I’m a college student in the United States attending a school in a small town in Pennsylvania. None of the televisions there have Fox Soccer Channel and there aren’t any nearby bars to go to. ESPN’s coverage of the EPL has greatly improved but it still only covers one to two matches a week. This will not do for me because I’m a passionate fan of Manchester United and I don’t want to miss a single minute of the action.
As a result I signed up for FoxSoccer.tv this past year and have been happy with it overall. The video quality is much better than when it first started and I know there will be taped replays that I can watch at any time of each match aired on FSC which is great. However, there is one major issue I have with the website. When Champions League or FA Cup games are aired, they are either live or recorded to view right after they finish. This is not the case with their coverage of the Premier League. While most matches are aired live on FoxSoccer.tv, some of the crucial matches are shown on tape delay and can’t be seen until 11:59 p.m. ET
In a perfect world, I could just try to not check the score and wait until midnight to watch the match. However, in today’s world of mass communication with television and the Internet, trying to get through the day without knowing the score for that long is quite difficult.
I can’t tell you how many times I have seen or heard the results of matches before watching them. Reasons for this include: accidentally seeing it on the bottom line of ESPN, having friends tell me in person, receiving calls and texts, or by going on Facebook and the result is leaked on my newsfeed. It’s just about impossible to go through a day without having the result of a match spoiled for me.
I’m paying a monthly fee to have this service and while I appreciate it greatly, it needs to improve its coverage of the EPL. Premier League matches should be just like Champions League or FA Cup games in that they should all be shown live or recorded and ready to watch on demand immediately after the match finishes.
In order for fans to get into and appreciate the beautiful game, television coverage of a match should be easy to find and follow. This seems very archaic to me and I feel if they keep this up, they are going to turn off a lot of users from following the EPL on their FoxSoccer.tv website.
Blame the TV business. They’re embargoing the FSC games to build demand for getting FSC on lower tiers of more cable systems. FSC’s coverage of soccer is better for people who like watching more games on TV but ESPN’s coverage is better for people who want to watch more games online. Different business models that don’t favor those who don’t control their choice of TV provider.
I’m a United fan as well and I purchased FoxSoccer.TV and Setanta back in the day so I wouldn’t miss any United games that weren’t televised. But for this season every United game was televised and I didn’t need to watch any of their games online except 1 Champions league game when I was away.
Because of this I have debated about canceling my subscription even though I do like it for watching other games while I watch one on TV.
But the poster above is right. It’s all about the TV rights to these games. I’m not sure Fox can do anything about this.
But I understand where you are coming from as a United fan. Because you don’t have access to FSC you are out of luck because all their games are on that channel and live.
If FoxSoccer.tv did show the games on delay and hour after airing I would seriously consider dropping my cable subscription. The companies should be planning for the future. They need to go straight to their fans through the computer or AppleTV type device.
That really wouldn’t surprise me I suppose. It’s a shame that FSC can’t be as good as ESPN with their internet broadcasts and vice versa for ESPN in regards to TV. If Fox wants to increase the rising market of football, I feel they should make it as convenient as possible for people to watch games on TV and online. Like everything else, I’m sure these TV rights are somehow related to money so I wonder if there is ever going to be a change to EPL matches on the website.
I am starting a group on facebook asking people to boycott faxsoccer.tv until they change their policies delaying these games till the next day. Why should we pay for a premium service if they are going to treat this as a third tier delivery? It is an open group called boycott foxsoccer.tv at http://www.facebook.com/groups/127840603977915/
Join up and voice your opinion!
I think the service is designed to be an alternative to Fox Soccer Plus, not Fox Soccer