Considering the fact that ESPN Intl just renewed the American rights of the CL a month ago, for 3 years, that should tell you how interested FSW is on this content. Ans: not at all...
This is all a conspiracy. The more you complain, the more ammunition ESPN has to negotiate with cable/DBS carriers on ESPN Deportes. If (big IF) what Oliver says is true, ESPN Deportes will be available starting January 04, ESPN will respond with this on the complains (that ESPN2 sucks in carrying the CL): - get DirecTV Para Todos, it has all the CL games you want, or - contact your cable operator, ask (whine to) them to carry ESPN Deportes... ESPN2 is going to screw you folks up as much as possible on these 6 matchdays. This is a ploy to get you mad, dump Goltv (Dish Network) and sign up with DirecTV Para Todos... Don't fall for it. Treat the CL as something you don't really care. La Liga and Serie A are the "in" things to watch...
They make pretty bad choices sometimes. But there wasn't much else on this week. They would have pulled a much bigger audience showing Real or ManU tomorrow. Of course, they do have the WWC on then (after some fishing and hunting shows), so that's enough soccer for one day. I wouldn't actually mind if they started showing football at 1am more often (or 2 or 3). I have a VCR. Wouldn't you think they could get a bargain on rights to footy? I mean, someone buying it is better than no-one, right? But then, ESPN has no motivation to show it even if it is cheap, because almost anything else will make them more money. Dammit, I wish I was rich...
ESPN SUCKS WHEN IT COMES TO SOCCER GAMES. WHAT'S NEW? It's the culture at ESPN and the employees of ESPN reflect their dislike of soccer. I don't even know why ABC got into soccer.
That's my major COMPLAINT. Why are Americans interested in a sucky sport (i.e. baseball) than soccer? There is really no reason to that. Make you wonder America would be better off to remain a British colony. Then we'll have all the soccer games we get, just like what they get in the U.K. Heck, I don't even mind if California, New Mexico, etc. belonging to Spaniards. Hey, La Liga isn't bad either... So the major complaint is: why did the U.S.A. bother to get independence?
Funny, isn't it? They dislike soccer so much, they acquire the broadcast rights when there's no other network bidding for it. Idiot. Oh well, since ESPN sucks, I guess I'll have to get my soccer from Fox, NBC and CBS. Now, those networks know how to show soccer!
ESPN could not have provided any advance notice on this. The only reason that the switch was made was that it looked like the Yankees-Twins game was going to run long (which it in fact did). If it doesn't, the match gets shown. It's the nature of American sports that ESPN will get a lot more complaints if people have to wait until 1am, Eastern to see a baseball playoff game than if someone has to wait until 1am to see a group match in the Champions League. That's just how it is. And no-one else is going to pick it up here. So, it's either a- Deal with the occasional inconvienences, and get the matches here, or b- get no matches, or matches on PPV at 20 bucks a shot. I'll deal with the inconvenience every time. Someone else mentioned why the baseball games weren't on in prime time. Fox owns the rights to the playoffs, they farm out the afternoon games to ESPN, and they show one game in prime time. Start times will always be staggered in the playoffs, enabling (theoretically) each game to get a national audience.
I wish espn would just see the rights to FOX sports world so they can show the games. Who the hell watches Baseball anymore anyways???? The most stupid and dull sport in the world. God I hate that game!
Both baseball games were originally scheduled for ESPN Yankees-Twins at 1 Giants-Marlins at 4 Yankees-Twins runs long, so the decision is made, for contractual, viewership, ad revenue reasons, whatever, to move the beginning of the Giants-Marlins game to ESPN2, and then move it back to ESPN once the Yankees game was over. Since the CL match started at 2:30, they could have showed the beginning and then cut away at 4. Would you rather watch the game from the beginning at 1am Eastern, or watch it live, but miss the finish?? Baseball will always take precedence over soccer here on ESPN. As it is written, so shall it be. Like I said, would you rather have no coverage (or coverage on an outlet like FSW, which has nowhere near the basic-cable coverage as ESPN), or pay 20 a shot to see the games on PPV, or take ESPN, and deal when something like this occasionally happens.
