You'll have to ask him to know for sure, but i imagine it sucked for him when the 12.45 BST match went from FSC to Setanta and the best 15.00 BST match went from FSC to Setanta and the Monday night match went from FSC to Setanta. Just a hunch. He never said anything about expecting ESPN/ESPN2/FSN to show Spurs v Arsenal, Liverpool v Chelsea. Please stop begging to have this discussion altered to a context of your choosing.
I believe that that is exactly what he said, that he expects the Golf Channel to carry the whole EPL.
or the alternative is for all these matches go PPV/package because FSC can't afford it. My hunch is as good as yours. Not to mention the 16:00 BST Sunday game went from PPV to FSC, and FSC also gets to show another live game at 15:00 BST Saturday (albeit 2nd choice). He doesn't have to, what else is he whining then? Let's examine his grudge against FSC, for "selling half of their games to a channel that is not available on cable." So his expectation would be: 1) FSC keeping the entire package 2) FSC selling half of their games to a channel that's available on cable. (1) has already been covered. (2) would have three possibiities: (a) if he lives in a dorm and only has analog cable, channels like FSC, GolTV, ESPN Deportes, etc. aren't likely to be in the lineup. (b) FSC selling the games to a channel available on cable but not a mainstream channel (e.g. GolTV, Versus, Golf channel). You may say "since he has FSC, then he must have GolTV". I say that's not necessarily true. But giving you the benefit of the doubt, maybe there is a slim chance that his package carries both FSC and GolTV. The reason FSC not likely to sell the rest of the Premiership package to GolTV is left as an exercise... (c) FSC selling the games to a channel available on cable and it's mainstream (e.g. ESPN, FSN, the networks, etc.) So what channels does he expect FSC to sell to that's on cable? If he has no clue about about the soccerTV business, he might have thought of GolTV. Of course, the only realistic alternative is the mainstream channels.
Golf Channel is owned by Comcast, so they would never shell out money for soccer, as they do not shell out for most things. Of course, they spent a fortune on the NHL contract, but that was with the hope (along with the Thursday NFL games they never got the rights to) of building a major national sports network. Based in Philadelphia, they thought everybody in the country must be wild about hockey. WRONG!!!
It did. Do I really look forward to watching Blackburn and West Ham (or an equivalent match) when Manchester United and Liverpool (or an equivalent match) is on at the same time? Not really. But I realize I have options: 1) Drive to the pub where I can keep tabs on multiple games at once (Setanta, FSC, Xtra.) 2) Watch what FSC gives me. 3) Listen to what Premiership Live gives me. Many times, it's the same game as what FSC is showing and it can be synched with the FSC video so I don't hear the FSC commentators at halftime and post-game. 4) Watch college football (there are other options for TV viewing, ya know.) Many times, the noon ET game is downright dreadful and so college football wins out.
In cases where subscribing to Setanta is not viable, the options are not as good as they used to be. Plain and simple. Who knew that this concept would be so difficult for some people to grasp.
I think this is a common, but unfortunate attitude that prevents people for appreciating soccer. For example, everyone agrees that the best match of last season was Spurs vs West Ham. Those who only watch "big teams" would have missed it.
I'm looking forward to matches from "smaller" clubs. That's why I worry about FSC having the Serie A rights...
I'm actually glad FSC is set up to show us the "B" matches because Aston Villa and Birmingham are crap so that means I get to watch them.
So true, this concept is so difficult to grasp when you have a perspective of what options were available before. PPV. Not all cable systems carry the Saturday/Sunday games in PPV. For example, my Comcast in California didn't offer it in analog cable. Worse yet, even if your cable offers it, PPV gives you the thinking of "I don't like to be ripped off by $19.99 on a Tottenham X Boro game", so you would skip. Unlike Setanta that you have already committed the $15/month. So the success of the new arrangement should be measured by 1) do the actual Premiership followers watch more or less Premiership games as compared to the prior arrangements? 2) do cable subscribers watch more or less Premiership games as compared to the prior arrangements? 3) do overall pay TV subs (cable, satellite, FiOS, etc.) watch more or less Premiership games as compare to the prior arrangements? My take 1) more 2) slightly less 3) slightly more (given the discrepancies of cable and DBS subs) So yes, it sucks for some people, but TV is not meant to make every individual happy (the lowest common denominator). As long as it makes most people happy, that's good enough for TV as a business.
