Now that the Premier League has launched on ESPN and La Liga TV coverage will debut on September 13, 2009, ESPN are beginning to promote upcoming games on its network with high-energy TV commercials. The first one featuring football supporters singing the “Seven Nation Army” theme by the White Stripes has been playing on the ESPN networks all week and is now available on YouTube.
Take a deep breath and watch it, share it with your friends and get ready for an amazing Wigan against Manchester United match in HD this Saturday. I’m a little excited. Can’t you tell?!
{ 69 comments… read them below or add one }
I hope they don’t change much from last week. Especially having the British guys from the get-go and getting to see all the inside shots at the stadium.
I love ESPN. Their production is great. This is nothing but great things for soccer in america.
Does anyone know what games ESPN is getting for La Liga? Will they actually be carrying good games…like Madrid and Barcelona or only mid table teams? I’ve never had GolTV…is there an English feed of these games or will ESPN have Adrian Healey (or whoever is available) call the matches.
GolTV and ESPN will alternate “1st picks” each week so that GolTV and ESPN Deportes (and ESPN2 for 20 out of 38 weeks) can have either Real Madrid or Barcelona, but not both.
GolTV is supposed to have one of the two “clasicos” with ESPN Deportes (and ESPN2 if a time slot were available) having the other one.
This is a great commercial, gets me so fired up. ESPN never fails, so great. Can’t wait for saturday and monday, wish they showed more but hopefully next year setanta will be giving all their games to ESPN.
Jake I have to disagree….ESPN would never show all the games on time delay as after the early game they have college football….I am a little selfish but I like see 8-10 games a week regardless of def on my 42 inch tv wrather then my 17 inch laptop.
They used to show overflow Champions’ League games on ESPN “Classic” when they had the rights, I imagine if there was a confilct between college football and EPL, it would be moved there.
The downside is, Classic is not HD.
Wide exposure to EPL and La Liga will give the beautiful game a big boost in the US. The World Football Challenge last month was drawing huge crowds around the country. I think the appetite is there for quality soccer.
I would guess that basketball, baseball, and hockey fans all over the love to see the NBA, MLB, and NHL because they have the best players in the world. People are drawn to the best of anything. Now US soccer fans will get to see the best players and best soccer on a regular basis. I think this will give a big boost to interest in the World Cup as well.
Jaaavvviiiiiierrrrrrrrrrrr Masssschhhhhhherrrrraannnnooooo Oooo ohhhh ooohhh
Sorry Gaffer, I heard that song and I couldn’t help myself. lol
No worries Adam. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw it too.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
i liked it. good promo..
Why the British accent? lol
more importantly, why not =)
I find it nothing short of incredible that this Saturday I’ll have to choose between 3 matches to watch live at 10 AM. Of course, being a Pompey supporter, I won’t have to decide anything, as I already know I’ll be rooting for a loss a bit less embarrassing than the hurt locker that the Gunners threw Everton in. However, just knowing that I’ll have three simultaneous options at times during the season without any of them being pirated makes me a very happy fan of the beautiful game.
And to all my friends who for years said the sport would never catch on in America, I say…shut up, numpties!
i believe you actually have 4-5 options on live TV on saturday. ESPN2 with ManU-Wigan, Sunderland-Blackburn on Setanta Xtra, Arsenal-Portsmouth on Setanta, and ManCity-Wolves on FSC…PLUS Bayern Munich plays on GolTV a half hour before these games start. I only wish I lived in a SportsBook or owned five TV’s for this.
Yes, easy choice for us, but sure wish I had a Directv mix channel showing all five of those options like they are now doing for the Champions League.
Who sings the song in this commercial?
Thx
“Seven Nation Army” – The White Stripes
What rock have you been living under? You haven’t heard of the White Stripes?
i found that song on limewire and youtube but it isnt the same as the one in the commercial. is the commercial the only time they added the chanting? is there a full song with the chanting?
Thanks for the ESPN Promo, Gaffer! Very nice! I’m pumped for the 2009-2010 football season on ESPN!!
if you want to download it in HD go here: http://skpd-hd-football.blogspot.com/
the summer of soccer in america is finally complete.. ive always called us a niche sport in this country. but the infamous UFC is still on PPV, we have arrived. lets see what joe sports fan does with it
Good point about the summer of soccer in American being finally complete. Now there’s the beautiful ride between now and the World Cup next summer. It’s going to be a great 10 months.
Nice to see you back Todd.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
And then it took a hit because Steven Cohen had to quit WSD for the safety of his family. We have no national U.S-produced, U.S.-audience radio phone-in show now.
