeIN showed more matches on TV, but many were tape-delayed and I'd regularly have problems logging-in to Connect. So I was constantly deciding between waiting a couple of hours to watch on TV or risk getting frustrated with the steaming app and "watch" live. Now I just need to be aware which one game is on TV and for the other 9 games I know where to go. Simple.
Interesting. How does that compare to NBC Gold? Did they publish their numbers in the months/years after launch? (Especially after PL Pass which presumably would be the big draw)
I don't think NBC has publicly disclosed how many Gold or Premier League Pass subscribers they have. The fact that ESPN is going public with their numbers right now is interesting, shows they're happy with their rollout.
I'd be surprised if Premier League Pass has an impressive number of subscribers, but I'm not sure NBC really cares. It's just a way for it to generate additional revenue. A couple years ago the same matches were on alternate channels without advertisements. From a money standpoint, anything is better than that, including a relatively unimpressive number of people like me paying $50/season.
There was an article on a site somewhere last season with an NBC Sports person saying that they were happy with the Premier Pass sub money coming in. And overall ratings were up a tiny bit last season. I'm sure what NBC would really like is a heavyweight title race to run through the Spring this season. That will move the needle. I feel like some of the American Premier League interest has flattened a bit overall.
And little or no UEL highlights on BeIN Xtra show. Sorry to be a broken record, but it was better (for some of us anyways) when FOX had the UEFA rights. And speaking of obscure cup competitions, does ESPN have the rights to English League Cup now? aka Caribao. And if so, is that only found on streaming via ESPN+? If so, that's probably the thing that gets me to pony up. God I hate this fragmented market.
It's the price of one cup of coffee a month Of all the fragments, ESPN+ is the best in almost all categories. And frankly, why wouldn't it be a tiny bit of a challenge to access the Europa League and League Cup in the US? They're competitions of limited emphasis even in the countries where they're being played. Yeah it was nice that FOX put them on cable more than streams, but other companies aren't seeing the value there. Honestly I don't know how long FOX will keep going with the FS1/FS2/Soccer+ set-up. And we probably would have lost the matches on regional networks because FOX is losing ownership. The world's a changin'