For the 2007-2008 through 2009-2010 seasons: In the U.S., FOX Sports International (FSI) and Setanta Sports North America will divide the EPL in the following manner: Saturdays at 7:45am ET: Setanta Sports USA Saturdays at 10am ET: Setanta Sports USA will have 1st choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 2nd choice, Setanta Xtra will have 3rd choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 4th choice (tape-delay) Saturdays at 12:15pm ET: FOX Soccer Channel Sundays at 8:30am ET or 9am ET: Setanta Sports USA Sundays at 10am ET or 11am ET: FOX Soccer Channel Mondays at 3pm ET: Setanta Sports USA Midweek: Setanta Sports USA will have 1st choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 2nd choice, Setanta Xtra will have 3rd choice, FOX Soccer Channel will have 4th choice (tape- delay) This is awesome. 9 games over a weekend. Unless my math is sketchy, that's all but 2 teams every week. Simply killer.
Actually, there will be more of a chance for a variety of Serie A matches on FSC including the smaller clubs. When Italian soccer was on GOLTV, they would show AC Milan, Inter, and Juventus (replaced with Roma last year with Juve in Serie B). If the big teams were playing at the same time, GOLTV would tape delay the other big team games or just show less Serie A that week. As for FSC, in addition to the 9 am Sunday game, which I am sure will be the 'biggest' game, they will show the 2:30 pm ET games live both on Saturday and Sunday, no matter what the matchup, plus I see on their schedule a delayed game on Saturday night, no doubt the 12:00 pm game from that day. GOLTV often ignored these games unless it was one of the big teams,so I'm sure lots of variety will be on tap this year.
Slightly sketchy. Last year, it was unusual to have both a early Sunday match and a Monday one. And there's not always an early Saturday or late Saturday match.
Except when they play each other. Those matches will almost certainly be early kick-offs (on Setanta).
Actually, there should be all of those things every week. What happens is: - Weather postponements and - European league conflicts, leading to postponements and those postponements pile up, they cause other fixtures to move.
Contrary to what has been posted here, Setanta claims they have the Liverpool vs Aston Villa fixture 8/11/07.
I'm not sure where you got that info, but...LFC-AVFC is the 5:15 UK kickoff - it will be on Fox Soccer Channel live at 12:15 EST. Setanta's schedule on the first Saturday of the season will be... 11th: Sunderland v Tottenham (kickoff 7:45am EST) 11th: Bolton v Newcastle (kickoff 10am EST) 11th: Wolves v Watford (Championship - 12:05 EST) Add a Setanta Extra match for Directv at 10am http://na.setanta.com/portal/systemcontent/broadband I'm guessing that you're confusing the UK Setanta match for the US Setanta. Not the same schedules. Hope that helps...
And sometimes there aren't matches scheduled in every time slot, for whatever reason (other events happening in England or whatever).
Here is FSC's first month of EPL coverage (times are ET): Saturday, August 11- 10:00 am West Ham v. Manchester City (L) 12:15 pm Aston Villa v. Liverpool (L) 2:30 pm Derby v. Portsmouth (SDD) Sunday, August 12- 11:00 am Manchester United v. Reading (L) Tuesday, August 14- 2:30 pm Birmingham v. Sunderland (L) Wednesday, August 15- 3:00 pm Reading v. Chelsea (L) 5:00 pm Fulham v. Bolton (SDD) Saturday, August 18- 10:00 am Tottenham v. Derby (L) 12:15 pm Newcastle v. Aston Villa (L) 2:30 pm Wigan v. Sunderland (SDD) Sunday, August 19- 11:00 am Liverpool v. Chelsea (L) Saturday, August 25- 10:00 am Arsenal v. Manchester City (L) 12:15 pm Everton v. Blackburn (L) 1:00 am Derby v. Birmingham (SDD) Sunday, August 26- 11:00 am Manchester United v. Tottenham (L) Saturday, September 1- 10:00 am Fulham v. Tottenham (L) 12:15 pm Manchester United v. Sunderland (L) 5:00 pm Blackburn v. Manchester City (SDD) Sunday, September 2- 11:00 am Aston Villa v. Chelsea (L) From the FSC schedule, it is not hard to make an educated guess as to which games were selected by Setanta as 1st and 3rd choices for the Saturday 10 am game, as well as for the midweek contests.
I have to say I'm really liking this schedule, nice mix of big and "small" matches with a nice variety.