It’s one of the questions I get asked quite often. When will Fox Soccer Channel be available in high definition TV (HDTV)? Until now, there wasn’t a succinct answer, but we finally have good news. Fox Soccer Channel will be in HD by the end of 2010.

Multichannel News, a cable newsletter, broke the news that Fox’s television network group has decided to distribute its broadcast network and all of its cable services in high-definition within two years from now. Fox also plans on upgrading its infrastructure to double its satellite capacity.

This is wonderful news for soccer fans in North America. We got spoiled during Euro 2008 when all of the games on ESPN were in high definition. Once the change happens at Fox Soccer Channel, the only issue will be that not all of the programming is available in high definition. Some Premier League games are, but not all of them.

For Fox, the upgrade to HD will come as a significant cost. For example, its studio in Los Angeles is not wired for high definition, so the upgrades alone at its head office will be substantial.

With Fox making the move within the next two years to switch to high definition broadcasts, the pressure is now on Setanta Sports and GolTV to follow suit.

What do you think of the news, and what programming will you be looking forward to watching in high definition on Fox Soccer Channel? Click the comments link below and let us know.

Tottenham Hotspur has announced that the club has reached an agreement with Spartak Moscow to sign Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko for a transfer fee believed to be £14 million.

The star striker who made a huge impression in Euro 2008 won’t be ready to play against Chelsea in the London derby today. His first match wearing a Spurs shirt will likely be the home game against Aston Villa on Monday, September 15.

While at Spartak Moscow, Pavlyuchenko scored 77 goals in 147 appearances, and has played 23 times for Russia scoring nine goals for his national side.

For many, Pavlyuchenko rose to prominence with his impressive displays at Euro 2008 including the goal he scored against Holland (see video clip below) and his thunderbolt shots from distance.

The 26-year old Pavlyuchenko joins a Spurs side alongside fellow strikers Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent.

To me, this is another massive signing by Spurs this summer after signing David Bentley, Giovanni Dos Santos and Luka Modric. The Russian striker was such a breath of fresh air this summer. He’s a born finisher who will take time to adapt to the English game. But in Pavlyuchenko, Spurs has signed one of the most promising players in Europe. Let’s hope he dazzles the Premier League viewers around the world.

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Thought for the day: If you were an alien that landed on earth and were forced to watch the Sky Sports News program “Through The Night,” would you know that the biggest sporting event in the world waa taking place, the one that happens only once every four years, the summer Olympic games?

The answer is an emphatic no.

I watched Through The Night on Friday night. Not one single mention of the opening ceremony of the games in its 60 minute broadcast. I also watched it on Saturday and didn’t see the games mentioned either.

This is another example of how immature and biased Sky Sports News is.

When Euro 2008 was happening, “Through The Night” often ran with Cristiano Ronaldo transfer gossip as the main story or cricket news and relegated the Euro 2008 headlines to usually the third or fourth story of the idea in its program.

Go back a couple of years to the bung scandal that BBC’s Panorama program uncovered and it took “Through The Night” a couple of days to cover the news and then they buried it deep within the program. But if some player got into a fight or there’s half a rumor of an agent sealing a transfer deal that no one cares about, you can almost guarantee it’ll be the lead story.

The rule that Sky Sports News seems to be running is that if they don’t own the rights to the event, then they’ll ignore that news. On the other hand, if they own the rights, you can be assured that they’ll cover that news ad nauseum and hype it so much that it’ll never live up to its expectations.

Here’s a parody of Sky Sports News done by That Mitchell And Webb Look, a BBC show. This is so true:

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Don’t miss the latest Major League Soccer Talk podcast interview with Martin Rogers, Yahoo’s world soccer writer. Interviewed by Kartik Krishnaiyer, Rogers answers questions about several topics including Tottenham Hotspur’s transfer signings, how the Euro 2008 tournament was received in England and a preview of the Olympics soccer tournament which Rogers is covering for Yahoo Sports.

Listen now or, better yet, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes so you don’t miss a single episode. You can also find the archives of all 50+ interviews here.

