Soccer On Dish

So we survived the first day of the EPL season, yes? For those of you who missed it, The Gaffer held a liveblog over at EPL Talk for the first day of the season. I was a part of it for a while, until my son fell and we spent a nice afternoon at the emergency room (he’s OK. no breaks. just sore).

The up-side to my absence is that I got to watch the matches on DVR in the evening, without the thrill of it being live, but also without the in-the-moment craziness. With that, here are my thoughts on the day:

– Hull City was the story of the day. They played hard, the supporters were loud, and the game looked great on TV.

– Fox Soccer Channel’s signal gets worse and worse. I don’t understand it, but I am frustrated by it. I watched at least a few seconds of all every FSC games on different TVs (my 50-inch DLP, a 32-inch tube TV and a 20-inch tube TV), and even on the cheap small TV, their games just look like they’ve been run through a slight Photoshop filter. Meanwhile, Setanta Sports’ broadcast looked better than ever.

– I’m not an FSC basher, and I disagree with my blogmate in that I thought Christian Miles and Warren Barton were quite good for a first-day broadcast. They were leagues better than last season’s atrocity. The difference between FSC and Setanta in tone is one of confidence (Setanta) vs. a need to broaden the audience (FSC). Fox has to sell their network, and there is a move to try to get the network into a lower tier of cable and satellite programming instead of up in the high end. The more polished and professional they seem, the theory goes, the more they deserve big-boy treatment.

– Another Setanta advantage is the lack of halftime commercials. There are some, yes, but much of the halftime break is filled with a personality feature or that soothing Setanta music or — best of all — sideline reports. FSC is hamstrung by its need to pay for itself with halftime ads. It’s a fact of life that the pay service doesn’t have to deal with.

– My one beef with Setanta has always been that they show in-game scores from other grounds. I know that some of this is meant to screw over FSC or whoever they are competing with, and I only noticed one update all day yesterday, but in the days of DVR and watching other games later on “tape,” I hate knowing the scores before I watch the game. I don’t look at soccer Web sites on game days until I have watched every game I want, but I have to hide my eyes on Setanta sometimes, and with little or no warning. If they included a sound like CBS did during the NCAA tournament or like ESPN does with its crawl, I could deal with it. Instead, I have to stay on constant alert. This happened A LOT on the final day of the season, and I hope it happens less this season, but it will always bother me.

– Oh, last thoughts: No way does Liverpool challenge for the title if it plays like that. Spurs either. And Fulham is going to go down. Book it now.

All in all, it was a great first day, even if I didn’t get to enjoy most of it live. Tell me what you thought. And enjoy Man U and Chelsea this morning.

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