ESPN Soccer Thread

This is one of those times I think a spoiler should be said for those people who do not understand the previous posts.

Denmark's Eriksen collapsed on the field and the game has been suspended. (temporarily.)

 

It seems the ESPN app has the same issue that Peacock has. For whatever reason, the NFL Sunday Ticket app has it figured out.

If I select a muti-cam view or a tactical view, why can't I watch the regular pregame as the main broadcast?

If I watch an out-of-market NFL game on the app, I can watch the same pregame show as my local affiliate with no need to change feeds shortly before kickoff. The constant changing of feeds and scrolling through all the other stuff isn't really doing a good job to sell me on streaming. Imagine if TV shows didn't automatically start the next episode and I had to scroll through a ton of other shows/movies just to find the next episode.

 

For info, Denmark-Finland game has restarted on ESPNNews. No ESPN+ feed that I can see, but ESPNNews feed seems to be available on the ESPN App even for people who don't have ESPNNews as part of their cable package (as is the case for me).

 

And now the match has flipped to ESPN2 so they can show NCAA baseball on ESPN News...instead of ESPN2 where it was originally scheduled.

The original program for ESPN News was old X-Games stuff.

Huh?

 

Yes, they abruptly cut to the baseball game and switched Den-Fin to ESPN2. A bit confusing, but great news in terms of ESPN priorities: Euro 2020 is clearly more important in their eyes than NCAA baseball.

 

Does it really matter though? I'd imagine very few people get ESPN2 don't get ESPN News. How many people are going to complain about their DVRs recording soccer and not baseball? I'd imagine not too many. Would a cloud DVR (Hulu, YTTV, etc) be smart enough to pick up a late swap? From a production/technical standpoint, I wouldn't think these swaps would be a good thing. Wouldn't you want on-screen guides to be as accurate as possible? Yes, you can have your announcers say things and/or put graphics on the screen, but I'd think these things would be best avoided.

Finland-Denmark is scheduled to re-air at 10pm ET on ESPN News. Let's see how they handle it. It wouldn't be that hard to edit things to "jump forward in the broadcast" right before the collapse, then show commercials at the regular halftime. I wouldn't be surprised if they show another game, however.

I do remember watching the Marc Vivien Foe collapse on a delayed broadcast. That was awkward, to say the least.

And, FWIW, I just saw a Russia goal/time spoiler on Denmark-Finland.

 

When Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the field against Tottenham in 2012, the cameras immediately went off to one side of the field, so as not to show what was happening. This was rubbernecking at its worst. The closeups of Eriksen's unconscious face, the shots of his wife running on the field, being consoled by Danish players, everything about it was flat wrong, and I know that ESPN wasn't producing it, but they could've gone back to studio, or shown one of their tactical cams that wasn't showing Eriksen. There's a few things they could've done. Lastly, it's extremely important that people learn CPR, but this wasn't a learning moment. It was rubbernecking.

 

Media experts will know the exact figures, but I'm pretty sure there is a substantial difference in terms of the number of households who get ESPN2 compared to ESPNNews.

For example, Spectrum as ESPN2 as part of all their packages but ESPNNews only in their Silver and Gold packages.

I agree with you that too many channel switches are less than desirable but personally, I'm glad ESPN picked Den-Fin to be on ESPN2 over NCAA Baseball when they had to make that call.

 

Wikipedia page for ESPN2 says:
As of September 2018, ESPN2 is available to approximately 86 million television households (93.2% of households with pay television) in the United States.

Wikipedia page for ESPNEWS says:
As of September 2018, ESPNews is available to approximately 62.4 million pay television households (68% of households with cable TV) in the United States.



So...News is "available to" approximately 24 million fewer households.

Now, in this context, does "available to" mean that someone could subscribe if they chose to? Out of that 62.4m, we have to assume the number of people who actually receive the channel is a bit less.

So yeah, while we may never know the true/accurate numbers, it probably was a good thing to move the game.

I just would have thought that Disney would be pushing for wider carriage of News, but I guess there's still a great number of people who don't use receivers or set-top boxes. (I'm not sure how college dorms or frat houses would fit into this, but I'm guessing that frat houses definitely would...but I'd also guess that a lot of their residents have passwords from parents/friends/others.)

It also seems like there isn't that much stuff truly exclusive on ESPN News. Most of what's on there is either rebroadcast from ESPN or ESPN2 or also live on the ESPN app via ESPN3.

 

This isn't really soccer-related, but I wonder if someone here knows the answer.

I recently downgraded my TV package. As a result, I no longer get ACC Network, which isn't really much of a loss at all. Anyhoo, I can't watch ESPN Deportes on the ESPN app, because it's not part of my package. That totally makes sense.

But why can I watch ACC Network on the app? Is it part of the $5/mo ESPN+ package? If so, that's nifty, but it's odd that other ESPN channels aren't.

 

I pay for FiOS in two homes. One package has all of the English language sports networks as well as espn deportes. The other does not have espn deportes or news, but still includes ACC, U, SEC, Longhorn, etc.. If I'm out or even setting up a streaming device, I have to make sure to sign into the right account so I can stream things.

