It is official; We need to pressure the networks to get the Superliga on an American network. From what I can gather, this is the exposure of international soccer on American-based networks. I am sure that I am missing something, so forgive me: Fox Sports World- 1) English Premiership 2) German Bundes Liga 3) Italian Serie A 4) French Ligue Professionale 5) Dutch League GolTV- 1) Spanish La Liga 2) Ecuadorian League 3) Guatemalan League 4) Argentinian League Galavision (And other spanish language networks)- 1) Mexican League There is no reason NOT to have the Superliga on some satellite of some sort in America! I have recently upgraded to the Dish Network and have RTPi as well. This gives me about one or two games a week, with virtually no coverage of the Taca de Portugal and the UEFA Cup or Champion's league. I realize I could put out the extra money for yet another system to get SIC for another $12/month or SportTV at $40/month, but there has to be another answer. I want to get a petition together to send to GolTV and Fox Sports World to attempt to get a North American license on Portuguese Soccer. I know that Fox Sports has been considering replacing either Dutch or French Soccer with the Superliga and I would like to make their decision easier. If their is enough support on this board, I would like to setup a "point man" in each of the communities across the US and Canada to gather signatures so that we can put together a strong voice. Whose support do I have?
You have my support. About 3 years ago, Dish Network had the entire Portuguese League season on channel 589 (KBS). It cost $300 for the entire season, over 100 games (we bought it here at my house and it was worth it). Now SPT owns the rights to most of the games that give here in the United States, and the only way to see all the games is by doing what you said, purchasing a new satellite system and paying $40 for SportTV. I don't know how long the contract between SportTV and SPT is, but when it's up, I would like Fox Sports World or Gol TV to sign a contract with the SuperLiga. There's a large Portuguese community in the United States, so it would make sense for Fox Sports or Gol TV to carry the SuperLiga.
A lot of matches from the Argentinian and Brasilian leagues are screened at FSE (Fox Sports en Espanhol) on Sundays in the States. Anyway, yeah, I wouldn't mind Superliga matches shown on GolTV but I'd rather they show CL and UEFA Cup matches involving our clubs because that's where the most interest lies.
You are right, it is on GolTV, at least some matches are. They carried Inter-Chievo on Saturday and AC Milan-Juventus today.
I don't know if anyone remembers...but years ago before KBS had the rights to the Superliga, (at that time it was just the Primera Divisao) Fox Sports Americas (which is now Fox Sports World) carried the Portuguese League games as well as the Portuguese Cup Final. With the advent of SporTV in Portugal, they made the decision to sell the rights to the games they televise to a different station. (back then it was KBS and now it is SPT-Newark) The catch here is that you can not get these games if you subscribe to SPT on your cable carrier. You must purchase a satelite TV package. For anyone who has Dishnetwork, this was a tremendous blow, as we were able the last couple of years to purchase the entire season for $300.00. The current SPT contract with SporTV is for 2 years. (This season and next season) Our only hope is if SporTV negociates again and decides to go with different carrier, one with a broader range of availability. The fact that someone has to purchase additional equipment in order to subscribe is ridiculous. (We allready made a switch from cable to Dishnetwork in some areas of the country in order to receive RTPi.) You have my full support for this, as it becomes increasingly frustrating when every game you want to watch you need to leave the house to watch it. If its not a Setanta Closed Circuit game its a SporTV game. There has to be some logic behind all of this, you can't tell me that more many can be made through this current method then some other way. I understand that commercial establishments want you there to watch games, and that is great. But with family responsibilities and such it is not always easy to leave the house.
SPT contract was for 2 years, is running out, hope the Dish can buy back from the Portuguese federation SPT his own by Antonio Seabra from Newark
Time to put up or shut up! It looks like I have enough support to move forward with this. I have talked with a couple of gentleman from a FC Porto message board on another site where they were having the same conversation. Anybody interested in getting petitions signed in your area, please send me an e-mail with the following information to the following: ggschulz@zetzero.net Your Name Your Location Your E-mail Address I look forward to hearing from all of you.