2001-02, when they had the game on ESPN one day and ESPN2 on the other, i.e. 2 games per match day. The result? the game on ESPN was pre-empted on 2 occasions: - 911, a Tuesday, which was the 1st day of the CL season, game was pre-empted in the U.S.A. but shown on TSN in Canada and ESPN Latin America in Mexico - Michael Jordan's press conference. Sometime during the 1st round (or the 2nd round), the plug (the game) was pulled on ESPN, reverting back to 1 game on ESPN2.
I do? You're not going to find a bigger Anglophile than me -- I'm even watching my "History of Britain" DVDs as I try to get my baby back to bed -- but I still prefer baseball to cricket. I can only take cricket in small doses, and besides, a country as busy as this one simply can't sit through a Test match.
ESPN Alternates... I have a question...on Dish Network, I have all the ESPN channels - including one called, oddly enough, "ESPN2 Alternate" - why on earth didn't they just use the alternate channel to air CL while the "regular" ESPN2 airs streetball and baseball? I'm just curious - cause all I ever see on the ESPN alternate channels is the dish network logo along with some elevator music. Anyone?
espn is a joke and they blew it but its not like were going to get 2 games next week Losers do us a favor dont buy the tv rights again........ horseracing,strongest man, gwf wrestling,streetball, and all those other alternate extreme sports make it to espn 2 but you cant give ucl a decent slot shame on you
And if you were watching the Yankees game. That's exactly what they did. The Yankees game ran 15 or so minutes into the start of the next game and that's exactly what they did. That Streetball show is probably very popular. Those And One Mix Tapes have a huge following and they've turned the best players and potential players from those tapes into a full 30 game exhabition tour. I would watch Streetball in a minute before I watched CL matches. If you're so hard pressed to watch matches from other countries... get a sick satelite dish, more to another country, or WATCH IT LATER IN THE EVENING!!! for christ sakes.
An exponentially higher number of people in America do compared to soccer. If people continue to harbor that type of attitude when it comes to soccer vs. other sports, soccer is never ever going to gain popularity here in the US. You know what the average person probably views a soccer fan as? A weirdo, freak, sissy or foriegner. That type of 'pointy-ball' 'bore ball' attitude could not be more counter productive.
So let me get this straight: Some soccer fans complain a lot about wanting more respect and coverage from mainstream media. And then some of these same fans then think that their sport should be on TV as much as the others because: A - Their sport is the "world's game" and B - The others all suck. Is that how it works? ESPN's ratings for these games - IIRC - still aren't that much higher than the WUSA's were. Until that changes you'll just need to hope that the antennas on your tin foil helmet pick up some more CL games.
ESPN DESPORTES When Espn Desportes becomes available, will they have it available in English. I am glad they will show soccer, but will a spanish channel be available in every backwater part of the country. I am sure you will have to have digital cable or satellite to catch it, but that is expensive. Espn, should keep showing 1 game a week in English; otherwise, americans will not watch it. Most lack the attention to watch it in English. What makes you think they will watch it in Spanish when they don't speak spanish?
Dear tomvandamn If we don't buy the rights for the Champion's League, who will? It's not like we had anyone else bidding for it. Plus, horseracing, strongest man, streetball and "all those other alternate extreme sports" get relatively solid ratings, while soccer doesn't. And what the hell is "gwf wrestling"? Sincerely, Mr. espn2.
That's a terrible attitude. I have no respect for anyone who as an interest in any other sport besides soccer.
Re: Re: ESPN DESPORTES So we are getting screwed and Soccer is getting harder to watch. I like the idea of more games, but what we need is more viewers, more fans of the game, and the only way to do that is too have an english equivalent to ESPN DESPORTES or else I am going to have to get a tv where the SAP actually works.
Where u getting the idea ESPN is not showing games during 2004??? JP Dellacamera said during the Real Madrid-Marseilel game we will be here all year on ESPN 2 for the tenth straight year....I swore i heard that.
Well on the west coast, the game took the place of the show "Rome Is Burning." How is that for irony.
But Oliver said it. You know, it's not going to be on ESPN2, just like MLS isn't going to be on ESPN2, just like MLS is going to fold, just like the MFL is going to put a team in LA, just like .... Ah, crap, I give up. They already pushed Deportes back once so I'm not holding my breath. And until someone else says ESPN2 won't show games, it's nothing but conjecture.
My first question for baseball is why in the same of samuel T satan are they have playoff games during the week during the day. That in itself confuses me. Surely ESPN new they'd have these games and could've rescheduled the footy long ago. So it goes.