Having suffered the heart break of not reaching Euro 2008 perhaps now, as we gear up for the new season would be an interesting time to look at England’s World Cup qualifying schedule. With just less than seven weeks to go before England start their campaign against Andorra we can begin the build up to whether we are set for another summer picking teams out of a hat to support of it we will be there in South Africa taking it to the world’s best.

This might seem like a strange time to look at England with the last international competition well behind us and many people focusing on how their clubs will do when they start again in August (head here for all the footballs odds for the new domestic season). However I for one am looking forward to this campaign and believe that this will be a very crucial time in English football. When it starts in September the following 15 months will show us if Fabio Capello can turn a bunch of rich individuals with plenty of potential into a functioning team that we can be proud of.

Last time we started a qualifying campaign there was a sense that we would walk the group, that the likes of Russia and Croatia could not match our band of Premier League stars. Despite having the incompetent Steve McClaren in charge people still expected to make it to Euro 2008. However I think people who knew football realised that it wouldn’t be that easy and so they were proved right that fateful night at Wembley when England fell flat on their face. To be fair we can’t just put it down to one night, it was a collection of performances that let everyone down, England at their overrated best.

This time though people are prepared, you could see when the fixtures were announced that England supporters took things seriously for once. I remember listening to Radio Five Live and hearing the pundits sucking air through their teeth at the prospect of Belarus away. That is unheard of in a country where many people are still ignorant enough to believe that we have a god given right to be the best at football. This time though I think people are more realistic and seem to be taking it seriously from the start. For a start we have a proper manager in charge, I will go out on a limb here and give my 100% backing to Capello not matter what happens, not that he would be devastated if I dindn’t! The guy has a proven track record and his guidelines he set out when he took over are what the spoilt brats at England needed. I don’t know whether you read the Football 365 England diary they did whilst Euro 2008 was on but I encourage you to read it if you want true mickey taking of the national side. Here is the last chapter.

Lets move on and take a glance at the fixtures for the qualifying campaign ahead:

6^th September – Andorra (A)

10^th September – Croatia (A)

11^th October – Kazakhstan (H)

15^th October – Belarus (A)

1^st April – Ukraine (H)

6^th June – Kazakhstan (A)

10^th June – Andorra (H)

9^th September – Croatia (H)

10^th October – Ukraine (A)

14^th October – Belarus (H)

So looking at that I think it could have been a lot worse, you would hope that by the end of the Belarus game away England would have something in the region of 9 to 10 points. Andorra away should be a walkover but then will come the real first test for Capello, a trip to Zagreb. Croatia made England look foolish last time they played there and who would beat against them doing it again after their impressive performances in Euro 2008. Kazakhstan at home you would think haboured another three points followed by Belarus away. Another tricky away trip but one that I hope England will manage to take three points from if Fabio has them organised properly.

So around nine or ten points at that period would be a decent total heading into the new year and the first game against the Ukraine who are one of those sides who aren’t brilliant on their travels so I would hope the England would take three points from that one. This could be the first time that we see a clash between club and country because with the game beginning in April and the domestic season coming to a close a lot of the clubs won’t want to see their players pick up an injury. Be interesting to see if anyone drops out with an injury they might have played through if this was a club game.

Then we are on to Kazakhstan, the furthest trip England could have been given and to a country who should really be classed in the Asian qualifying sector. Anyway at the end of a long season this will be the last thing the players will want and Capello will really have to get them up for that one because otherwise England could be rolled over. Andorra at home and another three points before the big one. The return of Croatia to Wembley will probably decide the group with both teams probably on the same points at this point. Much like the away game I am going to sit on the fence and hope for a draw.

That result will leave England needing something in the Ukraine, reminiscent of the trip to Russia for the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. I would guess that Ukraine will be the third team in this group and a defeat here would put a lot of pressure on England going into the final game against Belarus. Ukraine face Andorra in their final group game and England could be facing déjà vu if they don’t get something in the former Soviet state. A draw would be nice although either way I can see England turning over Belarus in their last game.

