I'm clueless when it comes to TV deals so any of my questions answered would be greatly appreciated. 1) It seems that Setanta is buying out the rights to everything. I wouldn't mind paying the $15/month if only Time Warner Cable would offer it to me. Is Setanta owned by DirecTV or a Satellite company? 2) I thought FSC was owned by the same guy who owned Sky. I also thought that Sky owned the rights to EPL games. So why is Sky selling rights to their direct competitors? 3) Are we talking about TWC spending big money just to be able to provide the channel, or is it more of laziness/who cares about soccer problem?
Setanta is its own company. They're trying to work out deals with Dish and cable, but these things take a long time for some reason. Sky owns the rights in England. FSC own the rights in the U.S., however they sublet to Setanta to recoup some money. Laziness, bandwidth, who knows. Keep calling/writing them I guess.
FSC owns the rights yet they sell the best games to Setanta, a channel limited to Directv. That's a travesty!
setanta tv is also available on Globecast world tv a little known and cheap satelite service (it's a la carte so you can get only that channel without paying for any other package) and it is probably going to be available by ITVN a sort of cable company that provides video over broadband but only for your tv, kinda like vonage is for your phone.
I checked out globecast but was a bit lost on the technical details. How exactly would you go about just getting Setanta using them?
I actually think it was pretty smart on FSC's part. They got the most convenient games and very good ones. Getting rid of the 7:30am game was good business because no one wakes up that early on a Saturday. Only hardcore fans and there's not many who will do it. Also, FSC got MLS which I would much rather watch than EPL.
I would guess the 6:30AM was a good draw for FSC. I have talked with a number of people about this that I know who used to get up with their little kids and watch this match. While I do not have kids, I used to get up quite a lot to watch this match no matter who was playing. I am not arguing the point of FSC getting rid of the game or not, I am just saying don't always look at the time of the match as an indicator of whether people are going to watch a match. Also, there are a good number of "hardcore" fans out there who will watch any and all Premiership matches. I would consider myself one of them. However, more than just "hardcore" fans watch the 7:30AM match. A lot of casual fans do as well based on simply getting up early on the weekends and having little to nothing to watch. I have talked with at least ten people who watched this match regularly because of that.
I know quite a few people that would get up for that game. There are still people that get up early on the weekend. It was a good game to watch in the morning and then go about getting things done for the rest of the day. A lot of my friends aren't in the 9-5 M-F work world either so that was the only game they could catch on Saturday because of work. As for MLS, I'm not sure how that ties into this discussion at all because they could have had both MLS and the EPL. There was never going to be a conflict between the two.
Last season when the early game came on I always watched it no matter who was playing just because there was nothing else to do. Even if I stay up til 1AM I find myself waking up at 7 in the morning. Then later I take a little nap when I find the time. But anyway I did watch the early morning games.
I never watched the 4:30 AM match live, but sometimes recorded it on the DVR... Since it was also 4:30 AM at FSC headquarters in L.A., it seems likely that would be the first one they would want to sell !
BINGO! We have a winner! FSC can now air 2 extra hours of infomercials on Saturdays and make a little bit more money before it signs on. Also, FSC gets to keep a few more bucks in its coffers now that it basically gave up the Bundesliga without putting up a fight. FSC will air a 2-day delay Mexican game instead. FSC is finally doing what it should have been doing all along: 1. Get enough of the EPL to justify its existence on digital sports packs. That means one good game a week (Sundays at 11am ET) and a highlights show. 2. Dump unprofitable products in French and German Leagues (someone in LA finally woke up after losing money on those products for 13 years, going all the way back to the day La Cadena Deportiva Prime Ticket was launched.) 3. Simulcast or re-air products from FOX Sports en Espanol (i.e. Mexican and Argentine Leagues), which are already paid for. 4. Get MLS and US Open Cup for practically nothing, as throw-ins to a deal for Euro club tours, USMNT and USWNT friendlies, and Mexican Interliga games, which are worth something.
I'll really miss the 7:30 a.m. game. For years, I would get up way before my wife, watch the first half at the gym, shower during the half and watch the second half during breakfast. A great way to start the weekend.
One good EPL match a week and highlights justifies FSC? You´ve got to be kidding. If FSC´s strategy is to dump stuff that appeals to hardcore fans, such as saturday early morning, they´ll be losing viewers to Setanta, goltv, etc. fast. Í know I´m looking at other options, as to me this is a move by FSC away from carrying the EPL, which really is the only reason I watch FSC. Bad strategy to undercut your main draw.
FSC now has MLS. It seems like they dumped a bunch of good programming for it. What is FSC's strategy? If they had the rights they should keep all the games they could show and include MLS. I guess they didn't have the money for both. I hope Comcast/TWC can sort something out with Setanta by at least next season.
Losing viewers? It's not as if FSC is available a la carte. How many people would specifically dump a sports pack just because they want to dump FSC? So FSC has 2 live games instead of 2 live games + a couple delayed telecast, how many people will dump the channel only because of that? FSC has very little growth potential. But it's very difficult for viewers to dump a channel just because they cut back their inventory, because some of the content you want to watch is still there. I applaud FSC's path of keeping the minimal amount of inventory just to keep the viewers NOT to dump it.
