[USA] NBC next year (too good to be true?) (+ Spurs v Saints on ESPN2)

[BigShadow]

FFS! Hopefully just teething trouble and it gets smoothed over soon.

 

Can anyone with Directv give an account of how it was for them? I hope they are telling us which Extra time channel will show what with enough warning so I can set the right one to record. Don't want to get up at stinking 7am every Saturday....

 

Thats OK - I'm sure Sky will arrange it so some Saturdays you can get up at 4.30am

[Saint George]

FFS! Hopefully just teething trouble and it gets smoothed over soon.

 

Can anyone with Directv give an account of how it was for them? I hope they are telling us which Extra time channel will show what with enough warning so I can set the right one to record. Don't want to get up at stinking 7am every Saturday....

 

Directv are putting the games up on their guide about a week ahead of time ....Saints v Sunderland is up already, even with the late change from overflow to NBCSN .......If you scroll your guide forward to 8/24/13 you'll see it on channel 220 at 8:55am Central or for you, 6:55 Pacific...Premier League live starts 15 mins before that with the build up.

 

They also still have the game showing on the overflow channel 493 as it was originally....I just put "Premier League" in the smart search and it pulls all the games, previews, highlights, match of the day etc and record everything from there....only have to enter it once....it remembers your searches )

 

Been loving the coverage so far....no more dodgy and crappy streams )

[diggers]

Quality! Thanks for the help, appreciated :-)

[Mystic Force]

Directv, last week at least, on the Premier League extra time channels were reshowing these games 2 or 3 more times after it had finished so if you are watching another game you can tune into one of these to catch another game that was on at the same time. This is so much better than Fox soccer and soccer plus especially as the delayed kickoffs were not in HD on plus. The other issue was I missed one game last year because ESPN didnt show it on TV (and so I could not recorded it) and couldnt watch in on ESPN 360 at that time.

[NY Saint]

NBC has had an impressive start last week with a few teething problems.

 

Was on the road again this weekend, and had my laptop and iphone with me, so I was able to watch multiple games on multiple devices (Saints and Villa), including the Palace game in a cab on my way to another airport. The game showed up on both devices a day or two before Saturday, however the game didn't start playing until a few mins into first half, and there was significant lag between smartphone and laptop by 30 secs or so.

 

The program presentation is simple and doesn't get in the way of the football, and there's none of that AWFUL Fox nonsense with terrible voiceovers/fake glossy graphics etc. Lineker looked exhausted and don't know if he'll be able to maintain essentially hosting both countries.

 

The Saints vs Sunderland game has replaced the Newcastle game on NBC (Altidore's PL debut?) so that will feel like a regular televised game hopefully.

 

The on-demand replays allows for viewing of either half, an interesting touch. I had a lot of screen corruption on the Saints game I tried to watch when I got home on Monday. Otherwise, seemed ok.

 

Quite impressed so far.

[Cascadia Saint]

Did I miss Lineker doing something more? I just saw him introduce match of the day for about minute.

[LVSaint]

Am well happy with what they've done so far. Last week's Sunderland game had recorded just like it said it would (no chopping and changing matches eh Fox), got in after my flight and watched that evening.

The Extra Time time channels via Directv are looking good, with scheduled game for each channel already up on my guide.

 

If my TV was better, I'd really enjoy the HD service they are providing, but it's still very good on my bricklike tv....so much better than FSP's horrible feeds!

 

Now all we need is Fox to renew their Sky Sports News broadcasts which they appear to have forgotten about....instead they show 7 hours of Fox Sports News all night....idiots...

[Cascadia Saint]

Seriously, it's amazing to have all the games at our fingertips like this. What's the catch?

[DanW]

There's no catch. The EPL is now being treated like a major american sport - all the other sports have all their games available to be viewed if you want to watch them. The EPL has it now, too.

 

The catch, I suppose, is that other elements of the american sports are going to start infiltrating the league. For good or bad - take your pick.

 

The first element is probably the complaints seen about the lack of Englishmen in the English Premier League. The fallout from that is also like the major american sports - development of the lesser players falls to either the minor leagues (baseball), foreign leagues (basketball), or college sports (football and basketball). So it's up to the English and what is preferred - amazing players, clubs flush with cash, worldwide influence and marketing, and, obviously, the ability to watch any game you want. Or...revert the game back to the way it was in the 90s and earlier.

