EPL Talk » GolTV

Canadians Enjoy Chaos-Free Premiership, Champions League Broadcasts

Richard Whittall — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:49:43 +0000

Photo by deegs

Amid all the murmurings about ESPN losing Champions League rights in the US, Canadians, with some notable exceptions, have emerged relative winners in the last few years, even with the initially disruptive introduction of Setanta Sports in the latter part of 2007.

In a perfect world, all the football we’d ever want to watch would be split between three basic cable channels forever and ever, amen. But as long as the Premier League and the Champions League remain as popular, that will never be the case—although Canada comes pretty close.

As it stands now, Setanta gets the early and late matches on Saturdays and pick of the litter for the 10:00 AM EST slot. It also gets the early Sunday PL fixture. While annoyed Canadians have to pay a premium fee ($14.99 a month on Cable providers Bell and Rogers), the trade off is getting to watch weekday, holiday and repeated fixtures that used to go begging on Canadian television, in addition to live Champions League games, SPL matches, on and off Eredivisie and regular Sunday French Ligue 1, plus staple shows like Football Matters and the Friday Football Show (the less said about Rugby and GAA the better), no broadband, no fuss, no muss.

Meanwhile Rogers Sportsnet (basic cable) gets the second 10 AM Saturday pick, and the Score gets the marquee 11 am Sunday morning fixture, so drive-by supporters who don’t mind sifting through the dregs of Justin TV once in a while are okay. In addition to the Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga fans can get their fix on GolTV (3 bucks a month and no carrier lawsuits!) and Serie A supporters can catch games (and Bobby McMahon) both on Fox Sports Canada (3 bucks a month) and Telelatino (basic cable). The main sports channel, TSN (basic cable) carries quarterfinal-final Champions League fixtures.

These prices vary of course if you decide to go with a premium package. It’s not ideal, but with one or two exceptions the quality of coverage is very good and the amount of football available without having to go beyond basic cable is substantial. Amid the turgid mess of rights’ acquisitions, it’s nice to enjoy a bit of stability.

Racing Santander vs Manchester City On U.S. TV

The Gaffer — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:00:00 +0000

GolTV has announced that it’ll be televising the UEFA Cup match live between Racing Santander and Manchester City, scheduled Thursday, December 18 at 2:45 p.m. ET.

For Manchester City, they’re guaranteed at least second place in their group, but they need to get a better result in Santander than FC Twente do against Paris Saint Germain, then City will end the group in first place and will avoid Champions League teams in the next stage of the tournament.

Seasons Greetings From GolTV

The Gaffer — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:47:53 +0000

It’s time of the year when corporations send out holiday cards, and U.S. soccer networks are no different. Instead of the traditional greeting card sent through the mail, GolTV has decided this year to send an electronic card.

View GolTV’s holiday greeting card now.

GolTV Acquires TV Rights To 2009 European Under-21 Championship

The Gaffer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:00:47 +0000

GolTV has acquired the U.S. TV rights to the 2009 European under-21 Championship, scheduled for June 15-29 in Sweden.

The eight countries competing in the tournament will be England, Italy, Serbia, Germany, Finland, Belarus, Spain and Sweden. The draw for the tournament takes place on December 3rd.

For connoiseurs of the beautiful game, the European Under-21 Championship will be an excellent opportunity to watch some of the up-and-coming players in action.

Coached by Stuart Pearce, England will favor its chances of doing well in the tournament especially with a talent pool that includes Aston Villa’s Gabriel Agbonlahor and James Milnar, Chelsea’s Michael Mancienne (who has been called up for today’s game against Germany), Tottenham’s Jamie O’Hara, Manchester City’s Joe Hart, West Ham United’s Mark Noble and many more.

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.