Another Premier League Saturday is about to kick off and there is plenty of matches to look forward to. The London derby between West Ham and Spurs is always entertaining. So too will be the clash of the billionaires club between Manchester City and Chelsea at Eastlands.
Then later we have Liverpool against Sunderland where the Reds are desperate for three points (and where Liverpool fans are scheduled to enact a sit-in protest against Tom Hicks). For lovers of the beautiful game, Arsenal plays West Brom and there are other matches in store too.
Feel free to use these open forum as a place to post your questions and observations, or simply to vent against your team or opposition. Click the comments link below and type away!
What the hell, ESPN is using the UK studio broadcast for the pre-game of Man City v Chelsea? No more bad analysis by their US studio team?! And Ian Darke will be commenting it?
YES!
Exactly what I was thinking…
I thought Ian Darke’s commentary was supposed to be exclusive to the US? Any chance this broadcast was produced solely for US audiences?
No, it’s definitely using the UK feed. Graphics etc. Amongst all the positive aspects of this change, as mentioned above, there appears to be one major downside… PICTURE QUALITY.
It’s not using the international feed for the game, looks like, but instead the lower resolution HD standard that they use in the UK, upconverted. Ugh.
Yep. The pictures are quite clearly of a lower quality. That’s a bit frustrating, but I’ll survive.
The FIFA 11 banner under the score graphic makes me think this is a US-exclusive broadcast. Very out of character for ESPN UK to put an advertisement for something unrelated to their channel on screen during play.
I’ve never seen ads below the score on ESPN US, actually. There was also a huge ad for it during pre-game. This is definitely the full UK television feed, only with US ads during breaks and ESPN US’ live and ESPN logos overlaid (in proper resolution).
This is something they should’ve thought of when they decided to use the UK feed for US HD television. Pre-game with lower res HD, that’s fine… but the game is definitely available in proper HD on the international feed. Maybe that one has somebody else commentating, though, which is why they decided not to use it… who knows.
Gaffer, you should ask your press contact at ESPN about what’s going on. There was no announcement about this change except for Ian Darke commentating (which he appears to be doing for ESPN UK, not ESPN US, really). And mention my dissatifcation with the subpar picture quality of UK HD resolution.
This is definitely US-only. ESPN UK is not showing this match, Sky Sports is. Plus, Ian thanked the studio hosts and felt it necessary to explain who Cheryl Cole is.
You’re right. A quick check of the Sky Sports website revealed this match is on Sky Sports 2 in the UK. Makes this broadcast all the more impressive, aside from the obvious loss of picture quality.
It’s not all that impressive to me, considering they have the crew and studio over there already at ESPN UK. Just gives them something to do when they don’t have a game to show themselves and the production costs are probably much cheaper than doing it here, overseas from the action, besides having to get everybody up this early in the morning over here in the US which likely adds some costs, too.
I’m not sure they really had the viewers in mind when they made this change. It’s much more likely that they simply tried to cut costs overall and get some free PR out of it because they in fact provide a higher quality product(tion) now. Well played, ESPN, well played.
(but give us real HD, damnit)
That was just a near-confirmation that the commentary, at least, is US-only. Ian Darke just pointed out the distance, in miles, that Manchester is from London. I doubt very seriously that he’d be making comments like that for a UK broadcast.
Ah, my bad. So it is in fact a US-only broadcast… with a UK crew in the UK with UK HD equipment…for US television… I see. Sounds like they need to ship a bunch of real HD cameras over there to give us that excellent UK production in proper US HD quality, heh.
Let’s hope it’s a work in progress, it’s the only missing piece in the puzzle.
Did anyone else notice that the Manchester United vs Sunderland game was added as the ESPN2 HD game here in the US?
Gaffer, is this correct?
Saturday, October 2nd, 9.55am ET on ESPN 2. Yep.
wow …sad much?
Interesting goal by Kuyt in the L’pool v Sunderland game. Sunderland player lazily kicks the ball back from a set piece, presumably for the goalkeeper to take the set piece. Torres intercepts what to Sunderland is a dead ball, passes to Kuyt and he scores on the 2 on 0 advantage. Ref consults sideline ref, and confirms the goal. Bizarre!
watching West Ham v Spuds on Fox Deportes…
Hammers are in form……
Diaby and Eboue should never start for Arsenal again.
Second that. So shouldn’t Almunia, Song and Clichy. What a disgusting performance. I am so disgusted. No urgency whatsoever in a must win game. Running around like headless chickens most of the time. No spine. Players are not good enough, Wenger.
great win for West Ham, even better v Spuds.
result!
Are the tides begining to turn? Chelsea, Arsenal, & Tottenham all drop points to “lesser” opposition. Does this indicate less division amongst the table or just poor preformances from top sides? I’m really liking this. I’m sick of 6-0. Utd will be breathing down chelseas neck after tomorrow.
Amen, Onedrop. Although Bolton could easily give United a run for its money tomorrow. My two cents is that both Arsenal and Chelsea lost to better teams today. I’m watching the West Ham match now, so I can’t comment on that one. But I love it when the big clubs lose because it adds unpredictability to the league and makes the big teams fight harder (i.e. play better) to win.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Arsenal looked lethargic and did not play with any sense of urgency until it was too late. Almunia redeemed himself following his penalty, but looked terrible and all of an amateur in the second. While Wenger played a strong lineup this past Tuesday relatively speaking, this team was anything but that. Opportunities provided today by Manchester City’s defeat of Chelsea will be rare. Carpe Diem ARSENAL! IMHO