 

Something tells me that money will win out. So that's the catch. And it's a catch that I personally love.

[Mystic Force]

The catch is how much my directv bill is. It includes all those extras I do not care about such as NFL ticket.

[LVSaint]

The catch is how much my directv bill is. It includes all those extras I do not care about such as NFL ticket.

 

Your DTV bill should be significantly less. Why are you paying for NFL Sunday ticket? I'm saving almost $25 a month without subscribing to the Fox channels and the quality is that much better now.

Ah, unless you are a new DTV subscriber (which might include free NFL package).....

[offix]

The catch is how much my directv bill is. It includes all those extras I do not care about such as NFL ticket.

 

I switched to DISH TV from DTV. Awesome, a lot cheaper too.

I love being able to watch every Saints EPL match this season (either on TV or on my computer). NBC getting this deal is the best thing we could have wished for.

[Mystic Force]

I had to upgrade my package(extra $15), and there really is no extra channels except H2 that I would watch with the additional channels, to get the NBC sports channel so it does work out to be less than the sports package($13) and fox soccer plus ($15) but the package includes the NFL ticket which explains why it costs so much overall if I am not just thinking of how much the extra is to watch Saints.

[Cascadia Saint]

There's no catch. The EPL is now being treated like a major american sport - all the other sports have all their games available to be viewed if you want to watch them. The EPL has it now, too.

 

The catch, I suppose, is that other elements of the american sports are going to start infiltrating the league. For good or bad - take your pick.

 

The first element is probably the complaints seen about the lack of Englishmen in the English Premier League. The fallout from that is also like the major american sports - development of the lesser players falls to either the minor leagues (baseball), foreign leagues (basketball), or college sports (football and basketball). So it's up to the English and what is preferred - amazing players, clubs flush with cash, worldwide influence and marketing, and, obviously, the ability to watch any game you want. Or...revert the game back to the way it was in the 90s and earlier.

 

Something tells me that money will win out. So that's the catch. And it's a catch that I personally love.

 

I know there's no catch, that's what's so great!

 

It's been really interesting watching English and European 'soccer' gain in popularity over here over the 10 years I've been here. I think to a certain degree, they are hoping if they tell Americans its important then they will believe them.

[diggers]

Any help would be appreciated. The first game I've been at home for (Lauderdale) this season and I settle myself in front of my new xfininty box to enjoy the Norwich game but does it show up? Does it fluk! I spent 75 minutes on the phone to some muppet at Comcast who didn't really understand what the EPL was lest alone Norwich or Southampton, so in the end, with 10 minutes to go I gave up. Not knowing the score I was streaming, when I knew the score it might of been a blessing, but that's not the point. Can anyone save my blood pressure before kick off tomorrow by being me find the game? I'm sure it's me being a twonk. On another note, does anyone know if the England game is going to be replayed on US tvA anywhere? Thanks in advance Diggers x

[Cascadia Saint]

Any help would be appreciated. The first game I've been at home for (Lauderdale) this season and I settle myself in front of my new xfininty box to enjoy the Norwich game but does it show up? Does it fluk! I spent 75 minutes on the phone to some muppet at Comcast who didn't really understand what the EPL was lest alone Norwich or Southampton, so in the end, with 10 minutes to go I gave up. Not knowing the score I was streaming, when I knew the score it might of been a blessing, but that's not the point. Can anyone save my blood pressure before kick off tomorrow by being me find the game? I'm sure it's me being a twonk. On another note, does anyone know if the England game is going to be replayed on US tvA anywhere? Thanks in advance Diggers x

 

Go to on demand, then choose sports and leisure, then premier league. Games should be there at the least just before kickoff. When the game has finished, it's available to watch on demand for a while too. I think I went into more detail somewhere earlier in this thread too...

 

Can't find the England game anywhere though. Dammit.

[LVSaint]

Can't find the England game anywhere though. Dammit.

