February 02, 2002

The first netcast: of an English Premiereship match was Man United v Liverpool, 22/01/02 via LiverpoolFC.tv (Liverpool scraped it 1-0). For members of the site, the highlights and goals of each game are available to stream or download, and they're moving towards live games in the near future. Is this finally a subscription model that could work on the net? I know I've been happy to pay my 3 pounds a month ...

posted by walrus to soccer at 05:51 PM - 8 comments

I swear to God I would pay a subscription fee if I could just access video of NFL preseason games...

posted by owillis at 08:41 PM on February 02, 2002

NFL preseason games? You are a football nut. :)
MLB has been trying something like this with radio broadcasts; I think it is something like 10 or 15 dollars a season- in typical MLB style, it isn't enough money to actually be useful to MLB but it is enough to discourage the casual fans the sport needs to survive and grow. I used to listen to Marlins radio broadcasts religiously but it wasn't worth paying for, especially once the management said 'we're not going to bother to try to field a team that can win.' I just listen to live streaming mp3s of Hurricanes baseball instead.

posted by tieguy at 10:45 PM on February 02, 2002

Owillis I would too in a second. I'm able to catch the Brown's games usually via satellite at a bar, but I'd love to have a good video of them. Speaking of which - when will the NFL Films stuff be available on DVD? Specifically I want the season highlight films to be released on DVD instead of video. Can you imagine if you could buy decade long box sets of highlights of your favorite teams? I'd sell an arm for some of those.

posted by elsoltano at 02:02 AM on February 03, 2002

I'm able to catch the Brown's games usually via satellite at a bar One of the best reasons for doing this with soccer (sic) in the UK, is that the broadcast rights are split between several digital/satellite concerns, who further split them over several channels. If I want to watch Liverpool games on the box, I have to pay over ten times as much, and I don't even get to see every game, even if I go to a bar where they have all the channels. So the clubs are wisely thinking that they can cater for their own sets of fans and bypass the whole shebang. Nice one! Ok it's not TV quality yet, but it's better than radio. I also get interviews with the players and coaches, last seasons highlights in full, and highlights of classic games from previous seasons. DVD would be something else again ...

posted by walrus at 04:24 AM on February 03, 2002

You can get match audio for free from most UK teams websites. I know my team (rugy) Sracens have a pretty decent package in association with BBC local radio, video I would deffinatly pay maybe even up to £5 a month for. And this is from someone who olny pays £50 a year for his season ticket! Being a Liverpool fan myself I would definatly pay if i was in another country/didn't have cable. But my parents pay for the cable anyway so I get most of the coverqage for 'free'.

posted by nedrichards at 06:38 AM on February 03, 2002

Major League Baseball's streaming audio package is one of the best deals on the Internet -- last season, it was $9.95 for every game played by every team the whole year. They even archive the games, so you can go back and hear some of the most noteworthy events. For example, listen to the Pirates feed of the July 28 game vs. the Astros from the 3-hour mark on.

posted by rcade at 08:04 AM on February 03, 2002

Even if it is a great deal, it's still stupid business. Baseball is still in a position where it should be trying to kiss fan's asses, not squeeze them like lemons. It just isn't popular enough outside of New York, Boston, and Chicago.

posted by tieguy at 10:02 AM on February 03, 2002

I was about to suggest Everton could do the same, but considering my team's performance I suspect the club would have to pay us to watch.

posted by feelinglistless at 05:08 PM on February 03, 2002

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