So that’s it, England have qualified! Fabio is hailed as a hero and we can begin all the build-up to the finals. Well that will be the dream at least but with some tough away fixtures to come England will have to be prepared for the coming tasks. Anyway don’t forget about England if you support them and join in the excitement when they start against Andorra in September. To have an early flutter on the game here are the England odds.

Television companies that feature the Premier League throughout the season face the harsh reality of trying to keep their viewers returning during the three months in late Spring to early summer when the Premiership is on break.

The issue is especially troubling for soccer networks such as Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV and Setanta Sports. They must face a difficult time trying to convince advertisers to run commercials in the summertime when soccer diehards watch far less coverage between the middle of May to the middle of August.

The situation is compounded when you take into consideration the summer tournaments that focus viewers on one channel. During Euro 2008, my TV was tuned to ESPN and ESPN2 for more than 62 hours.

In an informal poll conducted by EPL Talk, 19% of our U.S. readers watched zero hours of Fox Soccer Channel programming during June. For FSC, these are pathetic results when you consider that during the EPL season, many EPL Talk readers will watch 32 hours or more of Fox during a typical month.

When it comes to soccer on TV networks, we have little to no loyalty. Whoever will show a tournament such as Euro 2008 will automatically get our allegiance for an entire month every four years. If the coverage of the Premier League suddenly switched from Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports to another network such as ESPN, we’d switch allegiances overnight and go whichever way the wind blew.

While Fox shows replays of classic Premier League matches as well as MLS and USL games during the summertime, I feel that FSC’s summertime selection is shortsighted. If I was in charge of programming for Fox, here’s what I would do:

1. Get the viewers involved. Fox could easily take their list of archived programming they have and list it on their website and allow viewers to vote for the classic games they’d like to see on the channel. This way, viewers feel more involved in the programming and are more likely to watch the classic matches rather than stumble across them on Fox.
2. Improve the marketing. Fox Soccer Channel should be packaging its programming together into blocks of time that would be easier for viewers to remember. For example, there could be “FA Cup Thursdays” during the month of July that show some of the best FA Cup finals. Or what about “Grand Slam Sundays” where the best Sunday matches are strung together on Sunday mornings or evenings. The list of possibilities goes on and on.
3. Give us an EPL Review Show marathon. This was an idea suggested by one of EPL Talk’s readers last summer. Why not take all of the EPL Review Shows and run them back-to-back as a marathon so that viewers could learn more about the history of the Premier League from season to season? I know I would definitely watch it.

The kickoff of the new Premier League season is 45 days away but, for me, there are few reasons to watch Fox Soccer Channel between now and then. I can’t wait for the new EPL season to begin, but Fox obviously needs to do something to reverse the summer doldrums. GolTV and Setanta Sports are in a similar bucket too, but at least Setanta will be showing a lot of friendlies this summer involving Premier League sides while GolTV will have some of the World Cup qualifying matches.

What are your thoughts on what Fox should do during the summer months to keep soccer fans returning? Post your opinions below by clicking the comments link.

Sunday afternoon’s Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany on ABC was watched by 2.4 million overnight households according to numbers announced by Nielsen Media Research.  That gives the broadcast a 3.1 overnight rating based on the 77 million households in America which make up the overnight numbers.  That number is a little more than double the 1.5 overnight rating ABC got for its broadcast of the Netherlands v Russia quarterfinal last weekend.

So, first, a quick dose of reality; the number obviously pales in comparison to the 8.6 overnight rating the network got for the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy.  That’s not a surprise given the higher profile of the World Cup, but it shows there were a considerable number of casual sports viewers who have watched soccer and did not tune in.  Also, that number is certain to go down once the last batch of households with televisions, mostly in rural areas, are counted up later in the week.  For example, the Netherlands-Russia match saw a 20% drop in its rating once these were added, going from 1.5 to 1.2.  Assuming a similar percentage drop for this match would put the final rating down to around 2.5.

