I just started the League One playoff and so far only stadium sounds during the pre-game. I hope this changes. They ran one of the League One semi-finals as stadium sounds only, which was strange. There was commentary in England via Sky and it seems like ESPN gets the feed from Sky. This has not been a problem in recent years. And as I type this, the game has kicked off with no commentary.
During the "dark ages" when fans were prohibited from attending matches, the TV companies figured out how to run multiple tracks of audio. You'd think they still could. AFAIK, AppleTV is the only one to do this with TV announcers and home team radio. ESPN does it for college football and I know I've seen it once or twice for college basketball, but let's see it more often, shall we?
It started at about 2 minutes of game action, so not a major problem. I would have preferred to have pre-game commentary, but in the grand scheme of US TV failures, I'm ok with what happened. Haha.
Used to enjoy Derek Rae on various broadcasts but he's gotten completely out of control inserting German words and phrases into his Bundesliga calls, including today's relegation playoff. The occasional phrase or two adds some color but he's seemingly bringing one up every 2-3 minutes. We get it Derek, you know German.
Finally getting around to watching the Scottish Cup and it is essentially the same. The difference here is that you can just barely hear the announcers, but they are drowned out by the crowd noise.
Looks like one this afternoon and two Sunday morning (you have to click the arrows on the top right to see the second Sunday game). ESPN has gotten really lazy about taking forever each week to announce which games from leagues like Belgium and Holland are going to be shown. https://www.livesoccertv.com/competitions/belgium/pro-league/
An article from today’s NYTimes (should be readable even to those who don’t have a subscription): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/business/media/espn-disney.html And one closing sentence jumped out: “Disney’s family of sports channels currently earn somewhere north of $12 per month in affiliate fees for each cable subscription, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Estimates vary widely, but if ESPN offered its cable channels à la carte, it would most likely have to charge an astonishingly high fee for the streaming service, perhaps $40 or $50 per month, just to maintain its current revenue.” Ouch!
I'm absolutely not surprised. Things ALWAYS cost more when individually sold. Look at the RSN apps. They're all approx $20/mo. Hell, we all knew that back in 2005 when Setanta was $15/mo. If it was on every provider in a bundle with other channels, it might have been under $10/mo.
https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/bottom-line-news-ticker-live-sports.html An opinion piece states ESPN should retire their ticker during live events. Here's the deal: They won't. They don't want people looking at sources that aren't ESPN...also why it now advertises upcoming events. (It's called "supporting the company's bottom line." The accountants all love positive cash flow.) The only other issue I had with the article is the mention of: "world where we aren’t consuming games on linear television anymore," I bet most people either watch live OR they start the game late and FF through commercials. There's some people who may not be able to watch that game, but they're getting updates via whatever app (channel, league or team) and don't really count here. Even if you're watching on Fubo or DirecTV, youre still watching the game. There's some times when the game will be simulcast on ESPN3 with no ticker, but that annoys me how I'd be a few minutes behind ESPN. What I do find annoying is that they've now inserted a ticker on their archives for their talking heads shows...but is it a new/current ticker? No. It's the same thing as if someone DVR'ed the show when it debuted.
A score ticker is ridiculous. A barker ticker for upcoming competitions is not that bad. Latin American channels promote shows with bugs instead of tickers.
Breaking news: Charter Spectrum defeated Disney. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b...e-deal-espn-abc-return-to-lineups-1235580344/
Thanks for that heads-up! My FIL has been dogged by this and he's not at all swift about using streaming workarounds. It ruined his US Open tennis watching. Nice of them to settle one day after that tournament ended. But apparently MNF had a bit more sway.
There will, however, be significant changes to Disney’s channel offerings. Under the new deal, Freeform, Disney Junior, Disney XD, FXX and Nat Geo Wild, among other cable channels, will no longer be carried by Spectrum, which instead will focus on the core ESPN networks, FX, Nat Geo and Disney Junior channels, as well as ABC stations. That...is gonna honk off a lot of people. I'm on a TV-related forum and channels you wouldn't think people would miss...well...they do get missed. "All I watch is Hallmark! I want MY Hallmark! It's ridiculous that I pay $200/month and you drop HALLMARK!" The reality is that some "customers" may be plants from the companies that own the channels... but there's obviously no way to tell. And no, Spectrum costs won't go down. Edit: I'm also reading that Disney+ and ESPN+ are coming to Spectrum customers. (I believe there was previously a trial for people with Spectrum email addresses, but I don't know exact details.)
Yeah what I'm seeing is that Spectrum is paying more money but had secured the ability to drop 2ndry cable channels in exchange for bundling Disney+ and Espn+ in select packages. Win win I think for both parties as many will now be subscribers of ESPN+ and Disney+ that wouldn't have been previous, which is a plus for Disney, while Spectrum is offering content that people want in their bundle
ISTM that people are still paying for that same content...they're just getting it via a different method. For people that used to "double dip" this is a win. Their Disney+/ESPN+ bills are now included in their Spectrum bills. (Whereas Time Warner was one of the last to be upgraded to ESPN3 for the low cost of five cents per internet subscriber, Spectrum now has ESPN+.) Hopefully they include an option to "upgrade for commercial-free." Meanwhile, Comcast no longer includes Peacock with their internet bill.
Spectrum already offers Max and now the Disney/ESPN services. They got a free year of Peacock for their subscribers out of Comcast last go round. I wonder what they can get from CBS/Viacom. There is a company with a lot of dead weight traditional cable channels that I'm sure Spectrum would love to get rid in exchange for Paramount +
ESPN if you're listening, could you please do a better job with the halftime "coverage" during EFL Cup games? Of course the word coverage is a misnomer, because here's what they do (just did)... Start showing a few seconds of the worldfeed (highlights) and then switch to their endless loop of stupid promo, for a service we're already watching AND paying for. So smart, thoughtful and customer friendly of them. Edit: They did the same thing at full time. Showed 1 second of the beginning of highlights and then "replaced" it with that stupid ESPN+ promo loop. It's as if they're contractually restricted from showing any highlights. If so, that sounds pretty dumb to me.
Watched some la liga highlights on you tube and noticed that ale moreno called both barcelona and real madrid games this weekend. I had trouble getting through those highlights. Glad I am not paying for that service anymore.
Just got an email that the monthly sub to ESPN+ is going to $10.99 on 10/12/23. That's 220% what it cost me just over 2 years ago. I guess I should go back to suspending my monthly subscription when I don't really need/use it, i.e. if/when my team goes out of the FACup. Unless y'all know of some way to get a discount on their monthly rate? or some really awesome annual rate??
I don't know if this is "really awesome," but the annual rate is $109.99, increasing from $99.99 at the same time as the monthly rate. So that's the equivalent of a two month discount.
Thanks. Yeah not really awesome, so I’ll have to see if I’d be able to suspend my sub for more than 2 months per year. Unless someone knows a way to get a better deal. (And bundling isn’t really a value to me since I have no need for Disney+)