FSC to air CL

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD978K1401

Wow. Thoughts, anyone?

Personally, I'm not looking forward to Bretos, Miles, Costigan, et al, at all.

I hate ESPN but their soccer commentary, Tommy Smyth and whatever blabbermouths are doing USA excluded, is the best in the nation. Healy and Rae are gems.

Sigh...

 

stupid just plain stupid.

espn allows more people to view.

 

I actually like Tommy Smyth. He reminds me of Mike Shannon, a local broadcaster / colorman for the baseball Cardinals here in STL. Same goofiness, same bag full of lame catch phrases ("bulging the ol' onion bag")...and the same simple, infectious enthusiasm for the game.

When paired with a smooth and knowledgeable commentator, I think this kind of goofy color man can work. Shannon worked alongside Jack Buck (the best baseball commentator of all time, IMO) and it was a fantastic pairing.

I think Tommy Smyth and Derek Rae are great together, and I enjoyed them. You high-falutin' purists on the board can make fun of me as a rube if you like, but I like Tommy and I'll miss him.

 

Good points JP-STL. My biggest complaint is that he'll start talking about something completely unrelated to the game, just to prove a point about what someone said once.

Oh, and I stand corrected: Ray and Phil at goltv are amazing also. Why they get no love is beyond me.

And this may be a thread hijack, but why is goltv seemingly always ignored? At points I think its the best stateside soccer broadcaster.

 

I would feel much better about this if:

1) The news had been preceded by other FSC annoucements such as "FSC to go HD in 2009" or "FSC to reach 75 million homes in 2009"

2) FSC had merely purchased a share of the ECC, with ESPN getting the other share, similar to MLS sharing (ESPN-FSC) or EPL sharing (Setanta-FCS). FCS should show the lower qualifying rounds (which ESPN doesn't necessarily show anyway) and ESPN gets the final two rounds. I doubt that FCS is going to show significantly much more of the competition than ESPN, and it won't be in HD, so the viewer doesn't benefit here.

 

I actually like the move for my purposes, because if I miss a game it will likely be re-aired on FSC. If I miss a game on ESPN, I probably won't ever see it again. I also hate how ESPN will put the lives scores of other games on the bottom. This sucked when I wanted to watch the game that would come on ESPN classic later.

 

I'd complain to Dish and Direct if you want broader FSC coverage. You had to buy tier 3 to get FSC last time I looked.

On my T-W, only need to buy basic digital and pay for the box.

Just because FSC got the entire package doesnt mean they wont skim off the cream to ESPN if it's worth their while. It's not likely, but conceivable, they could actually make more money that way.

We dont know what the T's and C's are. could be that FSC had to guarantee all games are available. ESPN wouldnt do that, FSC can.

 

Ray Hudson for commentator of the moment!! The guy is so emotional and infectious, I don't know how anyone could not get caught up in the high points with him.

Derek Rae has been great. Will miss him and his nice, steady tone and voice. Tommy's good, but Shaka is just as good these days.

 

Where can one watch the Premier league games that are broadcast with the BBC comentary. Always wondered this.

 

Great question! Any one else want it? I'll cue the rimshot...

 

The problem I have is that as a college student, who knows where I will live next year..... Will it have cable? If so will it have the package that allows me to watch FSC? It will probably have ESPN, but will most likely not have FSC unless I get to set up my own cable. Furthermore, while i know availability is sparse, ESPN has ESPN360 which allows you to watch more than one game at a time and rewatch past games (for quite awhile afterwards too)

I feel that UEFA just sees dollar signs and doesn't care about growing the popularity of the sport here in America. How many people are going to stumble upon FSC while channel surfing if even the people who want to watch the game cannot get it?

BTW - I wish Setanta would do online pay-per-view EPL games

 

I think part of the equation too, though, is that ESPN has not stepped up to prioritize soccer as a sports offering of theirs. You know that FSC will pull out all the stops on UCL programming. But ESPN? If some other major sporting event goes over, will they stop it to show the start of a soccer game or will they just have us miss the first 15 minutes? Heck, they've done that for USMNT games...not a good precedent if I'm UEFA.

 

Oh, and to add: you can only get ESPN360 if you have one of a select list of broadband providers. Comcast Cable is the only provider for my neighborhood and they aren't on ESPN's "approved list" so I can't get 360. Don't assume that because you can get ESPN360 where you are now, that when you move, you'll be able to.

 

Goltv is not bad, but like Don said, it's largely in Spanish. All the commercials are in Spanish on my golTV channel. It's sleeker than FSC though.

It's dissapointing ESPN lost out because a lot people simple don't have FSC.

 

Then complain to Comcast to pay ESPN so you can get ESPN360.com. Can't blame ESPN, not like they are picking and choosing which ISP's to allow. If your ISP is willing to pay, you get it free.

 

And a decent studio. I think the local high school has a better back drop.