This weekend will be a turning point for the English Premier League in the United States. For the first time in history, all ten Premier League matches will be available live to U.S. viewers.
Typically soccer fans in the United States have been able to see as many as eight live games out of the ten matches each weekend. In the past, we missed a couple of the live 10am ET Saturday games because there weren’t enough outlets available to show the games. But now with the demise of Setanta US and the relaunch of FoxSoccer.tv, the broadband service from Fox has picked up the slack and plan on showing as many as four live games in the 10am ET slot all at the same time on different Internet streams.
So, for example, this Saturday soccer fans in the United States who have access to Fox Soccer Channel and FoxSoccer.tv will be able to see five games all at once: Chelsea v West Ham, Stoke v Aston Villa, Burnley v Wolves, Birmingham City v Everton (only on Fox Soccer Channel) and Bolton v Wigan. If you’re a FoxSoccer.tv subscriber, you can open each of these streams in separate windows and have your TV on at the same time to watch Landon Donovan’s last game for Everton. Or you can watch the games on demand via FoxSoccer.tv typically 90-120 minutes after the games end.
For those readers who are not yet FoxSoccer.tv subscribers, the Chelsea against West Ham game will be on Fox Soccer Plus while Birmingham versus Everton will be on Fox Soccer Channel.
But for those readers who subscribe to Fox Soccer Channel and FoxSoccer.tv, this Saturday will be a dream come true with the quantity (and hopefully quality) of games available for viewers to choose from.
To review the complete TV and Internet schedule for this weekend’s Premier League games, view EPL Talk’s Premier League TV schedule for US viewers today.
The question I have for you is how do you plan on watching the 10am ET matches this weekend? Will you change your viewing habits based on the assortment of games available? Is the number of games available simply too much?
While you’re thinking about the answers to those questions (please post them in the comments section below), here are some responses from EPL Talk readers on Twitter who answered the question which match were they most looking forward to watching this weekend:
The link to the ‘Premier League TV schedule’ isn’t linked correctly.
Darren, wow that was fast! It’s now fixed. Thanks.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
haha… Just happened to be on the site at the right time and skimmed the article and viola!
Gaffer, you’ve been asked previously if there are any matches on FS+ that won’t be on fs.tv. At the moment, I think Liverpool is playing in the Europa league on FS+, but I can’t find any place to find the Europa league on fs.tv. Do they really only have live transmission rights but no broadband rights? Again, the fs.tv web site very confusing. Please confirm if you can. The “chat” people on fs.tv are absolutely clueless. The response to my very nice inquiry just now was:
“currently we have what you can find in the site, soon there will be updates, i don’t have information regarding that yet.”
Hi David, today’s Europa League game featuring Liverpool is on a DirecTV channel, not FS+. As far as I know, FoxSoccer.tv doesn’t have broadband rights to the Europa League games.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
FS probably doesn’t have the rights to the Europa League for online viewing. I’m surprised it’s even on FS+ – I didn’t think they had those TV rights either (until it gets later on in the competition).
UEFA On Demand (http://video.uefa.com/video/vod/competitions/geoindex.html) will have the game but it’ll be $1.99.
It was my mistake. I look at this web site regularly:
http://www.livesoccertv.com/schedules/
and they listed some of the Europa matches as being on Fox Sports +, which I mis-read as Fox Soccer + when I scanned quickly. Fox Sports + is apparently a Latin America channel. Sorry everyone and thanks for your quick replies.
FYI, if you want to save a couple bucks, the second leg of the Liverpool-Lille match will be on GolTV at 8:00pm EST (tape-delayed) Thursday, 18 March:
http://www.goltv.tv/index_en.php?date=20100318&tz=eastern&lang=en&target=programacion
Although, given the Juve-Fulham 1st leg result, I do wonder if they will switch the schedule to show the game at Anfield live.