One step forward, one step back.
I would not be so sure the game tomorrow will be in HD. The schedule on espnmediazone does not have an HD marker for this game while it does have the 8/24 and 8/29 games marked as HD. Not every game has an international HD feed available.
As of 7:30 AM this morning the guide on DirecTV was still not showing the game tomorrow morning. It sure would help exposure if DirecTV and ESPN could get this updated.
TWI doesn’t offer HD for the 10:00 ET Saturday games because these are only shown on tape domestically (except Setanta’s one game in Ireland, but they’ve never broadcast in HD).
Soccer fans surfing their television dial on Saturday morning were surprised to find Chelsea playing Hull City (with Jozy Altidore not suited up) in English Premier League action on ESPN2, which will air one match each Saturday and 12 Monday afternoon games as part of a package of 48 live broadcasts this season.
http://www.clbuzz.com/epl-matches-highlights-2009-2010-epl-highlights-online-links/
wow, that really blows..no HD for Wigan-ManU game tomorrow morning. How sad.
Directv guide now shows Man U v Wigan 10am ESPN2
Yes (finally!), and also the Monday 3pm ESPN2 Liverpool v Aston Villa… According to the ESPN TV Guide on the espn.com, the Monday game (and next Saturday’s match between Chelsea v Burnley ARE BROADCAST IN HD)
ohhhh ah oh oh ohhhohhh, ooooooh ah oh oh ohhohhh, ohhhhh ah oh oh ohhhhohhh
well, all I can say is that this is pretty confusing. HD or non-HD. I guess we shall see when the game starts tomorrow morning but I’ve noticed something.
I guess the red mark”HD” on ESPN’s TV listings does not mean much necause for example right now on ESPN2 there is “NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying” which does not have the HD mark but it is definitely in HD (I’am watching it right now)
Also on my Comcast on screen TV listings guide it says : “HD,Live, Manchester United at Wigan.(soccer)”
So, I’m not sure where Danimal got his information but this match has a good chance of being in HD tomorrow morning.
when espn says hd it means full hd …..tht is full screen like last year’s CL final….when it doesnt …it means that they have two black stripes on the sides saying espn 2…display being much smaller….but the quality would be far superior to the fsc or setanta ones….thts why comcast says hd and att uverse doesnt….so dont worry man u fans …it will be pretty clear….
The game may not be in HD but it should be shown in the 16:9 widescreen like many sporting events from Europe that ESPN covers. For example, Wimbledon and the French Open are broadcast in widescreen but not HD on ESPN. I just hope ESPN doesn’t decide to put up the vertical bars just because the broadcast isn’t HD even if it’s available in 16:9 format.
I’m pretty ESPN’s tennis coverage is close to total HD (if not 100% there). Wimbledon’s world feed made the jump this year.
Most of the time, ESPN and other channels go 4:3 with side bars if there isn’t an HD feed. Probably an issue of cost, and also that, in the U.S., 4:3 is usually the standard definition default for TVs.
why are my posts flagged as spam
as per http://sports.espn.go.com/espntv/espnGuide
tom’ match is not in HD
Barclay’s Premier League – Wigan Athletic vs. Manchester United
but mon’ match is in HD
Barclay’s Premier League – Liverpool vs. Aston Villa HD
Georgie Bingham is going to host the ESPN pre-game show today
announced on WSD yesterday (last show ever of WSD, cohen closing it down)
Georgie!!! sweet!! can’t WAIT to see her is GLORIOUS HD!!
that’s sad. i watched fox football phone-in b/c of steve. i am not watching that show anymore. it’s not the same..
I was never a fan of Cohen as a broadcaster…or of FFF either..they never discuss anything really, they just talk/shout as fast as they can about as many topics as they can fit in to the 2 hours….annoying!!
It could be a great show if they tried something along the lines of football matters…more relaxed, deeper analysis
it was very entertaining
It doesn’t matter whether you enjoyed the show or not (I didn’t). Cohen said some things which probably were dumb (I think so), but the threats and racism he and those around him have been subjected to are simply not justified. The people who claim they are are probably the same time of people who love to blame victims of rape or other crimes claiming they did something to “bring it on themselves”. It’s idiocy, plain and simple.
And I wonder if this might be really bad timing for a country trying to get another World Cup considering FIFA’s support of FARE.
As for FFF… that’s the type of show it is, infotainment, call-in. I do like it, but I have doubts about whether Eric works well in the format. But YES, I do agree that a Football Matters-type show on FSC would be very nice.