However, that number also gives ESPN and owner Disney a reason to smile.  At 2.5, ABC’s performance for the Euro 2008 final would equal the national rating picked up by Univision for its American broadcast of another continental championship: last year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup final between the United States and Mexico.  What this shows is that there is a noteworthy, if smaller, audience on American television for big event international soccer outside the World Cup, both with and without local teams to drive it.

So, what does ESPN do now?  Well, while these results are good, it’d be hard to justify using them for the purpose of adding European league soccer, given they are far more dragged out events (months instead of weeks) and can’t guarantee big star affairs every single time.  On top of that, most of the European leagues already have deals for this season tied up.  And for next season, the only contracts due to run out in the US are for Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga.  It’d be hard to capitalize on the momentum of this tournament without any big leagues coming straight away to the network.

What ESPN could do next, however, is try to solidify their position as the home of big event international soccer.  The network already has the rights to next year’s Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.  2011 could see the network try to pick up the Gold Cup or Copa America, either of which offer English and Spanish language possibilities, and then ESPN would finish the cycle by getting Euro 2012.  Another move might see ESPN expand its portfolio when it comes to online broadcast rights through ESPN360.  They already have the online rights to Serie A and the Russian Premier League, and most American broadcasters have done little in this area to make use of those rights.  The other networks might be receptive to parting with their online rights to pick up some additional cash.  ESPN360 was a major success during the tournament, with eight of it’s 10 most watched single events being Euro 2008 matches, and it’s an area they can try to expand on right away.

Wherever it goes from here, Euro 2008 represents a step forward for soccer on ESPN, and is a moment worth celebrating.  Now fans will have to wait and see for what the network’s next step ahead is going to be.

ESPN has finally cracked the code of how to produce soccer for the American audience. Show it in high definition, feature a strong team of commentators, promote the tournament across your networks, don’t cut the national anthems, include advertising at appropriate moments, reduce the hype and include intelligent discussions during the pre-game, halftime and post-game parts of the show.

Instead of making soccer fans cringe, the network provided one month of Euro 2008 coverage that fans could believe in. Sure, the games were watched mostly by soccer aficionados, but the tournament also permeated mainstream America. From my own experience, I saw Euro 2008 games on TVs at airports, my local gym, Whole Foods Market, local sport bars and, most importantly, inside the homes of Americans who are slowly warming to the game.

The challenge for the growth of the sport in this country is that many Americans don’t even realize that Fox Soccer Channel, Setanta Sports and GolTV even exist. For the sport to enter America’s consciousness, it needs to be on ESPN regularly. Yes, ESPN already carries some Major League Soccer games as well as internationals, but the time is ripe for the Disney owned network to invest more heavily in soccer by aggressively bidding for the next TV rights to the Premier League, which will be opened to bidders later this year.

ESPN has come a long way in such a short time. It was less than a year ago when David Beckham made his debut for LA Galaxy when the production of the game by ESPN was such a disgrace. ESPN focused so much time during the game on shots of Beckham on the bench, celebrities in the stands and updates from the touchlines instead of focusing on the game that was being played on the field. In less than a year, they’ve completely turned the corner. Congratulations ESPN on a fantastic month-long production. Now we just need you to keep the love coming.

The EPL Talk Euro 2008 Fantasy Football League ended in 46th place in the Best Leagues standing with an average score of 268.2. As far as we can tell, we ended up in first place among the private leagues originating from the United States. Here are the top 10 winners. First placed Luis Arias wins a Euro 2008 jersey of his choice. Congratulations.

1. Steddy2000, Luis Arias, 334 points
2. Scursed, Saullus Valasinas, 321
3. UDontNoWhatY:DoinFC, Pat Pence, 310
4. Riverdale FC, James Dutra, 308
5. The Man Moths, Jude Eichas, 304
6. Alpine Wanderers, MT, 298
7. Foolish FC, Mark Aegerter, 297
8. Walker’s Old Boys, Kevin Walker, 291
9. Winning 11, Leonard Vitarana, 291
10. Athleague FC, Little Rudiger Connaughton, 290.

Be sure to check back with EPL Talk this summer when we announce the launch of the EPL Talk private league for the 2008/2009 season.