Dish has better international packages, and now GolTV. DirecTV has NFL Sunday Ticket. Those are the big advantages of each. I have Dish, and the customer service has been great. In over three years of having them for service, the only problem we had was a corroded connector which caused one of the receivers to not get signal properly. They came in 2 days and fixed it. I recommend them. I hear equally good things about DirecTV service, so it really comes down to programming. Both are infinitely better than cable.
Not live. Those games are always only available in this country on closed circuit, ie only shown at commercial establishments. If you're willing to wait several days, rebroadcasts are sometimes available on one of these channels, but I can't recall which ones. GolTV? FSWEsp? Anybody?
I remember during the last round of South American qualifying that the matches were broadcast on Telemundo on 2-4 day delay.
GolTV has the rights for the S.A. WCQ for the games played in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Asuncion, Brazil and Venezuela but on a 24 hour tape delay as the rights holders show them live on the Dish Network Bar PPV system. GolTV does the produccion for all SAWCQers and they even use their play x play and color for these matches both in English and Spanish.
I have DirecTV. 3 TV's, local channels, sports pack. All in all I guess it's about $60 or $65 a month. Overall it's very good, but FSW, Univision, and Galavision are the only major soccer channels I get. (College Sports TV shows some college soccer and sometimes you can catch games on the local FSN's, but most of the FSN games are Man U reruns). I would've liked to have gotten one of the Spanish language packages but they cut out way too many English language channels. Getting Dish was out of the question because they don't have local channels. My question for Dish people: How much money would it cost for me to get only the base Dish Latino package? It's listed at $21.99. If I want it on just one television, how much money total would it end up being each month?
I believe that would cost you $21.99 per month (plus taxes). The "Latino" packages are considered base programming packages (rather than add-ons) just like AT50, 100 and 150, so there should not be any additional fees.
FSW (in English) is only included in Dish's AT150 base package, which is $43/month (and also includes GolTV).
Sorry Sexy about my lack of info. I was soo freakin' excited. I get the Top 150 channels & yes I get FSW, GolTV, 3 Spanish Stations too boot. W/ that I can stayed pretty much glued to the tube, just watching matches. Plus I did get PAX, so the WUSA matches were on there too. I don't know if the WUSA will be back, but man I have the whole globe at my finger tips. Sometimes I have tuff decisions to make on which match/Liga to watch. One downfall for GolTV is the fact that you mosting see Real Madrid matches. Like this past weekend, I would have loved to see the Seville Derby, but I had to see Real play Celta. That sucked cause there was totally more emotion in Seville. ** ok I cheated, I got the MLS Shootout too.
FYI, looks like Dish added over the past month of two quite a few new markets where it now carries local channels. Don't knwo if this affects you in LA. Also, I too have three TV's and my monthly cost is $67 (that includes $6/month for local channels and a small monthly fee for the Dish PVR). In addition to FSW, Univision and Galavision, I get GolTV.
Dish has been OK, but stay away from their PVR. We've already had to have one replaced (no charge from them and done by a service rep). We bought the $30/year service package, a nice investment since any time there is service needed a tech shows up to handle it. We had to have our antenna relocated (trees tend to grow) and that was done no muss, no fuss and no fee (due to the service package). I wonder if, for soccer, Direct TV isn't a safer long-term bet though, given Murdock's large ownership stake in it.
Couple of issues: Rupert Murdoch just completed his long-delayed purchase of DirecTV. It's way too early to tell how this will affect the service, but a lot of changes are coming. It's important to remember that, even without this development, the deal changes with the seasons. One year, DTV has it hands down. The next, Dish seems to be better. Right now, DTV is going whole-hog for HD. They're using three satellites, have plenty of available channels and look set for a big move. Dish, as I understand it, is maxed out, although they would have some more room with a new sat they have which is still on the ground. All I'm saying here (don't bug me with a detail or two I may have wrong - not the point) is that it's constantly in a state of flux. Don't invest in a system with the expectation that it will always have an edge on the competitor. In this biz, six months is an eternity and twelve months is so far beyond the planning horizon that it's not worth discussing. As for the question on broadband: DTV used to offer a sat download capability, but have discontinued it. You needed a different dish, PLUS you still needed a phone line. Somebody picked up the service, and they run ads on DTV for it but it's not the answer for much of anybody. In any case, think twice about signing up for a sat service if HD is on your horizon - and it ought to be. Soccer is HDNet's darling, and it's true that the 16:9 format works so well for soccer it's unbelieveable. You can see so much more of what's happening away from the ball. MLS coaches and a lot of players freaked out this year when they has the chance to see it done, and virtually every team, and coach, and a lot of players, have invested in it. In any case, it makes no sense in 2004 to spend money on technology that has already been obsoleted. But there's the sat rub: HD sat receivers cost a fortune, over and above the cost of the TV, AND you need a triple LNB dish to boot, which most sat customers don't have. And DirecTV, for example, charges an additional $10.99 a month to pick up the channels. So if you're planning on going to HD in the foreseeable future, don't plunk down for a dish and receiver that you'll have to replace. Digital cable providers don't charge extra for HD programming and you don't have to fork out 800 bucks for reception equipment.
