ESPN announced today that today's scheduled Inter Milan-Dynamo Kiev match at 2:30 p.m. (ESPN2) will not be shown live and instead will be shown at 1 a.m. EST (on ESPN2). They're reason: baseball playoffs Now, it might just be me, but am I the only person who knows that proceeding every baseball season, there are playoffs? Instead of the match, ESPN2 will be showing..... STREETBALL: THE AND 1 MIX TAPE TOUR!!! Let the madness continue.
Ratings rule. I imagine Streetball would get better ratings than a European soccer match in this country.
Ratings don't explain why they cancel it at the last possible minute. Ratings would explain why they don't show Champions League matches at all. But they've shown them for several years now, today they just decided to ax the game at the last second. That's pretty unusual for a live event. And it just screwed my afternoon.
Yeah... what's your point? The baseball playoffs, which are poised to have absolutely huge ratings due to exciting match ups. And an ESPN EOE series that they have a lot of money probably invested into. If you want to bitch about anything bitch about the decline in sports coverage for the EOE type stuff. But that crucial Milan-Dynamo match...? Who cares?
Hey I'm just trying to give one explaination. Perhaps they had Streetball on ESPN and moved it to ESPN2? I don't know. I'd rather they have shown the game as well, I took the afternoon off.
Actually the game times for each of the baseball games have been very weird. MLS is kind of bending over backwards with newtorks, espn and the like to make sure they ahve the games that they want tand the times that they want. THe times for these games were only determined a few days ago. It has more with MLB not having its act together than anything.
My point is that this match has been scheduled for weeks, and ESPN has known for months that today would be first day of MLB playoffs, yet they use this lame excuse to screw us out of another live match. Heck, the baseball excuse still doesn't make sense because there is only one game going on right now. Instead they have to show a bunch of guys pretending to play basketball instead of showing a match in the biggest club tournament of the most popular sport in the world. And in case your're counting, ESPN is now 2-for-2 in CL foul-ups so far this season. Inter Milan fans here in the U.S., I truly feel for you.
Having the MLB on ESPN shouldn't change the fact that they have Champions League on ESPN2. ESPN totally ruins the Champions League for American viewers. They should just give up the rights to a station that would actually show matches. Sky Sports in England give their viewers a choice from 4 games each week.
I'm in the "don't get it if you're not going to show it" camp. If Streetball gets better ratings and/or you're going to hold your two main networks hostage to the whims of Bud Selig, fine. But don't tell us you're going to show a game and then back out for avoidable reasons. And reconsider whether you want Champions League soccer as part of your programming portfolio in the first place.
One more reason for me to move out of this country. My afternoon is gone and I guess for that matter, so is my night's sleep.... damn them.
And Americans get angry when people from all over the world say they're stupid. This has nothing to do with ESPN per se, but with America's viewing habits. In the rest of the world, ESPN shows 2 games live per matchday and the rest on tape delay. That's pretty good in my book.
I can understand why they wouldn't be that interested in the airing the CL, but it sure would be nice if they would then not bid on it so somebody like FSW who is interested in it, could air it properly.
At the risk of suffering Segroves' wrath, I have to concur that they knew about the MLB playoff game today for months. Why move Street Ball to espn2 now?
come 2004 Champions League will be on ESPN Deportes, they will show 4 games on each MatchDay, so i hear. Now our TV are tunned into ESPN and pumping the ratings up for this Streetball crap show(whatever) , they will have good ratings thanks to all the soccer fans. Another disappointing day in US Soccer history, goes in the books.
The 1st round of the MLB playoffs is always during the day. ESPN couldn't have all of a sudden been suprised by having a 1:00 game. They show games in the middle of the day so that they don't have to show two games at the same time. The Cubs and Braves are in primetime tonight. ESPN puts no effort into doing a good job with the Champions League in the US. They don't get a lot of viewers, but the ruin the Champions League for those that actually care.
MLB playoffs, sure, but are they bound to show StreetBall at that time? Isn't it an EOE production anyway?