 

so many outlets now for football - FS1 and 2, BeIn etc, not one could have the foresight to include the Ukraine game...they managed the Moldova one. Bonkers!

Watched it through a pretty decent stream at work though.

 

Diggers - I read somewhere that xfinity/Comcast had not secured all markets for EPL extratime package, could be old news now though.

[LVSaint]

Can't find the England game anywhere though. Dammit.

 

so many outlets now for football - FS1 and 2, BeIn etc, not one could have the foresight to include the Ukraine game...they managed the Moldova one. Bonkers!

Watched it through a pretty decent stream at work though.

 

Diggers - I read somewhere that xfinity/Comcast had not secured all markets for EPL extratime package, could be old news now though.

[Rut]

Ukraine v England was on GolTV - a channel that some providers (including Directv) doesn't carry.

 

Anyone else watching USA v Mexico on ESPN? 0-0 at HT - been a good half though (because it is tense).

[Cascadia Saint]

Yeah, Comcast / xfinity have dropped goltv from my channel selection, apparently replacing it with bein sports, which wasn't showing the game. I watched the itv feed through a VPN in the end.

 

I watched Friday's game on foxsoccer2go, delayed and only available on demand after 5pm, but today's game is nowhere to be seen. And fox soccer channel has gone from my cable box! Channel 800 is now fxx, which i had only heard of because the new season of always sunny is being shown on there.

 

I guess if fox no longer have any rights to games then they can't really do anything else. Foxsoccer2go are still showing the rugby they acquired from the sentanta takeover though.

[Reib80]

Did anyone have a problem with their live feed last week vs Norwich? I went to nbcsports.com/liveextra and it had us listed. It hit 3pm (GMT) and it kept saying there was no link when I clicked on the game. In the end after 10 mins, I went on NBC Sports' twitter feed and got the link from there.

 

I must say though, aside from the inital issue the feed was great. I hooked it up to my main tv and was loving it!

[LVSaint]

Did anyone have a problem with their live feed last week vs Norwich? I went to nbcsports.com/liveextra and it had us listed. It hit 3pm (GMT) and it kept saying there was no link when I clicked on the game. In the end after 10 mins, I went on NBC Sports' twitter feed and got the link from there.

 

I must say though, aside from the inital issue the feed was great. I hooked it up to my main tv and was loving it!

 

I had a problem with the DTV channel. Arses changed the the Extratime feed channel I had set up to record on TV. I woke up at 830am and started the recording only to find it empty. Navigated to the correct channel and watched the last 20 mins. I know now to make sure the night before that all is set up correctly!

[diggers]

Hi SS. I know you were very helpful before. I am starting to think I might have the wrong package or something? The game was definitely not on during the game, but it was available on demand to watch as a reply that evening, not that I waned to after I knew the score.

I called Comcast 10 minutes into the game and they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I read them the NBC sports press release about live coverage of all 320 EPL games but i might as well of been speaking to a Marshian,. actually, I think I was. I'll try again tomorrow. I did follow your instructions to the letter, on demand-sports & leisure -premier league. All that was available was short films about each team.

[Reib80]

Hi SS. I know you were very helpful before. I am starting to think I might have the wrong package or something? The game was definitely not on during the game, but it was available on demand to watch as a reply that evening, not that I waned to after I knew the score.

I called Comcast 10 minutes into the game and they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I read them the NBC sports press release about live coverage of all 320 EPL games but i might as well of been speaking to a Marshian,. actually, I think I was. I'll try again tomorrow. I did follow your instructions to the letter, on demand-sports & leisure -premier league. All that was available was short films about each team.

 

Failing that mate, go to nbcsports.com/liveextra and you'll be able to watch the game online

[Cascadia Saint]

Hi SS. I know you were very helpful before. I am starting to think I might have the wrong package or something? The game was definitely not on during the game, but it was available on demand to watch as a reply that evening, not that I waned to after I knew the score.

I called Comcast 10 minutes into the game and they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I read them the NBC sports press release about live coverage of all 320 EPL games but i might as well of been speaking to a Marshian,. actually, I think I was. I'll try again tomorrow. I did follow your instructions to the letter, on demand-sports & leisure -premier league. All that was available was short films about each team.