Terry, a 2-0 win for Fulham at Craven Cottage will put them through against Juventus, so all is not lost.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Should be a great weekend, I honestly don’t see why I would need fsc+ other then HD. Foxsoccer.tv seems like the better deal. LUHG!
Noticed that Super 14 rugby was added to the FoxSoccer.tv schedule.
Now that’s going to be interesting. To my knowledge Super 14 broadband rights are held by rugbyzone/mediazone. That’s why I subscribe to them. I thought Setanta only had TV rights, which would mean Super 14 could show up on FS+, but not on FS.tv.
I really think the folks at FS.tv have this one wrong, but we shall see.
You’re right that another company at least had the rights. I don’t know whether this means Fox purchased the rights from the other company or perhaps that other company doesn’t have exclusive online rights or that Fox is actually wrong… maybe a guy from Fox News was put in charge of it? :^P
I’m hoping foxsoccer.tv does have it. Though, maybe it won’t be that good… I won’t be able to get anything done. :^D
Shows what I know! Bulls v Highlanders on live and earlier matches up for VOD. Don’t understand the rights issue, but since the FS.tv stream is much better than that of rugbyzone I’ll be watching on FS.tv.
Yespage, you may have the answer. I don’t think rugbyzone is in real good financial shape, so there may be some kind of deal going on. Fine with me.
David,
Fox Soccer does not have the rights to Europa League broadcasts. GolTV gets a selection of Europa matches (2-3 matches), while DirecTV has the rest of the TV rights.
Go to UEFA’s Video Centre website and sign up for their Annual Replay Pass for $40/yr, which gives you access to every Europa and Champions League match replay (as well as Euro, U-21 tournaments, among others), which are available at 6pm ET. Or pay $2 for each individual reply.
you sure those games will be ondemand within 2 hours? Last time I was on that website it was telling me they’d be up at midnight that day.
The midnight replays are only for matches first shown on FSC. If it airs on FS+/FS.tv then it is up and ready within 2 hrs.
Ade, yep it’s confusing, but the EPL games that are shown live on Fox Soccer Plus or live on FoxSoccer.tv will be available on demand 90-120 minutes after the game ends. For those games that are shown by Fox Soccer Channel, they’ll be available on FoxSoccer.tv at midnight that night.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Ade–for UEFA’s service the games are available midnight central Europe time. They are usually 6 hours ahead of us (will be 5 for the next 2 weeks) so for east coast games are up for us around 6pm. I also purchased the live playoff pass for $40 (didn’t know they were going to offer that when I signed up for the replay service in the fall) so I’ve been watching the two games the last couple of game days (feeds from Foxsoccer.tv and UEFA) . Both feeds are ok quality wise but Fox uses the Sky announcers. I have to think Fox’s video feed will improve in the future.
Why pay $45 subscription on FS.TV when most matches can be had online for free. Sites like JustinTV usually have the EPL matches and while the quality might not be the best, you cant beat the price.
I have to agree LN, I’m watching Juve and Fulham right now, a matcj I barely knew was on, but because it’s free, I’m taking the leisure of streaming it
Because some people view it as theft… or want to support a service that is available in America so that it doesn’t go away… or don’t think $45 for three months for about half of the EPL games live is actually a very good deal.
Pirated HD feeds probably aren’t floating around too much and ESPN and Fox are the entities that have the ability to offer that. That Foxsoccer.tv is actually offering the choice of 4 live EPL games this Saturday at 10 AM is an absolute coup! Who wouldn’t want to support that… I mean other than people who’d rather take than support?
meant to say “…or do think $45 for three months for about half of the EPL games live is a very good deal.”
How about the fact that the big companies have well-paid lawyers who scour around sites like Justin.tv for content “stolen” from the rights-holders? Yes, they are very much aware of sites like Justin.tv. It’s not like it’s a big secret. You would have to hope that someone puts up another link at the chat box so that you get to another site. Also, who has the time and money to go through the process of setting up the uplink and connect the games to the masses?