Bingo. The "brain trust" at FSI in L.A. took nearly 9 years to figure out how to program FSC for maximum profit. To their credit, they finally figured it out: one good live EPL match each week, an EPL highlights show, a newscast from Canada produced on a shoestring budget, a whole bunch of cheap filler such as Argentine, Mexican, and MLS, and time buys such as USL and men's college soccer. FSC will not have any more money-losers such as German, French, or Dutch soccer. That's the ONLY way FSC can ever turn a profit as a mature business that will only grow at the rate of population growth, i.e. 3% a year. -- One thing we now know: a new soccer channel will come along in the U.S. market every 2 to 3 years. The existing channels will all mature and hit the "wall" sooner or later so they will have to dump unprofitable inventory, leaving a new channel to take over the rights to excess products. Repeat the same cycle every 2 to 3 years... Let's see: 1993: La Cadena Deportiva Prime Ticket (FOX took over in 1996, channel has evolved into FOX Sports en Espanol) 1997: FOX Sports World (now FOX Soccer Channel) 1999: ESPN Extra digital cable pay-per-view (that one went out of business after 24 months) 2000: PSN -- Pan-American Sports Network (absorbed by FOX Sports International in pre-packaged bankruptcy filing in 2002 before PSN ever got its U.S. channel up and running after PSN burned though over $100 million in Latin America); TIFC -- The International Football Channel (that one died in less than 6 months) 2003: GolTV 2004: ESPN Deportes (which is not really a soccer-centric channel) 2005: Setanta Sports USA At this rate, we should see another new soccer-centric channel iin the U.S. by the 3rd quarter of 2007 or sometime in 2008.
Someone's going to have to go under to launch another legitimate soccer channel. Just about every worthwhile product will be about to start or be in the midst of a multi-year rights deal in 2008.
The new EPL, Serie A, and French Ligue 1 international TV deals will start in the autumn of 2007. The Bundesliga, La Liga, UEFA Champions League, and UEFA Cup 3-year international TV deals are starting now. The next cycle will start in the autumn of 2009. Late 2008/early 2009 sounds about right for the launch of the next soccer-centric U.S. TV channel.
I thought I was waking up early. The FSC announcers had to be in the studio, ready to go by 4:15 AM PT. They wouldn't get out of there until noon PT (after Super Saturday +) or later. At least home viewers have tivo. Set that thing to start at 4:15 and watch when you wake up.
yeah but alls they had to do was sit back watch the game and chime in during half-time saying well that was a bute its 1-0 man u the actual in-game anouncers I believe were in England. If I'm not mistaken FSC picks up some other broadcast SKY? also I know people are hopping on the Setanta bandwagon and saying THEY ARE AWESOME THEY HAVE EVERYTHING but seriously why do you think FSC is getting rid of this stuff? It's because it's not profitable. Honestly in 3 years I don't think Setanta will be around. I could be wrong but there's not really that much demand for this stuff. I know it surpassed directv's expectations but that's because they weren't expecting anything. Now with this huge deal costing them tons of money it's going to be hard for them to dig themselves out of the hole. But we can enjoy it while it lasts.
That you don't have to worry about. There are always dopes who think that selling Euro soccer is a viable business, and dig deep into their pockets (read: loss) to launch a soccer-centric channel. Of course, they overpay the rights fees. After the honeymoon period, they either go bankrupt or seriously cut back their inventory. This cycle will continue again and again and again and again.... If you throw a rock to a crowd, you'll always hit some dopes who think they can make money off a soccer-centric channel. You can't blame them. Look at this board here, there are always people who think that Euro soccer is a profitable business, and thus ESPN2 should televise more than 2 Champions League games per MD.
honestly though i've looked at what setanta have and would love to be able to watch the Football League and Carling Cup and i'll probably sign up for broadband sometime this year
The question for FSC is not "is the EPL profitable". The question is what is the minimum amount we can offer where it can be justified by cost/benefit analysis. In other words, FSC has kept 3-4 live EPL games plus 1 delayed game each week, including 1 of the 3 "best" games of the weekend. They believe that will get them a certain amount of revenue. Now, would keeping the rest of the EPL games that Setanta now has make FSC more revenue? Probably, but they would have to "spend" (or not get money from Setanta for) more than they would take in because of it. Or, at least that's what they believe.
Everybody has their own preferences, but the issue here is accessibility. For $69/yr, I can get MLS Direct Kick and get plenty of MLS, not to mention games broadcast on ESPN2 and local regional sports networks (HDNet also shows weekly games in high definitiion, but not everyone has access to it). I would think that most people who get FSC want to see international soccer, in this case, the EPL, which, without these stations, would be hard to come by. While true, it is a case where profit has been maximized at the cost of the viewer/consumer. While I am sure that the EPL is the draw to FSC, have studies been done that show that these leagues are "money-losers" because they have all been picked up by other stations. Setanta has UEFA Champions League, EPL, and Euro qualifiers...why would they bother picking up French and Dutch soccer? Perhaps the diversity of an international soccer channel is its appeal. That's why, even though I enjoy EPL greatly, I like GOLTV's approach to programming (although they have some leagues I will not even watch).