EPL Talk » DirecTV

Poll: Best Cable Or Satellite Provider For Soccer Fans

The Gaffer — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:50:22 +0000

How many times have you read comments or discussion threads about how the public hate their cable company? Customer Service departments at cable companies probably hate it. Before the Internet, it was difficult to discern how many others had the same passion of hatred as you did. Now it’s relatively easy to find those insults and to add fuel to the fire.

But if you had a choice, only one choice, of what cable, satellite or IPTV provider you could choose from — which would it be? Vote now.

Setanta Sports Now Available in Boston Area on Comcast

The Gaffer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:00:24 +0000

Slowly but surely, it’s getting easier and easier to subscribe to Setanta Sports via your cable and satellite provider. Just last week, Comcast in Boston, Massachusetts added Setanta Sports to its selection of channels to choose from.

Comcast now carries Setanta Sports in Allston, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Brighton, Brookline, Charlestown, Downtown Financial, East Boston, Fenway, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Dorchester, North End, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, South End, and West Roxbury. To receive Setanta Sports, channel 761, in the Boston area call 1-800-COMCAST.

Back in October, we here at EPL Talk reported that Comcast was dragging its feet in New England, the Bay Area and Illinois in regards to adding Setanta Sports to its programming. Now that New England has added Setanta, now is the time for you to call your local Comcast office and demand that Setanta Sports is added. Learn more about how to get Setanta on Comcast here.

In just the past few months, Setanta has been added to AT&T U-Verse, Cox Cable (in Virginia) and Verizon FIOS. It’s already available on DirecTV and DISH Network on satellite. But if the network can get added on to regional Comcast Cable companies nationwide, it’ll finally be a giant step closer to being available in the mainstream.

Setanta Now Available On AT&T U-Verse

The Gaffer — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:00:35 +0000

Setanta Sports is now available on AT&T U-Verse, as of this week.

U-Verse is AT&T’s Internet protocol television (IPTV) solution that starts at $44 per month and is available nationwide. Setanta Sports is available for $15 per month.

U-Verse also offers Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, so if you’re unable to get DirecTV and you want to move away from DISH Network, AT&T U-Verse may be worth considering. Learn more about U-Verse today.

Setanta Sports is now available on DirecTV, DISH Network, Verizon FIOS, Cox (in Virginia), NextTV, WorldTV, AT&T U-Verse and other carriers.

If you’re a Comcast Cable customer and you want to get Setanta, learn what you can do to get Setanta on cable.

GolTV Tells Dish Network Customers To Switch

The Gaffer — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:00:20 +0000

DISH customers can practically kiss their chances goodbye of seeing GolTV back on their satellite provider.

The 24/7 soccer network says that it doesn’t see any compromise with DISH being reached in the near future and is recommending that DISH customers select an alternate source such as DirecTV.

On August 1st, DISH Network dumped GolTV from its lineup after a contract dispute. DISH Network wanted to reduce the amount of money it paid GolTV based on the per subscriber fee. GolTV rightly balked, but due to no agreement being made, the network is still not available on the satellite provider.

Between August 1st and now, plenty of soccer fans nationwide have cancelled their DISH Network subscriptions and signed up with DirecTV instead. Now that both the new La Liga and Bundesliga seasons have kicked off, expect more DISH customers to make the switch to DirecTV.

GolTV leaves open the possibility of a deal being reached with DISH Network to bring the network back to its lineup, but the ball seems to be in DISH’s court. By the time an agreement is reached, if any, the concern will be that the die-hard soccer fans will have already left the network.

GolTV Removed From DISH Network

The Gaffer — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:43:00 +0000

As of August 1, GolTV – the 24/7 soccer network – has been removed from DISH Network due to a contract dispute.

According to GolTV, “this occurs despite efforts to continue GolTV’s availability to Dish customers.” DISH Network, in retort, inserted this message when you hit the INFO button where GolTV’s channel used to be: “GolTV has removed this channel after asking for unreasonable terms to renew the contract and we’re working to solve the problem.”

In the meantime, DISH Network is offering free previews of both Setanta Sports and Fox Sports Espanol to its customers. However, even if DISH Network customers subscribed to Setanta and Fox Sports Espanol, that won’t replace the void that’s left with GolTV gone because GolTV has exclusive license rights in the United States to La Liga and Bundesliga, as well as many 2010 World Cup qualifiers and this weekend’s Emirates Cup featuring Real Madrid, Hamburg, Juventus and Arsenal.

For DISH Network, the decision to remove GolTV is idiotic. Hopefully this a short-term disagreement between GolTV and DISH Network that will be resolved soon, but the timing couldn’t be worse and soccer fans will want to make a decision soon whether to leave DISH Network before the new seasons begin. My gut instinct says that this issue won’t be resolved soon especially when GolTV tells readers on its homepage that “You can find GolTV on our current distribution partners,” which includes DirecTV.

If you love GolTV, my recommendation would be to simply cancel your DISH Network subscription and move to DirecTV where you get GolTV there instead. If you’re upset about the situtation, vote with your dollars by leaving DISH but don’t forget to send them an e-mail too to let them know why you’re cancelling and moving to their biggest competitor.

DISH Network can be contacted here.