From soccertv.com (the best source for US & Canada soccer TV information): English Premier League (EPL) ---------------------------- For the 2007-2008 through 2009-2010 seasons: In the U.S., FOX Sports International (FSI) and Setanta Sports North America will divide the EPL in the following manner: Saturdays at 7:45am ET: Setanta Sports USA Saturdays at 10am ET: Setanta Sports USA will have 1st choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 2nd choice, Setanta Xtra will have 3rd choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 4th choice (tape-delay) Saturdays at 12:15pm ET: FOX Soccer Channel Sundays at 8:30am ET or 9am ET: Setanta Sports USA Sundays at 10am ET or 11am ET: FOX Soccer Channel Mondays at 3pm ET: Setanta Sports USA Midweek: Setanta Sports USA will have 1st choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 2nd choice, Setanta Xtra will have 3rd choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 4th choice (tape- delay) In Canada, The Score will have 1st choice on Saturdays at 10am ET, and Setanta Sports Canada will have the rest of the matches. Neither Rogers Sportsnet nor FOX Sports World Canada will have live access to the EPL during the new TV contract cycle.
IIRC, big changes for Canada. In the US, the only change seems to be that Setanta will now have the Monday match instead of Fox Soccer Channel. FSC retains the top match of the week which is the Sunday Sky match at 11am ET.
That may have been the big match in the past (and don't get me wrong there are still great matchups there) but the early Saturday game now carries as many, if not more, of the top ties IMO. This is due to security concerns and the fact that many of the top 4 have Tuesday Champions League commitments during the season so it is better for them to have a Saturday game. Bottom line - Setanta has a more appealing schedule (especially for United fans)
The "top" EPL match of the week when the UEFA Champions League is in session is the Saturday 7:45am ET match (1245 UK Time), which translates to 7:45pm or 8:45pm Singapore/Hong Kong/Beijing Time, depending on the time of the year. The EPL is fully prepared for the transition from a predominately English-speaking global TV audience to a predominately Chinese-speaking global TV audience by the year 2020 (or perhaps even sooner). Manchester United, in particular, started running an ad board this season in Chinese characters for a beer brand known as "100 Glories" in Chinese. You and I know that particular brand as Budweiser.
The concept "the Sunday 11am ET is the top match" is not idle speculation, it is paid for with big $$$$ (or rather big ££££). All matches are scheduled at 10am ET Saturday. Then Sky Sports pays for the right to pick the best match and move it to Sunday 11am ET. Champions League is infrequent, so 90%+ of weeks, the top match is on FSC. Exception to this is not ManU, but Liverpool, whose matches are often at Saturday at 7:30amET due to their large following in Asia (channels there pay FA $$ as well). Sky also pays to move a match to Saturday 12:15pmET, which is also on FSC. Setanta does prioritize Chelsea and ManU, so fans of either team (or any supporters of single EPL teams) would be well served by subscribing to Setanta Sports (whose EPL matches will be available on Setanta Broadband starting in August). But, I have yet to see an actual statistical analysis of which matches of which teams were on which channel...
Much is made of Setanta Sports Canada, yet no information has come out from Setanta or TLN (holders of a license granted by the CRTC of a Soccer, Cricket and Rugby sports channel)...
Setanta Sports UK, not BSkyB, will have the Saturday 1715, Sunday 1330, and Monday 2000 EPL time slots starting with the 2007-2008 season.
Yeah, I know - same old, same old from Setanta for the past 5 months or so. Even my regular contact there hasn't given me anything concrete...
I've always felt the way that Setanta and FSC drew up the schedule, FSC gets hosed. Anytime there is a choice between games, Setanta gets first draw. I imagine Setanta as a premium channel needs to have it this way to draw viewership, but it always seems like Liverpool v Arsenal makes its way onto Setanta while West Ham battles Charleton Ath on FSC.
Not a very good example... currently West Ham vs Charlton is probably more important - supposedly £50 million at stake...
