Hey guys, sorry in advance for the off topic post, but hey it's the off season and I wanted to get advice from people I could trust. So, I am interested in watching more soccer on TV, hopefully English or other European leagues (basically not crazy about MFL). Is ordering Fox Sports World the best way to do this? I've got cable now, but they're going to be jacking up the prices so is Satellite the way to go? What's better, DirecTV, Dish Network, or something else? I would be looking to hook up 3 or possibly only 2 TVs. Thanks for the help!
Having Fox Sports world is absolutely vital- it's got a ton of games, from EPL to Germany to Scotland to Argentina to Spain. Nothing comes close. I have Directv, with the EPL PPV package that is a bit of a rip off, at $ 269 a season and you get 2 games a week, live. FSW will show you a number of those games on tape delay, some by 2 hours, some a couple of days later, but if I had it to do over again I'd probably get by on FSW alone. FSW has EPL midweek games live, plus some cup games, plus premiership review shows and Sky Sports News (like British Sportscenter, great for EPL news and notes). You simply can't get by without it. I could do with less rugby and what not, but it is a channel that is 60% soccer (25% infomercials, 15% other stuff), and you can't have too many of those. I would go for directv, and get either a Tivo or an ultimate TV receiver for your main set so that you can digitally record games. No more farting around with the vcr or having the cable box on the wrong channel, just select the show and forget about it. Make sure you get a dual receiver, so you can watch one thing and record another. Also key. I would go for directv over Dish, because you have access to PPV events that Dish doesn't always carry. If you like MLS, the shoot out package is worth it at only $ 40 a season, but I'm undecided on getting it this year. How many Wizard-Crew games do I really want to watch?
Also make sure you can get the spanish channels. When I bought my Direct TV satellite you needed a special one. Dont know if they have made newer kinds but itll be a good question to ask. The reason is because you get to have Canal Sur, TVE, FSWE, and the Chilean Channel that shows some matches too. It may not matter to you though if youre not interested in South American matches. FSW shows them too but usually delayed anywhere form a few hours to a few days.
And if you're a Yankees/Nets fan (and who isn't a Nets fan these days), DirectTV carries the YES network, I don't believe Dish does. And Cablevision certainly doesn't.
I think currently DirecTV provides more options (standard and PPV packages) for fans of European soccer. For South & Latin American fans, Dish Network may be the way to go. You might check out this thread... https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28008 Also note that recently Dish has been monkeying around with their PPV bandwith and have really cut down on some of their PPV offerings including not offering the recent USA vs. Canada friendly or the early round FA Cup action.
I love my directv but you cannot get the Metro channel which shows some MetroStars matches (as well as the other ny teams). It's a trade-off but fsw makes it worth it.
I forgot this in my other post above...Manchester United has a marketing agreement with the Yankees and I heard recently that YES would start showing tape delay broadcasts of Man Utd. matches. Of course, if you have Fox Sports World and the EPL complete PPV season package, there is hardly an EPL game that Man Utd. plays that you can't see on one of those two options.
He's talking about DirecTV para Todos. I had regular DirecTV and got rid of it for Time Warner Digital cable. still happy with that move. However, if I move to an area w/o Time Warner cable, I'd go back to DirecTV and get the spanish language dish. Basically the dish is shaped like a more well rounded football instead of the standard oval. They give you all the Spanish stations + Fox Sports World Espanol + ESPN Deportes which I think is ESPN Latin America. Spanish announcers for the ESPN programming + access to Champions League and Spanish league games (mainly Barca and Real) + the Copa del Rey.
That used to be a problem when the Yankess were on MSG, but now they are not. I dont think any Metos games were on the Metro channel last year...
This will mostly be a problem for the Devils and Islanders, and occasionaly the Knicks and Rangers. The Devils will move to YES eventually, not sure when that will happen though. Don't recall how many MetroStars/Power games were on Metro, very few if any.
the problem with the Metro Channel is that previously it was only used for overflow when both MSG and FSNY had games on them. Now they put games on Metro just to eff with non-cablevision subscribers. This weekend the Knicks and the Devils were on Metro with either MSG or FSNY available for programming. The Devils get it the worst because they are owned by Yanks/Nets and Cablevision likes to stick it to them. I wouldn't be suprised if they did the same thing to the MetroStars every once in a while.
