They don't have the available viewership, though. The number of people in the entire USA interested in European soccer matches with English language commentary is barely enough to provide enough income for FSC and Setanta (who also cover MLS and rugby, respectively). HD automatically narrows the viewership to roughly 10-20% of that who have access to HD TV channels (most use HD for PS3 or DVD). FIOS TV is a tiny fraction of that currently. I doubt there are 1,000 FIOS HD TV viewers who are interested in European soccer - maybe not even 100.
I've never even heard of it. If NFL Network, ESPN, ESPN2, etc can all show HD channels, and non-HD channels, can't FSC do the same? (unless that is a cost issue)
They also have the market position to do it. FSC doesn't. They're getting big fees for their channels.
The more realistic long-term option for seeing Premier League games in HD would be for Fox to set up a general "Fox HD" cable network which would show HD programming not just from FSC but also F/X, Fox Family, and even, ugh, Fox News Channel if needed. This is pretty similar to what is done on UniversalHD, which features content from NBC, USA Network, Sci-Fi, and Bravo.
They pretty much have things like that - on DishNetwork there are about 6-7 Fox HD channels for sports - FOX HD Midwest, FOX HD Northeast, etc.
That method is going away soon. All the popular cable channels will have their own separate HD channels within the next few months - even if there is only upconverted SD content on them. FSC is an unpopular cable channel - this is something that seems to be impossible for people on this Forum to grasp. They barely have enough viewers to survive currently, without even thinking about the expense of an HD channel that would cost more than their SD channel, while having even less viewers... ESPN can have ESPN-HD because it runs programming like Monday Night Football, which gets huge advertising revenue...
possibly OT, but i'd imagine europe has HD soccer coming out it's ears. possibly asia too, as soccer is their top moneymaker sport by far. since some of these signals may reach parts of north america, what outrageous things would it take to watch these signals here? sure, we have legal issues, i'd just like to know what technical issues exist. i mean, could some guy with a multi-milliion dollar groundstation/studio at his disposal in say, new york, just sit back and watch HD soccer broadcasts from europe?
HD in general has yet to pick up in many parts of Europe and Asia the way it has in the US and Japan. And what you could pick up would have to be decoded and probably involve slightly different standards.
I spent three weeks in Hamburg for the World Cup in June 2006 and watched the games I didn't have tickets to on cable tv at my friends' apartment (not in HD, unfortunately but Premiere's picture quality blows away most of what we see on FSC & GolTV.) Premiere, the main sports channel in Germany, had only recently started an HD channel. It reminded me of the US from about five years ago -- the electronics section of department stores were blanketed with advertisements for Premiere HD which were half ads for Premiere and half informational text explaining how "the future is high definition television." Europe is a little behind the US in rolling out HD so while yes you have Sky with a fairly large selection of EPL matches offered in HD and Premiere likewise I wouldn't say that England or Germany have HD soccer coming out of their ears (!) Not like the NFL here, certainly. Italy only within the past 2 years have received blanket Serie A coverage from Sky and only within that time frame have they begun to broadcast some matches in HD. Only a few European satellites can be "seen" from the east coast, reaching into the midwest, depending on how large of a dish you have & the layout of your property. The satellite carrying La Liga games, Hispasat, can be seen from the US with the right equipment though the broadcasts are usually encrypted. If you take a look at Lyngsat I can tell you that even from the east coast of the US you can't see much farther than 30 degrees west unless you have a huge dish on fairly elevated property. And the chances of finding unencrypted HD soccer from any of those satellites is pretty slim. I haven't had my big dish up for about a year since moving (I'm lazy but I'll get it done eventually) but this was the case as of one year ago & the situation hasn't changed much since then. But just to have a look at these satellites aimed at western Europe wouldn't require a multi-million dollar investment. You can do it for less than $1000, maybe a bit more if you want all new equipment. You just need a fairly large dish & receiver & someone competent to install it.
even if you can see the satellite, its beam is aimed in a completely different direction so no matter how big or professionally installed your dish is, you're not going to get anything. hispasat has some beams going to this hemisphere and some going to europe, but the beams we want are simply impossible to get on this side of the world. i got a few world cup qualifiers 2 years ago on 47w with a 100cm dish in Denver.
You must live on the (east) side of a mountain! The farthest I've ever seen is 40w from central Texas. But only in winter when all the leaves had fallen from the tree across the street. I gotta get my dish back up -- but it's easy to keep putting it off when DISH Network offers me more than I have time to watch already.
I had a really good view there, but Denver is not really in the mountains. They are further west. They are just huge, that's why it looks like Denver is in the mountains in photos.
I don't believe it actually is in HD, but rather in wide-screen 480p (Enhanced Definition, if you will). ESPN has done this before, such as during coverage of the French Open tennis tournament, which generated much discussion on other 'boards' at the time. Actually the picture looks very good, and the edition of HD graphics on the screen enhances the image. ESPN's tv listing guide does not have the red 'HD' next to the game listings and I have not noticed their 'HD' intro on their telecasts (although at five in the morning, I may miss a detail or two).
It looks HD to me, I just saw the USA-Sweden game. ESPN's tv listing guide DOES have the red 'HD' next to the game listings. Any chance Euro '08 is broadcasted in HD? I wouldn't mind if the champions league this year was in wide-screen 480p or Enhanced Definition.
in my Comcast program guide for next week, it says Real Madrid v. Lazio (Tues) and Barca v. Stuttgart (Weds) both on ESPN2 IN HD.... can anyone confirm?
It's on the HD channel but it's not really 720p wide screen, it's 576i and not wide screen. Still looks better than any of the other feeds you can get in the USA as far as I know. BTW, it's also not going to be Real Madrid v Lazio, it's Marseille v Liverpool, Real Madrid v Lazio will be live on ESPN Deportes. ESPN basically only shows British teams on ESPN2, at least in the group stages. Wednesday's ESPN2 game is Rangers v Lyon. At least both of these games are important. Pisses me off when they show a Manchester United match after they've already clinched first in their group over some other games that still matter.
I'm assuming what you're describing there is the same for all of the previous CL games they've shown so far this season (576i). Just like the Milan-Celtic game on Tuesday...however the difference is that in the program guide, none of them as of yet have been listed with "HD" in the program title. But next week, they are. Usually it will be listed (for me): channel 850, ESPN2HD: "live, Marseille vs. Liverpool" but next week, it says for both Tues and Weds games, "HD, Live, team x vs. team y" just like an NBA game or anything else which they truly do broadcast in HD (1080i). Granted, could just be a mistake by Comcast and it won't actually be shown in HD, but they're usually not wrong with those listings.
The DirecTV listing does not show the "HD" tag for the CL games next week. Hopefully, this changes . Was the final the only CL game shown in HD last year?
The 2006 final was in HD but apparently that was only so ESPN could test it's European HD broadcast capabilities before the World Cup in the summer. I didn't see it but the 2005 final was also in real HD but had a lot of broadcast problems so maybe that's why they tested the 2006 final before the WC. ESPN certainly could broadcast all their games in HD if they wanted to so hopefully some day the American public will care enough to make it worth their while.