As of October 15, 2008, DirecTV customers who subscribe to Setanta Sports will find Setanta Xtra on channel 622. The main Setanta Sports channel will continue to remain on channel 621.

The change was made by DirecTV to better organize its channels.

An earlier post on this blog about FSC moving on DirecTV prompted a comment today:

Tough1 // Aug 9, 2008 at 1:59 am
Could this be a possible lead in for FSC HD? Channel 617 and 617 have been cleared. Maybe there is a football god.

Well, don’t go getting baptized yet.

While HD is coming eventually, it’s safe to say that FSC, which really has three homes — L.A. for admin, Winnipeg for the Report and Europe for most of its content, will have to go through more hoops than a normal network to make the move to HD.

Also, remember that while much of FSC’s matches come from Sky, the timetable for Europe to switch to all digital lasts until 2012.

So while it’s great to watch matches in HD (I actually missed the Community Shield for the U.S. Netherlands match), it’s going to be years, not months, before we get all of our football in high-def.

An earlier post on this blog about FSC moving on DirecTV prompted a comment today:

Tough1 // Aug 9, 2008 at 1:59 am
Could this be a possible lead in for FSC HD? Channel 617 and 617 have been cleared. Maybe there is a football god.

Well, don’t go getting baptized yet.

While HD is coming eventually, it’s safe to say that FSC, which really has three homes — L.A. for admin, Winnipeg for the Report and Europe for most of its content, will have to go through more hoops than a normal network to make the move to HD.

Also, remember that while much of FSC’s matches come from Sky, the timetable for Europe to switch to all digital lasts until 2012.

So while it’s great to watch matches in HD (I actually missed the Community Shield for the U.S. Netherlands match), it’s going to be years, not months, before we get all of our football in high-def.

The Spanish Supercopa, which matches the winner of La Liga against the winner of the Copa del Rey in a home and home series, is heading to FSC for the first time.

The matchup pits Real Madrid against Valencia on Aug. 17 and 24 at 4 p.m. EDT. The first leg is at Valencia, with the return at the Bernabeu.

This is a nice pickup for FSC, as they really could stand to expand beyond England. The Serie A matches last season were a nice addition, and while France isn’t the best in Europe for club matches, it’s always nice to have more.

Considering the battle between Dish Network and GolTV, which owns the rights to La Liga in the U.S., this provides a nice little bonus for those 13 million households.

Now, if only we could get games in HD…

I got a nice little treat today while surfing the channels on Dish Network. Sure, I don’t have GolTV anymore (although I do now have Fox Sports en Espanol, so it’s not like I’m totally without soccer on channel 407), but now I have 24 hours a day of Olympic soccer.
As part of the 10 billion hours of coverage by the Peacock net here in the U.S., there is a 24-hour soccer channel in HD. It’s ONLY in HD, so if you’re old-school, you’re out of luck. When there isn’t a game live, there are highlights of qualifiers, and Dish says there will be rebroadcasts throughout the day.

The Olympic Soccer channel is on channel 98 or 367, depending on your system. So far, it’s been showing the women’s qualifying rounds, including the U.S. women vs. Norway (yeah, nice result).Over on DirecTV, instead of having dedicated channels for soccer and basketball, they’re putting events, including all gold-medal games, on demand. I don’t know what the timeframe will be for getting a game online, but it should be interesting to watch.
Comcast originally was planning to offer the Olympic Soccer channel to its customers, but it appears that it will only be available to its highest-tier customers. If you know any different, please let me know!
Cable customers, what are you getting for Olympic soccer? Sure, it’s not the Premier League, but it should be fun to watch until the big boys start again next week!
UPDATE: Comcast nationally did sign a deal with NBC, according to a network statement, but it is up to individual Comcast systems to launch the channels. So if you’re not getting Olympic soccer, call your Comcast system! Also, it’s confirmed that Cablevision does NOT have the channels. 

Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) has announced that it’ll be changing its DirecTV channel number. Instead of channel 613, it’ll be moving to 619 as of June 18.

As we look toward Euro 2008 on mostly main-tier channels (with the exception of games on ESPN Classic), I’m sure most people are giddy about the idea of seeing the matches live and in HD (again, with the exception of games on ESPN Classic).

But it got me to thinking: What is the breaking point for finding soccer on my dish? 

For instance, I refuse to pay for the Copa Libertadores ($299) package. I also used to refuse to pay for the FA Cup final ($24.99 on Dish, TBA on DirecTV). I held off with Setanta until it became clear that in my part of the U.S., they had the best games in the EPL consistently.

But would you pay $9.99 for RAI International to see Serie A matches live and in Italian? Coppa Italia? How about the Bundesliga’s home network in Germany for $9.99? Such are the decisions a dish owner has to make.

A few years ago, I paid the money for the Major League Baseball package when it was available on Dish. I loved it, and when it went away, I spent the $7.99 a month for the “Superstation Package” to see the occasional Red Sox, Mets or Dodgers game (only to hear Vin Scully). But I dropped it when I added HD because my bill was north of $100 a month.

So I ask you, readers, how much is too much? Both in terms of cost and in terms of quantity. $100 a month? $150 a month? Are FSC and ESPN enough? Would you die without GolTV? Or do you need soccer 24/7 from every country in the world? Let me know. And by the way, I would pay $10 a month JUST to get old reruns of “Soccer Made in Germany.” Maybe that will be part of the next package. 

Well, I do pay for Dish Network, Setanta and the tier with GolTV and FSC.

So I guess I pay a lot. 

My name’s Ian. I’m the new contributor over here at Soccer on Dish. In the coming days, weeks and months, I’ll be talking a lot about what’s on, what’s not and how it’s broadcast over the space-waves.

A little history: I’ve had Dish since 1999. I used to buy the Premier League package religiously. I finally broke down and got Setanta just a few months ago. I watch on a 50-inch Samsung DLP machine that makes me yearn for Man U games in HD. I’ll also post about ESPN and the family of networks and how they take on Euro 2008. This should be fun.

As a starter, I want to ask for help: Have you seen the weekly Euro 2008 preview show that ESPN is producing on Deportes? If so, let me know what you think. Deportes is not available on my tier of Dish (only on Dish latino). it should be, but I know the money isn’t there to make it more wide-spread. Oh well, if you see it, pass it along.

For more about what I think, check out my first post over at EPL Talk. And watch for me. And tell me what you want to see and hear.

Soccer On Dish brings you the latest news about soccer coverage on satellite dishes. Expect to read articles and insight about DirecTV, DISH Network, IPTV and other satellite and IPTV carriers around North America and the world.

If you have story ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact me at thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com