ESPN2 Abanding La Liga

[Ronaldinho]

I've just heard that ESPN2 will not be showing Spanish football this season.

Granted, it was tape delayed and sporatic, but it was better than nothing.

I'd just like to encourage everyone to go to
http://espn.go.com/sitetools/s/contact/index.html
and let the network know how you feel about this decision.

Thanks.

-R

[FANTA]

espn sucks !

i don't even get la liga, only serie a. 2 live games* a week and a one hour hilite show during the middle of the week.


*2 live games if i'm lucky. sometimes they'll say that the game is on, and then show a delayed telecast 6 hours later. the coverage of the last milan derby was a disgrace, and i'm not talking about the game. i woke up at 4:30 in the morning (thats when it said it would be showing) to watch it LIVE, but they decided to show a program on fishing instead. the game finally started at 3pm in the afternoon !

the commentators are complete idiots as well. usually its some chump that does the NBA commentary and this irish guy.

what a joke !

[Omar]

Fanta, is that ESPN or ESPN2? Is ESPN the same in Australia and the U.S.?

I recommend getting Dish 500 from Dish Network plus RAI International. That way, you will have:

ESPN2: Shows Champions' League matches from what I know.

Fox Sports World: Shows 1-2 Serie A matches per week and shows plenty of English, Dutch, German football, WC Qualifiers, and Under-21/23 matches.

RAI International: Despite the fact that the majority of the time Italian movies, news, etc. are shown, it will show 2-3 Italian matches a week as well as a highlights show directly after the matches so that you can watch a bit of all the teams to see how they did in that round of play. RAI will also show UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia play! :thumbsup:

Galavision and Univision: Show all the Copa America matches (just finished watching Mexico/Uruguay) and a lot of Mexican league football.

Without a dish or digital cable here in the U.S., all one can watch is MLS on "Super Soccer Saturday" (?) and Guatemalan league highlights on Telemundo, the Mexican channel (although there is two min. of Serie A). :D

[FANTA]

how'd you know i was in australia ? :)

i'm talking about espn, and have no idea if it's the same as in the US. they also show CL matches as well which is good.

fox sports will require me getting a whole new cable provider - i thought they only had EPL ?

RAI, i could get that. wasen't aware they showed games. thought it was just movies and news.

galavision and univision, :confused:

i may consider getting RAI then :thumbsup:

[Omar]

Originally posted by Fantasista
how'd you know i was in australia ? :)

I remember you saying something about Australia earlier. :)


fox sports will require me getting a whole new cable provider - i thought they only had EPL ?

Well there is such thing as Fox Sports Net which I think is only in the US and has a weekly EPL show, but Fox Sports World show a lot of world football (I forgot to mention Argentine) including Serie A.

galavision and univision, :confused:

Mexican channels. :) I believe they have exclusive rights to the World Cup in the US, but other than that and the Copa America I won't be watching either much. Concerning the World Cup, I heard that Australian coverage will be very poor - so poor that if Australia do qualify and do go past the first stage, there will be no coverage past that. :confused:

[FANTA]

Originally posted by Omar
Concerning the World Cup, I heard that Australian coverage will be very poor - so poor that if Australia do qualify and do go past the first stage, there will be no coverage past that. :confused:

!!!


theres a channel we have here called SBS (special broadcasting service [i think]) that SHOULD telecast the WC. they usually do the big soccer events, like CL final or uefa cup final, and in '98 they had the WC. but they did not have euro2000 (FOX had it :mad: ). i would expect them to have the WC but wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. it's all about murdoch and his $$$ trying to take over soccer.

looks like im gonna be watching the WC in the pubs next year :(

[Mihajloviç]

Originally posted by Omar
I remember you saying something about Australia earlier. :)


Sure there Omar ... why don't you admit it, you stalker ? :D

Fanta, how else would he know that Australia's WC coverage is going to be very poor ?

:ronaldo:

[Ronaldinho]

A few updates.

ESPN2 will not be showing La Liga games, but Fox Sports World might pick them up.

The Spanish language rights for the WC in the US are covered, but the english-language rights are still open. The company that owns them is asking more than anyone's likely to pay given the difficulty in showing games live. Peopel suspect that FIFA will pressure them to lower the asking price--FIFA doesn't want the games shown only in Spanish here.