I almost posted this in the match recap thread, but there's nothing about the result in here, and it's slightly OT, so here we are: I LOVED the Celtic.net video coverage today. Really professional stuff. I know there are rights issues with us being able to provide the same kind of service, but if I could get that kind of coverage for every Liverpool match (even if it was only for home games), I'd gladly part with 100 pounds or more a year. Beats paying 20 bucks a month to see one game on PPV, and paying for satellite service just to see a game or two a month on tape delay on Fox Sports World. For anyone who knows more about the politics of this than I (which is likely most of you), why do the FA, Sky, BBC, etc. make it so hard for foreigners to follow the EPL? I understand broadcast rights are very valuable, especially in Europe, but they ought to at least make it available to those few of us overseas who want to follow the sport, and are willing to pay an arm and a leg to do so. It seems to me that the we now have the technology to do this very effectively with like webcasts. Jeez, I'd rather my money go to the Reds, but I'd pay someone like Sky a few hundred bucks to be able to watch all their live matches over the web for a year. Nobody in the UK would rather pay that much money to watch a lower quality feed on their computer rather than watch the real thing on the telly, so they're not losing any money from that end, and they can take advantage of the ridiculously high willingness to pay from foreign fans starved for regular football coverage. This is would be FAR more effective than PPV, as people could choose exactly what matches they want to watch. What are the legal/financial obstacles to this happening? Sad to say, but I am starting to get spoiled by watching all these UEFA Cup games live, ESPECIALLY after that exceptional production from the Celtic crew today.
In the UK the rights issues are completely different than here in the USA. For instance, if you turn on ESPN, you'll see highlights of nearly every single game from al over the country. In England, the rights to show highlights of the Premiership are sold exclusively to one station (right now it's ITV and I'm glad I left before they ruined MotD). So to see goal highlighrts over there one has to wait for ITV to show them later at night. So that's why Sky Sports news can only show highlights of the games they actually air. I may have a few details wrong (Matt can correct them if so) As far as UEFA Cup and Champs League I'm not so sure. But be thankful we can get what we can. Before I left to live in England, I knew bugger all about footy because there was zero coverage of it around for most people. Now we get two or three matches a week, daily news programming, and the interent. We are out of the dark ages now. I do hate the PPV system. My wife went absolutely ballistic with me a couple months back because I just had to purchase the Arsenal and Everton matches, which made my cable bill $40 higher than usual. And it's only as high as it is because I have digital cabel and roadrunner for LFC reasons.