OK so excuse my ignorance but I am new to this. I got Digital Cable from AT&T. Included in it is Fox Sports World. On Saturdays and Sundays my local Pub has EPL games on FSW but I dont. WHy Not? Thanks
In the pubs, you are probably looking at games produced by Fox Sports, but not televised on Fox Sports World. They are PPV games. Your digital cable should have them too, at $19.95 per game.
Does anyone else find 20 dollars absolutely rediculous for these single games? Wasnt it 10 bucks just a couple seasons ago? Then 15, now 20. I cant afford to watch em anymore - unless I have 3 friends over. Kinda sucks that ESPN only charge you 12 for a dozen college football games. Think we should send a few polite emails to FSW complaining about the over-pricing.
Just like the whole PPV package was $129 a few years ago it's now over $200 dollars. I think all of PPV games be they Euro qualifiers, U-20 Qualifiers, or friendlies are over priced at $19.95 so I rarely get them unless I have bunch of people who want to watch it and will pitch in something (money or food/beer) or I can pay $10 and see a bunch of games at a local bar.
PPV games are priced at $20 because there are people actually buying them. If you have very few people buying them to justify its existence, these PPV games will simply disappear. Witness the following PPV experiments: - Champions League, la Liga, Euro 00 qualifiers PPV on ESPN Extra, history - la Liga PPV on InDemand PPV, history - la Liga season package on DirecTV Para Todos, history - VideoSports PPV (UEFA Cup games) on Dish Network, history - PPV of some South American leagues (Colombia?) on DBS a few years ago, history I predict the demises of the following PPV very soon: - Portugese 1. Liga on SPT - Bundesliga offered by German TV EPL PPV has been going strong for ~5 years, because while there are a few people complaining about its price, the vast majority who buy them are saying nothing in a public forum. What do you expect them to say? "Yes, I have the money to watch these games. If you aren't rich enough, that's your problem"? or "Yes, I am stupid to pay $20 for a game, or $270 for the season package, but hey, I am emotionally fixed to the EPL so I am at the PPV carrier's mercy. God please help me"? Look at the people who pay lots of money to sporting events. How much is it to watch an NFL game in the stadium? an NBA game in the arena? Don't give me the BS "it's completely different to watch a game in the stadium vs watching a game on TV. I can justify paying $50 to watch an NBA game in the arena because of the experience, but not $20 to watch an EPL game on TV." How do you watch EPL games IN PERSON every week when you live in the U.S.? Name me one person that flies to England every weekend just to watch his EPL team, and flies back to the U.S. to live a life during the week, and I'll accept this reasoning. And what's the cost of flying to England every weekend to attend EPL games? Are there discount coupons on British Airways for frequent travelers?
The UEFA champions league is a definite viable property on PPV.... the problem is that the packaging was on a per game or 2game package.... I think if listed as a package...like the EPL, then it could a more marketable property... especially due to the nature of the countries involved.... the problem before was that limited availibility of the digital PPV option of ESPN Xtra.... This was limited to Digital Cable tiers only... Football has grown by leaps and bounds lately if a decent package was put together and sold it would be easily be a profitable venture... the problems exist due to the marketing agreement with TEAM... the commercial rights are licensed differently than the domestiic rights... I agree some of the PPV ventures have been ridiculous.. like the La Liga venture last year.. and some of the UEFA Cup matches, where some of the fringe teams were on PPV... but there are some viable possibilities... Uefa Champs league Uefa Cup La Liga (premier matches) Euro Qualifiers All have much profitable potential done correctly.. Cantona---
They were only $9.95 5 years ago and the package was $129 and you got the same amount of games you get now. Have the rights and production costs gone up so much that a doubling in the price in 5 years is warranted? Or has viewership dropped off so much that to break even the price of games and the package had to increase? You're right in that compared to other sports ticket prices it is cheap but compared to other sport PPv packages they are high. You can get the NBA packadge for $159 and you get more games than anyone could possibly see in a day let alone a week.
Not a chance. Years ago, the packages was only available on Dish Network. There were two separate packages: Saturday packages - $129 Sunday packages - $129 combined Saturday and Sunday - $249 So, what they are doing now is simply not to sell you 50% of the games. If you buy, you must buy them all, at $269. Even last year, DirecTV was selling only the games of 1 day (Saturday?) at $129. They didn't have the rights of the Sunday games. Dish Network and cable were the only outlets to get the Sunday games. So there is a price increase, but not the jump from $129 to $269, but $249 to $269. Are there people screwed? Sure, if you know for sure you can't watch the games on every Sunday (church?) or Saturday (kids' softball/soccer practice?), that you only want 1/2 of the package. Now you are forced to buy all of them. Now, regarding the cost of individual games, I don't remember how much they cost. It had been years since I bought an individual game. That is nothing new. I've said this 438 times. The EPL package, on a per game basis, is the most expensive sports package in the U.S. It amounts to about $4 per game. The reason they sell the product at such a high price is because people are STILL buying it. Are EPL fans in this country willing to boycott this product collectively? If that happens, you'll see the EPL package/PPV vanishes like the La Liga PPV...