 

I uses to get Fox Soccer Plus for the longest time until someone must have realized the system wasnt set up correctly

 

I wonder if the free previews of the sports packages (Center Ice, League Pass, Extra Innings and does MLS still exist there?) occasionally still run long? On occasion, they'd forget to turn it off, so you'd get a day or two extra. They'd say "7th to 12th" but it could be the 13th or 14th and the packages would still come in.

Of course, with NHL Center Ice moving exclusively to ESPN+, all that's left there is NBA and MLB and maybe MLS.

What was also fun was that the leagues would share channels. MLB had 14 channels, but they'd share with NHL...so that in the spring, there'd be NHL games unannounced. When MLS had their early-season preview, there'd be NBA games on the higher-numbered NBA channels.

In the fall, when NHL came on, the MLB channels would go live. When the NBA channels went live, there'd be bonus MLS.

Edit: Spectrum advertises MLS Direct Kick on their page for $89. Egad. At that price, anyone who buys it is a sucker. ESPN+ is a much, much better deal.

 

The NHL.TV streaming service is being "folded into" ESPN+. NHL Center Ice will still continue to exist, similarly to MLS Direct Kick.

 

Ah-ha.

Still, I pity the fool who spends money on that vs ESPN+, when you'd get so much more for a better price.

Then again, I'm a member of a TV (and other stuff) forum. A lot of people used to complain that the league packages weren't available. We'd tell them to order it through the league websites and figure out the best way to put it from their device onto their TV. At the time, streaming access wasn't guaranteed if ordering via the TV provider.

..and yet, they still wanted a way to order the package through their TV.

 

Yes, obviously there is still a market for cable TV subscribers for whom streaming is not something they have pursued. It is just like the fact that many cable systems have duplicate channels in SD and HD for those who do not have HD TVs.

When the ESPN-NHl deal was announced, I did not know what to make of the fact that they were to have 75 exclusive NHL games on espn+, plus "1000+ out-of-market games were "available" to espn+ subscribers. The 75 games were definitely to be available at no extra cost, but were the out-of-market games "available" at extra cost a-la MLB or free a-la MLS?

 

I don't believe the ACC Network is part of the ESPN+ subscription. Access was blocked for me until I changed my (Spectrum) cable package to include the ACCN. Less than an hour after I signed up for my new package, the ACCN became available on the ESPN app.

My experience with ESPN and Spectrum is whatever channels you get as part of your cable package, you'll be able to access on the ESPN app--no more, no less. And the updates are quick after you change your package. Of course, it might be different with other cable providers.

 

There are a small number of people who, for whatever reason, choose not to pay the HD fee, even if they have an HD TV. The bonus there is that they get more space on their DVR, since HD shows take more space. Apps and such would provide access to HD content for the regular cost of the app.

FWIW, I do know someone who still has an SD TV as a secondary (bedroom-type) TV and won't upgrade as long as the TV works.

Between the ESPN app, Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount and whatever other apps I have, I could *probably* get away with canceling my HD fee...of course, the downside is that I'd have to watch the shows on a delay of 24 hours or more.

...at least I assume the apps don't check to see if I have HD activated, but just am a subscriber to the channel itself.

Yeah, I also thought the NHL deal was an additional paywall, similar to the UFC stuff.

 

Well hey, my ACC access still works via the app. Oddly enough, my SEC access says I'm not subscribed (as I'm not.)

I read a post a day or two ago from someone who had FS+ for a while, due to a glitch by their provider.

Oh well...maybe this is something similar.

 

If its not part of your TV package but you get in on the App its a glitch somewhere along the line

When I was in college it took Time Warner Cable 5 months to realize they unblocked the entire MLB Extra Innings package channels. My stepdad was in heaven as he got Braves games for free.

 

can anybody listen to this pair darke/ tweelman i mean game is going up they are combining plays ball is in final third and they still talking about something unrelated on the field lol it is funny actually just imagine european or anybody in the world listening too these two

 

It is a waste of space. My only thought is that they wanted to get streamer-ESPN+ people to subscribe to the cable channel. I've been a very happy ESPN+ subscriber so I was psyched when it was announced the matches would be shown on ESPN+ as well. Of course, they were referring to this split-screen nonsense.

Given the split screen and the lame ESPN announcing, I was fine to just watch it in Spanish on PrendeTV. The problem with THAT is that the replays have commercials every 5 minutes! (I can't watch most matches live due to work).

So I wound up signing up with Vidgo for the month to be able to get the proper ESPN stream. So if their plan was to get streamers to subscribe to the main channel, it worked for me!

 

Anyone else annoyed by Derek Rae’s name pronunciations? I’m German/Belgian, and even I’m getting annoyed with Weghorst, Steklenburg, and Gregoritsch. He’s pronounciation is very very good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like he’s trying soooo hard. He anounciates some names so hard and forceful, it’s annoying as hell, and it’s like he’s trying to show off or something. Very
Weird.