In another thread about Gol TV, a guy who works for Gol TV indicated that their deal with Dish is exclusive to Dish only through 2004. So who knows if the provider you choose today will have the channels you want tomorrow.
I've never heard of that. Wish that was true here - I wouldn't feel like an idiot paying $10.99 a month in order to justify the investment.
Right now, my system (Suscom - www.suscom.net/york) charges something like $5.99 for HD programming. All they have are the locals, PBS, Discovery and ESPNHD. I have told the GM that if they get HDNet, I'd pay for it, but I'm not paying to get a cleaer picture of what I already have. The investment in the new set, plus the monthly fee doesn't make sense to me (or more importantly my wife unless I'm getting shows I wouldn't get otherwise. That's where MLS comes in for me. HDNet's first offer to Suscom was insane, but I have been told they have resumed talks and might have a deal in the future.
I agee that the Dish PVR is funky. Sort of a poor man's TiVo, but with some glitches. Mine's worked okay for two years, but I always need to unplug the thing in order to re-set it (or something like that; a Dish installation tech told me they're very suseptible (sp?) to static electricity - my house has old wiring, not all circuits are grounded, and the city has a less than stellar power grid (some local computer tech guys told me it screws up hard-drives, which of course the PVR has). Anyway, I like the features and not having to invest in technology that is changing so rapidly. I just with the thing were more reliable. By the way, (though of this when I saw Bill Archer posting here) Columbus, where I'm moving next summer, is one of the cities where Dish now has local channels.
Maybe you have an older generation of the DISH PVR. I've had mine since October and it's been awesome and a God send. I can store up to 100 hours of whatever -- translates to 66.67 soccer matches (full 90 minutes). LOL. This is an awesome lil device and since I have a stand alone DVD Recorder, the footy Gods have blessed my household. I've had my DISH for three years now and the main reason I got it was because of FSW. GolTV was added to the 150 package which I have and it's been AWESOME. I can watch the major European and South American leagues on any week-end. Last night, I saw an ad on ESPN for ESPN Deportes making it's debut on Jan 7 or 8 2004, so I'm guessing that it may be available on DISH. If not, I expect that it will be by the end of the year. The two Satellite providers are great however, I'd give the edge to Dish as fas as footy coverage is concerned. However, Rupert Murdoch's company has purchased DirecTV, so don't be surprised when more soccer programming is added to DirectTV's lineup. As soccer fans, we're winning bigtime. If you have cable and can switch to either Satellite service, I say do it as soon as you can. I can go on and on about the Dish package and if you'd like more info from me, drop me an e-mail. Happy New Year to everyone!!!!
I don't know remember that Charlie has had some real battles with Disney when it comes to adding their channels because everytime he feels and many times he's correct that he's getting the short end of the stick with the deal Disney puts on the table.
Picking this thread back up for the new year...my husband and I are switching from time warner digital to satellite in the next 2 weeks. If we are interested in as many EPL matches as we can get, MLS shootout, FSW, and the spanish language channels that will show the Olympic U-23 games (Telemundo? Galavision? Univision?), which is better? DirectTV or Dish? Any help would be appreciated! Happy New Year.
I know Dish carries FSW, FS en espanol, Gol TV, Univision, Telemundo, galavision and telefutura...is there any possibility to get all of them in one account....i also want the MLS shootout package...i can give a rat's ass about NFL, NBA, etc....pLEAse Help Me.... i am addicted to soccer and once i hear of a soccer channel i want it