I highly recommend DISH net, although I now have Adelphia digital cable with FSW, FSenE, PPV MLS capabilities, PPV Prem, International Channel (one serie A game per week), and the ABC family...plus high speed internet and I love it. But it is a bit more expensive.
i'm set RCN in somerset, nj FSW, FSWespanol, MSG (metros), NYMetro, espn, espn2, PPV ($20game, worth it if u think about it, drinking at the bar--at least $20) telefutura, univision, telemundo, galavision
i got dishnetwork with fox sports world, and rai for weekend serie A matches.10 bucks extra. msg so i'm covered. no yanks/nets on dish net .
Cablevision iO package - best decision I've made in awhile. FSW and music choice channels worth the extra 10 bucks a month alone.
Your choices are going to be limited by where you are. Satellite (Dish or Direct TV) require you have a view of the Southwestern Sky, so if you live in New York City you will likely find that you don't have that (either your apartment faces the wrong way or you face the right way, but there's a building that blocks the path to the satellite). Also, there are many building that don't allow Sat dishes (some because of the way they look on the building, others because they have deals with Cable companies so tenants will only get cable). If you have your own house outside of the city, then satellite becomes much more of an option. If you can't do satellite for the above mentioned reasons, then you'll have to go the cable route, and which company you get is determined by where you live. The city is mostly divided by TimeWarner and Cablevision where you will only have the choice of one or the other, though some places have RCN available as an alternative. Whatever your choices may be, the station you'll most want to get is Fox Sports World and Fox Sports World Espanol. These stations have by far the most soccer coverage. Currently on the Weekends they show 2 Bundusliga matches (Germany), 3 EPL matches (England), 1 La Liga (Spain) match, and 1 Argentina match. Also durring the week they usually show 1 more EPL, 1 Scottish League, 1 UEFA Cup (when played) and a couple of FA cup matches, and like 1 or 2 Brazil League matches when they are played (also durring the week they replay some of the weekend matches). This list pretty much covers what they have been showing this year, but it seems to change year to year what they have right to. Last year they had no La Liga matches, but had 2 Dutch League matches (Ajax seemed to be on every week) and 1 French League match. Fox Sports World Espanol has less Euro matches, but includes more South American matches (including Copa Liberatores). Oh yeah, I forgot, Fox Sports World also was showing the USA A-League matches durring the season (not MLS but the other USmen league). The good news is that just about all the systems (Cable and Satellite) have FSW and FSWEsp as an option at some level. Whatever system you decide on you'll want to get the teir with this channel as an option. Other stations you'll want are ESPN (for MLS and USAnats), ESPN2 (for Champion's Leage matches), MSG (for Metrostars), Galavision and Telemundo (for Mexican League). If you are more interested in other leagues you can often get a respecive country's foreign channel for an additional charge (like Rai International for Italy's SerieA matches, or Frances TV5 (?) for French League matches). Getting these international channels for an additional monthy fee is pretty much uniform for all systems, satellite or cable. In the future I understand that ESPN Desportes (a spanish language version of ESPN) will become available and will have a lot of Soccer on it, but I don't know what systems will be offering it (outside of the US ESPN International rocks with lots of Champion's League, La Liga, and SerieA matches, hopefully ESPN Desportes will be bringing all of that to the US, though it looks like it will be Spanish language. Hope this info helps in your choice.
The Devils will move to YES in 2006. By then, it is quite probable YES and MSG/FOX will have merged. (Don't laugh, it's been mentioned in the Times more than once). I am very satisfied with Time Warner digital cable. Whatever you do, get Fox Sports en Espanol. It's priceless for South American matches. (Man does not live by Europe alone--at least I don't). Also, Azteca America is now available over the air on UHF Channel 39 in New York. It will no doubt eventually be available on cable. I think it's required by law. Anyway, now all Mexican Liga futbol games can be seen in New York.
If you don't have FSW, then you aren't a soccer fan. Period. Peddle your girlfriend's ass if you have to, but get a satellite service. A lot of companies now will even GIVE you the damn equipment if you'll sign up. And right now, there's no question: DirecTV because of the MLS Shootout. Dish doesn't give you any of the weekday games, and wild feeds are always questionable. DTV gives you probably 25% more MLS games for the same money. You can get the Spanish language stations if you want to shell out for that package. Plus as noted previously DTV has tons of foreign games available as PPV's. I don't buy many, but occasionally there's a match I'm dying to see, and it's nice to know that if I want to see it bad enough, just press the buttons.