The PPV package doubled in price on DirecTV this year because they doubled the package (used to be only Saturday, now it's Saturday and Sunday). When I had digital cable they only offered Sunday games a la carte. You may think the cost is too much, but if that's the case, you're not in their target demographic because there are enough people willing to pay what they're charging for them to think it's reasonable. If not enough people buy it, you'll see the price go down (or they'll discontinue it, one or the other).
I got the package on Media General Cable in Fairfax, Va and for $129 I got a Sat. and Sun. game. So for me the price has jumped from $129 to $269. ranger00: Not a chance. Years ago, the packages was only available on Dish Network. There were two separate packages: Saturday packages - $129 Sunday packages - $129 combined Saturday and Sunday - $249 No the package was available on other cable systems not just Dish. As I wrote above I had the package and paid $129 for both Sat. and Sun. I moved to Directv becuase Media General was bought by Cox who sucks and my cable bill was more than getting DirecTv with Premiun services, plus I was able to get FSW.
Oliver speculates that ESPN will put the additional CL games on ESPN Deportes. That is possible, as ESPN wants to get penetration for ESPN Deportes. If they put those games on ESPN Deportes but only some people get it, those who don't will whine non-stop to their cable/DBS providers to carry ESPN Deportes. As a result, bigger subscriber base => more $$$. CL games can be viewed as a strategic product for ESPN Deportes to go mainstream. For long term, it may be profitable. However, in my opinion, ESPN can recoup more money rapidly by selling the CL directly to viewers as a package. This is a trade-off of short term profit (package) vs long term profit (ESPN Deportes penetration). I've said this 9403 times. Sell the CL games in a package called UEFA Champion League Pass (in the same spirit as NBA League Pass). Ask cable, DirecTV and Dish Network to dedicate just one channel for the games. Show the same games that are shown on ESPN International. Price it at $169 for the whole season. Individual games cost $20 per. Issues: 1) Directv/dish/cable cannot spare the bandwidth for this channel There is absolute no excuse for "no bandwidth". Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon do not require any bandwidth for NFL Sunday Ticket, or even the EPL package. Only an idiot would believe that directv/dish/cable cannot technologically reuse the same EPL channel on Tue/Wed for a CL game. 2) ESPN has to pay TEAM/UEFA much more money for the American rights for these additional games That may be a show-stopper. That's also the reason I don't believe in Oliver's prediction (that the additional CL games will appear on ESPN Deportes). But that's the risk every soccer right holder has to take. As we all know, the PPV model for European soccer is the only model that is profitable in the US. The advertising model simply doesn't fly. There is no additional transmission and production cost, as the games are transmitted to North America anyway, and produced for ESPN Intl. anyway. Using CL games as a strategic product to get ESPN Deportes penetration, it means CL soccer will be a loss leader for years. 3) If CL is on PPV, those who rely on ESPN2 for the freebie will be screwed Well, as we all know, Fox Sports World and Fox Sports Net's EPL telecast is just an advertisement on the EPL PPV/package, i.e. show you a delayed game and lure you to buy the live PPV game of a better matchup. Same logic can be applied to CL broadcast. I would like to see ESPN shows a dog game on ESPN2, either live on Tuesday afternoon or delayed until Thursday/Friday. For example, show a dog game like Genk vs AEK Athens on ESPN2, have Tommy Smyth and Mike Hill keep rubbing it in with, instead of the dreaded "For our international audience only ...", but "For our UEFA Champion League Pass audience only, the telecast immediately following this game will be Real Madrid vs Roma and Manchester United vs Bayer Levekusen, a rematch of last year's semi-final. Call your cable system if it doesn't carry UEFA Champion League Pass..." Do this every 10 minutes. Eventually you will have a nervous break-down if your cable doesn't carry UEFA CL Pass, or you'll do anything to try to install directv/dish network.
So you were the extremely lucky one. I suspect Media General simply screwed up. For the rest of the country, there is no such thing as $129 for both Sat. and Sun. games.
According to people who work at ESPN Deportes, six matches a week are on the tentative schedule for ESPN Deportes. At this early date obviously their schedule is tentative, but this is probable I would think, and pretty similar to Oliver's "up to eight". I think you can bet on seeing a lot more there than on espn2.
Dish has the channel capacity to broadcast all four games per matchday in the first group phase. They could even show all eight games if they were played on the same day. Live at that! Dish has channels 456-465 devoted to PPV Sports. These are the primary channels devoted to both the ESPN Shootout (MLS) and GamePlan (NCAA football). That's 10 channels ESPN has used now and in the past. I don't see why ESPN International couldn't use them as well. I'm one of the idiots that has the EPL PPV plan, since I can't afford to fly over to England every weekend to see two games, much less the five I watch every weekend. I would also be one of the idiots to pay $199 for a ESPN Champions League Match Pass as well.
I hope ESPN Deportes does show the Champions League matches.. but isnt there a language rights issue here also... I seem to remember that TEAM required ESPN to broadcast a number of the matches in English. If that would be the case we would at least get our one match day on ESPN and the rest in Spanish.... that is of course assuming that the ESPN Deportes broadcasts are to be in Spanish... Im keeping hope for the "Champions League Package".....ESPN did realise they did have a market for these games as proved in the PPV venture...they just didnt handle it correctly. Cantona----