In short, because I’m not supporting the game if I do that and because it’s not much to pay for what you get.
My guesstimate is that it’s less than 75 cents a game (a guess of 5 games per weekend for an estimated 12 weeks). That’s less than three quarters to have a nice feed (not the pixelated crap on Justin.tv) that will ensure the game continues to grow in coverage in this country.
I think this is a great news. I am a FS+ subscriber but this makes me want to subscribe to FoxSoccer.tv as well. I hope this will extend to other leagues…Ligue 1 *hint* *hint*.
Gaffer,
Has there been ANY developments with FSC HD lately, I’ve been bombarding Frank @comcastcares on Twitter with questions and he decided to ignore me completely now.
Not a word lately. It’s been extremely quiet unfortunately.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
I just switched from DirecTV to DISH and let me tell you, FSC in HD is glorious! I can’t wait for the WorldCup on ESPN and ABC when all 64 matches will be broadcast in HD! Heaven I tell you.
Here’s hoping that DirecTV and Cable customers get in on the act sooner rather than later. I can’t stand watching football in SD after seeing things like the stitches on the balls and the bumps on player’s faces
bollocks we have to pay for foxsoccer.tv
espn360′s free. I really hope fox tanks with all this.
just because you don’t see line item for it doesn’t mean it’s free. The cost is embedded in your high speed internet service bill.
Exactly. And we are getting how many live EPL matches via foxsoccer.tv?! What do some people expect?
Do people in England even get that good of coverage?
It’s good to see that more matches are available to US viewers. The only downside for foxsoccer.tv subscribers is that the quality of the stream is poor. Not anywhere near the quality of setanta-i. It appears that foxsoccer.tv is using a software company based overseas as my credit card showed an international credit card fee of $1.20 in addition to the subscription fee. I’m hoping that foxsoccer.tv will mature in the coming months to make it a more attractive option. Right now though I won’t be subscribing for next season because of the poor quality of the picture.
Does anybody know if FoxSoccer.tv will show all of the MLS games?
Look, we soccer fans never had it this good! Please give a consideration for those who had to suffer through the days of the tape-delayed one match at a Spanish-language channel each weekend, watching players get hurt on astroturf (the hard type) and less-than-average announcers. OK, the less-than-average announcers are still around but the other stuff has dramatically improved over the years!
Now is not the time to start acting like spoiled baseball, Amer. Football and college basketball fans who act up to a fit if there’s no game that they want on TV, even though those sports are already all over the airwaves like a tidal wave. We are better than that!
I’ve been very critical about FS+ and the $15 a month scheme, which I don’t think it sustainable. But Foxsoccer.tv seems to be moving in the right direction. They have an alot of football and rugby for the money. Even if they raise the price for for the whole season it would be worth it, as long as it’s not to high. ESPN are able to offer ESPN360 for “free” because of their deep pockets. Let’s face it, American sport on ESPN is allowing us this opportunity. Fox doesn’t have that luxury.
Just a little fact that some readers may not know:
ESPN360 is “free” because ISPs must pay ESPN a fee in order to offer it to their customers. ESPN is out no money and their deep pockets just keep getting deeper.
man99utd:
I agree with you that Foxsoccer.tv does has very good programming with lots of football and rugby. However, the quality of their stream is quite poor; the picture is not very smooth but choppy. It is nowhere as good as Setanta-i was. I too would pay to get a season pass to foxsoccer.tv but only if they made the product better. Fox is bigger than Setanta so there’s no reason why their product should be inferior.
Since Comcast has failed me and the rest of the city of Baltimore with their available content (not just FSCHD or Plus), it’s nice to know that the internet still has my back. No more unstable illegal streams on Saturday mornings where I hope for a game in English for me. No sir. Take my $$$ and give me what I’ve been looking for, for far too long Fox Tv.
So many free live match resource out there such as http://www.eplp2p.com , can it really be a turning point??