ESPN just plugged in what to watch for and mentioned today’s and monday game..
The game is in “HD”…a lot of the graphics were and so was Georgie B and Robbie Mustoe. However, it appears that ESPN Is having problems with the feed and it’s hard to tell if the game is really not produced in HD or if it’s a feed issue.
The “game” is not in HD–the feed is clearly not. All of the HD items are ESPN-added (the studio show, the “LIVE” mark in the upper right corner). As dlink09’s post said, the espn listings site even says it’s not HD. Can’t wait for the HD match Monday, though.
It’s still a big step up from FSC’s picture.
yes, its not full HD…is it what’s termed as “stretched to fit” HD ??
My only complaint is why have they shown the commentators names and the colours of the teams 4 bloody times!!
Updates and goals at half time!!
Can’t complain there
Top notch
It’s not stretched, just widescreen SD. Not too common in the US.
and the hosts are not american
Cross network promos??
ESPN just promoted the upcoming games on Setanta and FSC along with their own!!
Love that! Well done ESPN
one thing though…why do we need 4 updates through the first half!! on who is commentating and the colours of the teams??? a bit much methinks
FSC did the same today morning
Setanta is also doing the same
I really enjoyed the cross-network promos. Makes it so much easier than switching from station to station or around the guide to see what’s going on. Also nice to see some “friendliness” betwixt the stations.
man that lady needs pipe down a bit
It’s better than 20 mins of John Deere commercials at halftime, that’s for certain.
Georgie might need a few more games to get into the flow of things….timing was a little off at the half time show….no problem Georgie, we are with you all the way
I lost count how many times she made a mistake…at least her being loud made up for it. Oh wait…
Still gotta love Georgie Bingham though, especially in HD
FSC are still showing games with a 2 minute delay. The Man City-Wolves match is running behind by a couple minutes. They went to commercial break at 10am. That’s kick off time. When they came back to the match, it was 10.02am. I’m also listening to Soccer Saturday on Sky.com and they are well ahead of the action on FSC.
This has been a quality broadcast from ESPN. Well done.
good job ESPN and good studio team too
I have no problem with ESPN running the bottom line every 10 minutes or 15 minutes given that there is games going on around the league as well as American Sports Fans who just tune in who are watching the game wanting an update on all of the MLB games from last night as well as the exhibition NFL scores from last night. I rather they show the bottom line with score updates from the night before and what is going on currently than losing viewers to ESPN NEWS or more likely than not SportsCenter which is usually on ESPN on Saturday Mornings but was knocked off the air for LLWS coverage. For the anti Bottom Line people at least they didn’t run it throughout the game like I was expecting them to do since they do it for just about every other sporting property that they broadcast.
I was a bit disappointed that they weren’t updating the Bundesliga scores as well as letting fans know they could watch Dortmund/Stuttgart on Deportes since its within the ESPN Family of Networks or even promoting that Deportes has the Galaxy/Fire MLS game this afternoon. Is Beck’s suspended for the red card this weekend as I could see that as a reason not to really go nuts on promoting it but if he is playing I would have pushed Deportes hard as the place to watch the Galaxy game. That said its a work in progress and lets not judge their coverage for another month or so as they are really just getting their feet wet. I thought Georgie and Robbie did just fine with their pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage outside of a few gaffes by Georgie. At the end of the games coverage didn’t it sound like she called the game softball as she melded the two words soccer and football together? I am sure the higher ups want her to call it soccer as to not confuse people but old habits are hard to break.
Can you believe we live in a time and day where 3 different Premiership Games were airing live in the US at the same time as well as 2 Bundesliga Games? This is huge huge progress as the game is finding its footing in the American Market!
The feed looked HD. I saw a coupl of faces with a lot of detail a normal sd feed would not show. I think it was upsacaled and was a SD widescreen feed. Anyways good job ESPN.
couple* up-scaled*
http://www.premierleague.com/page/UKAndIreland/0,,12306,00.html
These games are shown live in the UK and will be available in HD. The rest will be upscaled 16:9 SD
will someone please tell me what song this is in the backround of the commercial? thank you
“Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes. It isn’t their version of it, though – it’s football fans humming the bass line.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
what is the name of that song/chant?
IS there any option to watch all TV live shows for free.. or can we watch all the TV episodes with different category like http://www.tvchannelsfree.com/
Where the hell can i download this song!?!?!??!! YES It is originally by the white stripes…yes it is seven nation army…but where can i find this version with the chanting fans!!!!!! F-in AWESOME!!!!!!