 

Well, the fact you have the short films is promising at least...

 

I remember on opening day, the live game didn't appear in the list until about 5-10 minutes before kickoff . So bear that in mind on Sunday. Online definitely works though, as does the iOS app.

[NY Saint]

Had a few problems with the West Ham feed last week. It kept dropping out every 10 seconds and I eventually gave up. Might have been bandwidth restrictions from the hotel but when I switched to 3g it also struggled and crashed.

[Bobbyboy]

Just back in US from visit to the UK, watched the Palace game online (laptop and iPad) and quality was excellent. Impressed so far.

[LVSaint]

It appears that this weekend's game verses Swansea will be the first only available via the online stream (for those with DTV at least). Watched soem of the Everton vs Newcastle game via NBC online at work today and I must say the quality is excellent. Now to find a cable to hook up my laptop to the TV...

[Rut]

It appears that this weekend's game verses Swansea will be the first only available via the online stream (for those with DTV at least).

 

Saints v Swansea is live on TV on Directv on Extra Time. Channel 491 this week.

 

NBC have been good to their word so far. Every game live. It's been bliss...

[LVSaint]

Saints v Swansea is live on TV on Directv on Extra Time. Channel 491 this week.

 

NBC have been good to their word so far. Every game live. It's been bliss...

 

Oh nice, those Extra Time channels tend to chop and change so I'll confirm it late Sat night.

They can shut down the country but they ain't taking our Saints away!

[DanW]

I had to watch the first part of the game on a dodgy firstrowsports stream before I was finally able to get the NBC Live Extra feed to stream (it was my fault for not looking into it sooner). WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!

 

The NBC quality is so so so nice compared to whatever questionable source I've used in the past. Thank you NBC. Thank you thank you.

[Ohio Saint]

Seriously, it's amazing to have all the games at our fingertips like this. What's the catch?

 

This was my thinking. There MUST be a catch!

 

I was so convinced of a catch (Being with TWC) that I never even bothered looking into it as money was very tight a few weeks back................I already had this on my f****** TV!!!!!

 

I'm so kicking myself for what I have missed already, but that is far out-weighed by how happy I am now!!!

[Bobbyboy]

This was my thinking. There MUST be a catch!

I've thought the same. The only thing I can think is that it reminds me of when ITV Digital overpaid for the football league rights, nobody ever watched it and they went under. Not that this will happen here, but I keep telling people here in Louisiana that NBC paid all that money and all the games are live and online and by the way a team called Saints is the best (that goes down well here in Louisiana).. and nobody cares. Nobody cares at all. And my fear is that at the end of the deal NBC will say well, forget that. And then there'll be no football at all over here apart from that stuff with the lines all over the pitch and them throwing it forward and hugging each other.

 

At which point I'll suggest we move back to the UK.

[LVSaint]

I've thought the same. The only thing I can think is that it reminds me of when ITV Digital overpaid for the football league rights, nobody ever watched it and they went under. Not that this will happen here, but I keep telling people here in Louisiana that NBC paid all that money and all the games are live and online and by the way a team called Saints is the best (that goes down well here in Louisiana).. and nobody cares. Nobody cares at all. And my fear is that at the end of the deal NBC will say well, forget that. And then there'll be no football at all over here apart from that stuff with the lines all over the pitch and them throwing it forward and hugging each other.

 

At which point I'll suggest we move back to the UK.

 

Fox will reclaim the rights I'm sure, if NBC throws in the towel - which I most certainly hope they do not!

 

The trade off is that we will get SSN back, which I really miss.

 

On a tangent - I am particularly happy this week as I have the beeb iplayer working flawlessly on my computer. No tricky proxies either.

If not already done so, I suggest every expat download a magical little Firefox plug-in called 'Hola'. this is a geoblock bypass program.

 

Then click this link -

 

http://client.hola.org/be_client_cgi/?hscript=17684e04b03ea212&sites=bbc&utm_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fl.php%3Fu%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fhola.org%2Funblocker%3Fhscript%3D17684e04b03ea212%26sites%3Dbbc%26h%3DVAQFDWuy6AQHPuWZTXRlH0FPaj9bgNGCOcAgnorSthsctTg%26s%3D1&uuid=5f751b29d8e546bc98f1dce041146592

 

This link automatically unlocks the iplayer geoblock. Done. Easy peasy.