Oops.... I wondered why nobody was e-mailing me. I misspelled the e-mail address. Try this: ggschulz@netzero.net
with teams like Benfica, Sporting, Porto, Braga, Boavista, Nacional, they can play with anybody and win surprise of the season the way teams like Rio Ave and Moreirense they can go on any stadium and win big
This is where I am at so far... Frank has e-mailed me which covers Union, NJ. My knowledge of the Newark area of New Jersey from visiting, is that we could have three or four people somewhere in the area without much overlap. I have rexeived an e-mail from "Mike" who I am assuming is Benfica_Fan. This covers at least a portion of Connecticut. I am waiting on confirmation from a guy at a FC Porto website. I know he is interested, but I am waiting to find out where he is from. I personally, can cover Tulare/Hanford/Tipton, CA This is what I figure I still need: Newark, NJ (at least two more) Fall River/New Bedford, MA The other half of Connecticut (Help me fill in the rest of the East Coast) Modesto/Turlock/Stevinson, CA San Jose, CA (At least 2) Newark, CA Artesia, CA Chino, CA San Diego, CA Sacramento/Elk Grove/Stockton, CA Los Banos/Gustine, CA Jerome, ID I am missing a lot, I am sure, so Help me out here. If you can take one of these areas, or know someone who can, please let me know.
do they have to be Portuguese speaking people? the brazilians are also making a petion at another site, they want more brazilian Soccer in the FOX Sports World
As far as I am concerned, if you speak portuguese, great! If not, we can still work with it. I intend on putting out the content and requests of the petition in English and Portuguese, so in theory all you have to do is show up, let them read the petition in whatever language they want, and get them to sign. I think it would be best, though, that if you do not speak portuguese, to have somebody go with you to get the signatures that does. I can't imagine that if you live in a Portuguese community and are an avid Portuguese soccer fan, that you don't have at least one friend or relative that speaks Portuguese!
When I first bought DISH about five or so years ago Fox Sports Americas, as FSE was then called, had one Portuguese game of the week on every week. Occasionally the big derbies were on but generally a matchup between one of the big clubs and a smaller one. I loved it. But they just stopped showing it all the sudden. They listed it as "European Soccer" instead of Portuguese Football for some reason.
This is the electronic age gentlemen (and ladies). Petitions are also affective but take much longer. Why not just bombared the foxsportsworld website with our comments regarding Portuguese football. If they receive enough emails they may finally open their eyes. At least show some friggin highlights of matches!! I have alreay sent my comments to them using the following link on the Fox fan forum. I know this is related to club rankings, but we can use it as a communication tool...Just say Porto should be ranked higher and we want to see more Portuguese Superliga coverage!! http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1991956
You are right, but the two are not mutually exclusive! I am going to go forward with the petition, but let's find a legitimate e-mail address for golTV and Fox Sports World in their respective programming departments and bombard them with e-mails. WHoever finds them first, post them as a sticky. BTW, futebol_fan, what part of Canada are you going to take for the petition? Also, Since I posted last, Fall River, MA and Hudson, MA are on board!
why should we????... why the ******** dont they take MLS to portuguese T.V????... WE dont give a ******** about portugal... u wanna watch it go back to portugal.
1. I doubt you're a TV producer(neither are us but that's not the point), so don't talk about "we" in this case. 2. Do you think a TV network would look at this and pass up an opportunity? At some point, somebody is going to bring it back to the American TV screens. 3. I am looking forward to FCP doing their own U.S. tour because I know that they will go 10/10 against you lot. Heck, FCP will beat the so-called MLS All-Stars like the big putos they are any day. 4. You wish you have Deco and Derlei and no amount of trash talk comeback will change that fact. 5. You don't know the real futebol.
rtp international just televised the Santa Clara vs New England Revolution game You can only blame the MLS, they should make a package and sell it to the World, but not like they do in England were the games come out on ch 5 at 5 am in the morning, NBA is televised in Portugal with a high rating on pay TV, WWE ex WWF is televised in Portugal, so don't complain about the portuguese TV, demand the MLS to get a package like the NBA and WWE and sell it around the World
RTP international schedule Sunday Rio Ave vs Sporting, via tape delay II liga Santa Clara vs Portimonense Basketball Benfica vs Seixal http://programas.rtp.pt/EPG/epg-dia.php?datai=-3&dia=21-03-2004&sem=e&canal=5&gen=&time=
I'm not a fan of the Superliga, but I know there are some quality teams in the league. I am always happy to see more top flight football on TV. I reccommend that you post a question about this on the Business and Media forum. There are at least two Gol TV employees (constatino is one)and one FSW on air personality (Jeremy St. Louis) that read that forum and respond regularly. Perhaps they might be able to give you a business reason why this isn't happening, or they might be able to give you some advice on how to proceed in the most effective manner. From what little I know about the biz, you probably have a better chance with Gol then FSW. GOL is still in it's infancy and is more willing to go out and find new viewers....and spend $$ to do it. FSW has been around a while, and is comfortable with the viewers it has and the amount of $$ they have spent.