FSC didn't get hosed, they're the ones that sold those particular games/choices to Setanta. It's the people with FSC but not Setanta that get hosed.
Yup. That's the way I see it too. This confirms my decision that if Dish is w/o Setanta come August I'm gone.
You're splitting hairs there. The majority of the time Arsenal-Liverpool will be a more appealing game to the casual fan. I've got Setanta, so I don't really care, but if I only had FSC I'd be pretty pissed. Setanta's matches are usually the best ones of the weekend.
i'm sorry to report that you don't have a clue what your talking about. Anyone who is a fan of one of the top 4 teams in England (especially United) has to have Setanta. FCS is for the casual English soccer watching fan. Setanta will always pick the United game if they play at 10am EST on a Saturday or for the midweek games because they have the biggest fan base. Also, every team has to be shown on the Super Sunday game at home before Christmas. This used to be the marquee match up but the early Saturday game is as important if not more so nowadays. Dont give me some crap about West ham Charlton being more important because 50 million is at stake. If Setanta has the choice between that and a United game, which one do you think they will choose
Actually, he is spot on. That market is booming. Why do you think more and more teams are making pre-season treks over to places like China, Japan and southeast Asia? The FA and EPL are trying to capitalize on it, and they are doing a great job of it...
It might be booming in Asia (don't know, don't care), but the early kick-off is primarily for derby matches or "high-risk" matches and to get an extra match on TV in England (since no 3.00p kick-off is televised there). The idea is to get the match played before there is significant alcohol consumption among the supporters. That's why matches like Arsenal v Spurs; Everton v Liverpool; Sheffield Utd v Wednesday are always early kick-offs. Meanwhile, the more attractive matches (at least from an Asian perspective) which are not historical rivalries or "high-risk" like Arsenal v Man United; Chelsea v Arsenal; Chelsea v Man United are generally late kickoffs.
The heart of the issue for me is that I really hope FSC got bags of money for the deal they struck with Setanta, because they have devalued their channel by practically ensuring that none of the matches between the big 4 will appear on FSC. Hopefully they don't sell all the Roma, Inter, Milan, etc games to Setanta when they get the full Serie A next season. But they may, since they seem proud to be the official channel of Catania and Torino in the USA so far. I have no problem with Setanta, but even if you are willing to pay $15/month to have it practically speaking it is not available everywhere.
If you read any of the old threads on the issue, you will see that FSC could not afford the full cost of the EPL rights, so they split the cost, and the matches, with Setanta. PS I'm pretty sure that the 12:45pm kickoff is for Asia, not "derby matches". There are plenty of derby matches that are on Monday at 8pm, which is the latest start time used. Also, Liverpool usually plays at 12:45pm, which is due to their popularity in Asia...
LOL....yeah...the Torino and Catania matches are ridiculous....r these two like the cast-offs of Italy cuz it seems like they're on fsc constantly....thank God for the FSI deal....sure they'll prob split with setanta...but now that I finally have both, it's all good .....as far as setanta not being everywhere, luckily next year epl will be on broadband....but since I didn't want to wait, and I can't get DirecTv currently...i got it on ITVN since they give you a free box if you sign up for a year and that way you can pay monthly....
So what the hell is FSC going to show on Monday afternoons now? Replays of weekend EPL matches? Or are they angling to take away Scotland from Setanta and pimp an 8pm Monday match every week (with no domestic partner)? FSC is getting less relevant by the minute, for the global soccer viewer. Thx, Jay!
Would you stop it with your inane posts about how important Asia is to scheduling Premier League games. It may have something to do with it, but the main reason is clearly that which is noted above - security/derby matches. Games like United v Arsenal, Chelsea do not have as much potential for crowd trouble as United v Liverpool, City, Everton etc or other such games. Go find me a derby game with any meaning ie not Charlton v Fulham that is on on a Monday night... Even though you say that the Champions League is irrelevant 90% of the time (not true BTW) this does play into scheduling, and the fact that the biggest potion of the premier league money still comes from Sky/Setanta for UK rights has nothing to do with it - right?