 

On another side note - if anyone knows a decent alternative British tv torrent community, please let me know. thebox.bz recently shut down (or moved and kicked the majority of users off). This was a brilliant source of UK programming - and an especially efficient MOTD download source. Sure, MOTD is out there for download elsewhere, but it's nowhere near quick enough to download to watch on the Saturday evening.

[Rut]

It's the same round here. Nobody really knows much (or cares about) the Prem. However you could also say this about a lot of sports. Can't remember the last time I heard someone talk about the NHL here either.

 

The ratings are what counts and at the moment NBC seem quite happy with them (in public anyway).

 

For me it's the timezone that kills it. It's very hard to get people excited about 'the big game' at 10am in the morning. Most bars ain't even open when the games are on so that whole 'down the pub for the game' culture ain't gonna happen in most towns. People are funny - I think a lot of them would get drawn into it if they saw a lot of people watching & enjoying it. This isn't going to happen though. Perhaps the KO times can be changed to suit the US TV market?

[DanW]

People seem to care in NYC. I guess NBC just needs to make their money in certain markets and it'll pay off.

[Dark Munster]

It's the same round here. Nobody really knows much (or cares about) the Prem. However you could also say this about a lot of sports. Can't remember the last time I heard someone talk about the NHL here either.

 

The ratings are what counts and at the moment NBC seem quite happy with them (in public anyway).

 

For me it's the timezone that kills it. It's very hard to get people excited about 'the big game' at 10am in the morning. Most bars ain't even open when the games are on so that whole 'down the pub for the game' culture ain't gonna happen in most towns. People are funny - I think a lot of them would get drawn into it if they saw a lot of people watching & enjoying it. This isn't going to happen though. Perhaps the KO times can be changed to suit the US TV market?

Actually I would say the early start here is an advantage. If BPL matches were later in the day, they would clash with professional lardball, college lardball, ice hockey fighting, pro and college basketball, etc.

[Mystic Force]

People are a little entrenched out here, the time is probably good here because it is mostly on before college football starts, and as there is no professional teams within 3 hours its all college sport. However attempts to engage the locals about soccer largely meets with derision. So it is probably just the few ex-pats like me that is watching it, however as a participation sport it is booming amongst the kids, mainly because of the simplicity of the game in equipment. Hopefully this can lead to an interest in watching too I have toyed with the idea of starting a adult team here but there are currently insufficient people.

[Rut]

I like the NFL but can't get into the College Football. Marching bands and polls to decide who the best teams are. No promotion/relegation and about 40 'cup finals' (bowls) at the end of the season. I just don't get it. Anyone on here live somewhere where one of the big teams play? Have you got into it?

 

Personally I love the time the English football is on over here. Get up at the weekend and watch lives games. Especially with this NBC deal. It's brilliant. As long as somebody out there is watching it then all is good by me...

[Mystic Force]

I think the only reason it is popular is proximity and accesability. You get the people who support the college they attended I guess in away I am the same as that is how I ended up a saint. Teams that are located near profesional sports teams get nowhere near the level of antention that say Iowa do out here, plus you get some geograhic rivalry that franchised teams can't match. I do not watch much college sport, occasionally watch Iowa football (Iowa being my second university) but never basketball they are awful most years. If we got a major league team in say Des Moines you could see the college sports slowly diminish in prominence, but that is not going to happen and traveling else where in the US you can see its not as important outside the midwest and south.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I think the only reason it is popular is proximity and accesability. You get the people who support the college they attended I guess in away I am the same as that is how I ended up a saint. Teams that are located near profesional sports teams get nowhere near the level of antention that say Iowa do out here, plus you get some geograhic rivalry that franchised teams can't match. I do not watch much college sport, occasionally watch Iowa football (Iowa being my second university) but never basketball they are awful most years. If we got a major league team in say Des Moines you could see the college sports slowly diminish in prominence, but that is not going to happen and traveling else where in the US you can see its not as important outside the midwest and south.