[karlhenri]

Having been teased with the Word Cup and Olympic soccer coverage in HD, I am wondering when Fox Soccer Channel and Gol TV might go in HD. I think I have read somewhere that getting live soccer matches from Europe is not about to happen anytime soon. What with the equipment to be purchased, the satellite bandwidth etc.

What are we looking at? 2010? Sooner? Later? Anyone knows anything?


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Good soccer in HD is the most beautiful thing there is

 

[dcowboy7]

gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal !!

 

[juventuz]

There were rumors that FSC was looking at going HD in 2009, but those have died off a bit. It sure would be nice to watch Serie A games in HD, as well as some EPL games.

 

[markp]

Having been teased with the Word Cup and Olympic soccer coverage in HD, I am wondering when Fox Soccer Channel and Gol TV might go in HD. I think I have read somewhere that getting live soccer matches from Europe is not about to happen anytime soon. What with the equipment to be purchased, the satellite bandwidth etc.

What are we looking at? 2010? Sooner? Later? Anyone knows anything?

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Good soccer in HD is the most beautiful thing there is

I'd love to see it as well.

 

[jefbal99]

There was a rumor floating around BigSoccer and other blogs about ESPN turning ESPN Classic into ESPN 3 with its major coverage being soccer. The EPL rights are up for rebid in 2009 and ESPN would make a major push for that contract, then sub out certain games to FSC and Setanta.

linky

ESPN 3 would have HD from the start and push the beautiful game in the US.

As for getting the feeds, one of the canadian sports stations (The Score, i think) shows at least one EPL game in HD per week.

 

[karlhenri]

There was a rumor floating around BigSoccer and other blogs about ESPN turning ESPN Classic into ESPN 3 with its major coverage being soccer. The EPL rights are up for rebid in 2009 and ESPN would make a major push for that contract, then sub out certain games to FSC and Setanta.

linky

ESPN 3 would have HD from the start and push the beautiful game in the US.

As for getting the feeds, one of the canadian sports stations (The Score, i think) shows at least one EPL game in HD per week.

I also read somewhere that one of the Voom Channels (WorldSports?) was carrying one La Liga game in HD each week as a sublet from GolTV? Wasn't DirecTV interested in getting the Voom channels?

 

[jefbal99]

I also read somewhere that one of the Voom Channels (WorldSports?) was carrying one La Liga game in HD each week as a sublet from GolTV? Wasn't DirecTV interested in getting the Voom channels?

Not sure if it was a sublet from GolTV, but WorldSport does carry one La Liga game a week. Currently Voom is only available on Cablevision in the NYC area. I never heard anything about DirecTV wanting Voom

 

[karlhenri]

I never heard anything about DirecTV wanting Voom

Here are a couple links.

From our discussion board:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=135324

and from the Rocky Mountain News

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/05/liberty-media-open-to-buying-rainbow-media-tv/

 

[kal915]

I also read somewhere that one of the Voom Channels (WorldSports?) was carrying one La Liga game in HD each week as a sublet from GolTV? Wasn't DirecTV interested in getting the Voom channels?

yeah, but the PQ and the commentators left A LOT to be desired

 

[karlhenri]

yeah, but the PQ and the commentators left A LOT to be desired

Can you say more about that?

 

[GutBomb]

yeah, but the PQ and the commentators left A LOT to be desired

It's all subjective I guess but I found the PQ outstanding and the commentary was excellent. Extremely knowledgable brit that ate, breathed, and slept spanish soccer.

 

[kal915]

It's all subjective I guess but I found the PQ outstanding and the commentary was excellent. Extremely knowledgable brit that ate, breathed, and slept spanish soccer.

The PQ was better than SD, but if you compared it to the matches on ESPN2, let alone the Olympics, then you'd see that it was inferior

 

[bgilga]

I think ESPN3 would be a great idea. They could really make it big in international sports programming. The EPL, Aussie Football, Russian Hockey and Japaneese Baseball. That might not be a bad litle channel. It would have to have the EPL to really gey going, but I would watch it alot.

 

[karlhenri]

I think ESPN3 would be a great idea. They could really make it big in international sports programming. The EPL, Aussie Football, Russian Hockey and Japaneese Baseball. That might not be a bad litle channel. It would have to have the EPL to really gey going, but I would watch it alot.

I agree.

There's got to be more demand for intenational sports than ESPN and the other sports outfits are figuring. Quite often, I see ESPn timidly putting a top Champions League match on the Deuce when Poker is playing on the main ESPN.

There is a Chevy's restaurant near where I work, and every Champions League game attracts a large crowd at an hour that's normally dead in restaurants.

I am also not sure why DireCTV doen't put ESPn Deportes on the main package? I have no problem watching soccer in foreign language. I have watched so many Serie A games on Ny25 that I almost speak Italian by now.

 

[FCBarca]

Agreed...ESPN, I mean, come on...It's not like they have any pulse on what soccer/football coverage should be in the first place...1 or 2 matches during the stages in CL?...Crazy.

But the lack of HD coverage is pretty disappointing when I can catch poker in HD :nono2:

As it stands, I think the only realistic coverage of HD for football is going to be through either ESPN Deportes or simply through satellite...Cable operators are simply not going to offer it in this country...Just a reality of viewership I guess

 

[dpfaunts]

We'll keep waiting... the sad thing is even on ESPN2 last night, the US qualifier was not HD.

 

[dgordo]

We'll keep waiting... the sad thing is even on ESPN2 last night, the US qualifier was not HD.

Which is strange because I was at the game and espn was using HD cameras and I saw the trio video truck there.

 

[Ira Lacher]

Is one of the challenges that the rest of the world has a different HD standard than the U.S. and any HD telecasts originating from their equipment would be incompatible with U.S. sets?

 

[tkrandall]

I think ESPN3 would be a great idea.

so when do we get ESPN8 "The Ocho"?

 

[jazzyjez]

Is one of the challenges that the rest of the world has a different HD standard than the U.S. and any HD telecasts originating from their equipment would be incompatible with U.S. sets?

Not a problem! You're correct that many other countries have a different standard, e.g. 1080i/50 instead of 1080i/60 used here - but the conversion seems to give pretty impressive results.
Most of the Beijing Olympics was converted and I don't believe anyone noticed. We also had pretty stunning picture quality from the UEFA football/soccer matches shown on ESPN2-HD and ABC-HD this past June - that was converted too.