On Wednesday night two of the world’s biggest clubs meet in the Champions League.  La Liga giants Real Madrid take on Serie A outfit AC Milan in a game that should really whet the footballing appetite.

The two sides have had contrasting fortunes in both league and cup this season.  While Real Madrid, fresh from their massive summer spending, sit second in La Liga and have won their opening two Champions League games AC Milan have endured a difficult start.  The San Siro side were beaten by Swiss minnows FC Zurich in their last European tie and are way off the pace in the Serie A title race, indeed their title challenge may already be over.

Milan boss Leonardo is under serious pressure despite the board voicing their support for him.  A game against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu is perhaps not what he needs right now, but then again if they can rock the boat and get a result it may restore his reputation somewhat.

The Rossonerri have plenty of talent in their ranks despite their lowly league position.  Former Real Madrid striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar will line up against his former employers and the Dutchman will have a point to prove.  He didn’t get much of a chance at Real and was sold after just one season so I’m sure he’ll be eager to show the Spanish giants what they’re missing.  Former Barcelona star Ronaldinho is having a tough time at the moment and may not even be involved but if he is expect him to get a frosty reception on his return to Spain.

Real will go into this one heavy favourites and it is little doubt considering the talent they acquired over the summer.  It will be the first time Kaka will line up against his old club after his mega-money move in the summer and it will be intriguing to see how he performs against his former employers.  Cristiano Ronaldo will play no part after suffering an injury in Real’s last Champions League outing, which will surely come as a bonus to the visiting Italians.

Real will go into this game eager for victory as they chase the Champions League title, a competition they haven’t won since 2002.  Midfielder Xabi Alonso confirmed Los Galacticos see this as their priority for the season.

He said:  “The Champions League is the primary objective for Real Madrid this season,

“The title will not be easy though as the competition is very open.

“We know the race will be hard because there are many strong clubs from England and Italy.

“But to win the trophy would be spectacular for us.”

The final of this season’s competition will be held at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and Alonso admits it would be a special moment to secure Europe’s top prize on home soil.

He added:  “The attraction to play the final at home is enormous but I do not believe it brings greater pressure.

“For clubs like Madrid we are obliged to fight on all fronts each season.”

When clubs like AC Milan and Real Madrid are drawn together in the European fixtures they really are games to tune in to.  Sometimes the hype outweighs the occasion but this is still an important fixture for both clubs.  AC Milan saw off Roma on Sunday and sometimes that kind of result is what a team in crisis needs to pick themselves up.  Make no mistake, Milan are a massive club and their start to the season should be considered abysmal by their high standards.  After seeing off Roma they have restored some pride for themselves and their supporters and by denying Real Madrid victory or taking all three points themselves Leonardo and his squad could breath a little easier still.  For Real it is a chance to demonstrate their power to the Italian audience and a wider European market. Their league performances may have been impressive so far but when AC Milan and Real Madrid meet the eyes of the footballing world focus on them and it is a great chance for the likes of Kaka and Benzema to showcase their talents.

Written by Gareth Freeman, a sports writer promoting Irish racing betting and Champions League betting for Betfair.

Good news for Cox Cable customers in Fairfax and Fredericksburg, Virginia.

You now have access to Setanta Sports for a monthly fee of $12.99. For more information about the deals, please contact the Fairfax or Fredericksburg offices for Cox Cable.

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.

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.

As of August 1, GolTV – the 24/7 soccer network – has been removed from DISH Network due to a contract dispute.

According to GolTV, “this occurs despite efforts to continue GolTV’s availability to Dish customers.” DISH Network, in retort, inserted this message when you hit the INFO button where GolTV’s channel used to be: “GolTV has removed this channel after asking for unreasonable terms to renew the contract and we’re working to solve the problem.”

In the meantime, DISH Network is offering free previews of both Setanta Sports and Fox Sports Espanol to its customers. However, even if DISH Network customers subscribed to Setanta and Fox Sports Espanol, that won’t replace the void that’s left with GolTV gone because GolTV has exclusive license rights in the United States to La Liga and Bundesliga, as well as many 2010 World Cup qualifiers and this weekend’s Emirates Cup featuring Real Madrid, Hamburg, Juventus and Arsenal.

For DISH Network, the decision to remove GolTV is idiotic. Hopefully this a short-term disagreement between GolTV and DISH Network that will be resolved soon, but the timing couldn’t be worse and soccer fans will want to make a decision soon whether to leave DISH Network before the new seasons begin. My gut instinct says that this issue won’t be resolved soon especially when GolTV tells readers on its homepage that “You can find GolTV on our current distribution partners,” which includes DirecTV.

If you love GolTV, my recommendation would be to simply cancel your DISH Network subscription and move to DirecTV where you get GolTV there instead. If you’re upset about the situtation, vote with your dollars by leaving DISH but don’t forget to send them an e-mail too to let them know why you’re cancelling and moving to their biggest competitor.

DISH Network can be contacted here.

Setanta Sports North America sent an email to its email subscribers on June 24 regarding NexTV, the newest IPTV network that offers Setanta Sports.

The message reads “Setanta Sports and NexTV would like to assure our customers that we are committed to providing an excellent product paired with excellent service. NexTV is an IPTV platform and is owned by Ethnic Channels Group, a premier ethnic television provider. They are completely unrelated to ITVN. If you are still being billed by ITVN, please notify your credit card company immediately as this is a fraudulent charge. ITVN has been defunct for several months and should not be charging for service.”

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the curse of ITVN has struck again and that it can be inferred that the number of people subscribing to NexTV for Setanta Sports service is much lower than anticipated. This is completely understandable though since so many customers got burned by ITVN because of the credit card charges as well as poor service and reliability.

It’s going to be extremely difficult for IPTV companies to sell Setanta Sports. ITVN has so ruined people’s first impressions of the technology that it’s easy to see why soccer fans would be reluctant to sign up for NexTV.

For those soccer fans in the United States who don’t have DirecTV or DISH Network but who want Setanta Sports, the choices are Verizon FiOS, NexTV, Gek TV and Setanta Broadband. If anything, Setanta is competing with its partners with its Setanta Broadband service. No numbers are publicly available but I wouldn’t be surprised if more people are signing up for Setanta Broadband than Setanta on NexTV and Gek TV combined.

BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting) has announced that its subscriber base in the United Kingdom has now grown to 8.9 million as of March 2008. Sky is now on track to hit 10 million subscribers by 2010.

Setanta Sports, meanwhile, has approximately 3 million subscribers in the UK.

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.

In a recent episode of the EPL Talk Podcast, Setanta Sports executive Shane O’Rourke announced that the 24/7 soccer network would be available via IPTV provider NexTV in the near future. Well, the future is now. You can order Setanta Sports for $14.99 per month, but you’ll need to also either rent or purchase the set-top box.

If you’d like more information, feel free to contact NexTV directly via email at setanta@getnextv.com.

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