There is this old adage, if it’s too good to be true it probably is. EPL fans in the U.S. this week have learned that all to well. Two weeks ago, FoxSoccer.tv was relaunched and for the first time in the history of the U.S. every Premier and Champions League match would be available legally on television or the Internet. A fitting end to this Summer of soccer in this nation.
Getting every single game is a far cry from 1996, when the only EPL action you could get were highlights on the Prime Network. Even in 2003, my first year of following the league on a weekly basis, you could only get five matches a week live and two were on pay per view. I couldn’t fathom a day where you could watch every single Premiership match on Saturday mornings. Now we are in that era, and now you can argue that EPL is on par with the NFL and it’s Sunday Ticket or baseball and it’s MLB.TV. That is, if you can get it.
This world is still skeptical, and I’m still one of skeptics. I don’t like having my credit card number on the Internet. So I got a prepaid VISA debit card, figuring it’s VISA, it would be accepted everywhere. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The small print on the card said, no international purchases allowed. There in lies the problem with FoxSoccer.tv, it’s an international purchase.
When the website changed, so did the payment receipt, to Netbanx based out of Cambridge in the UK. That’s right, an American company, marketing a product for Americans, not allowing certain Americans to buy the service, how ridiculous is that. Before you say, it’s only debit cards, another EPL blog, The Third Half, had the same problem but only worse. Writer Johnathan Starling had the same problem only with a credit card. Also, if your credit card company does allow international purchases, there might be red tape. My bank, Wells Fargo, puts a three percent fee on all international purchases. To make it worse FoxSoccer still does not have a customer service department. With all these facts, it makes you think, what was FOX thinking when they relaunched the site.
I’m sure, Starling and I aren’t the only ones experiencing this problem, (if you are experiencing the same problem, please comment below). Then there is FOX’s handling of this. Jamie Trecker, the man managing the FSC twitter account, started by giving Startings solutions that didn’t work. But it is his tweets that have me scratching my head, no acknowledgement on the problems and actively promoting the service like everybody can get it. Jamie, wake up, some fans can’t get your service. Starling says it best on his blog, regardless of how high or low the percentage of people that would be, just reeks of complete and utter bull.
What also makes me laugh here is, last season in the last three months, FOX offered games online. But, you could pay for it by using Paypal. A lot of us have used Paypal to buy goods and online services, it works well and everybody can buy. If it worked last year, why couldn’t you have done it this year? Not only that, soccer fans are very loyal, why would a company shut out a part of this base?
Also what really gets to me, FOX is shutting out an untapped market of new EPL fans. People who don’t have digital Cable or satellite, that demographic before ESPN got involved probably haven’t seen a game. We have seen the ratings the first weekend of the season, the Monday afternoon match between Manchester United and Newcastle got ratings on par with TBS Sunday afternoon baseball. People want to see this great league, the last thing you want is to restrict access. So on that note, Fox get your act together and let everybody in.
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Yep, I had problems signing up as well. Eventually one of my Credit Cards took.
Overall I’m happy. I like the access to additional games, and I don’t live in an area with easy access to ESPN 3. So once I got past the annoyance of signing up, I’ve been happy.
They are archiving games at a much quicker fashion than previously, and they are showing Ligue 1 games as well. Not too many people may watch that league perhaps, but it’s why I’m paying $$ to Foxsoccer.tv.
i signed up for fox at the end of august of 2010 for the 14 dollar a month package. The first month it took my debit card but the second month it rejected it. I kept trying to put it in manually but to no avail. I emailed them they kept sending me the same email. Absolutely no number to call. I live in USA. I dont know if my card does international transactions. So i am stuck until they find another way to accept my payment. I live in area out side ESPN 3.