The Anonymous Widower

How to Show Football on Television

Or rather how not to! This article in The Independent outlines the mess and problems caused by making Ukraine-England Internet only on a Pay-per-View site.

But like the earlier fiasco with ITV-Digital and the Championship and the failure of Setanta, it probably illustrates that there is a price viewers will pay and a price they will not.  And those broadcasters that pay too much will end up going bust.

I have Sky and watch quite a bit of sport on their channels, like cricket, tennis and of course football.  In general it is good value and it sustained me through some of the darker times since my wife died.

I have also subscribed to ESPN to take the extra Premier League matches.  Whether I will continue to take the extra coverage for ever, is open to debate, as I have no interest in American Mickey Mouse sports, like basketball, baseball and American football.

But to return to the Ukraine-England match, that will only be shown over the Internet.  I have watched some football in this way, through the Sky web site.  The quality wasn’t that good and I suspect that here in deepest Suffolk, I would only get a very bad picture.

But in a few years time, this will be the way that many of us will not only watch football, but much of our television.  But it will need much faster broadband and a proper device to put the pictures on a large screen.

I won’t be in England this weekend, but if I was, I’d be listening on BBC Radio Five. When it was pointed out to a pub landlord that it was being broadcast this way, he hadn’t realised it.  But at least it might get a few punters in his pub!  Especially, if he had wi-fi for a few laptops!

October 6, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Computing, Sport | Entertainment, Football, Internet