The England and USA Games Will Not Be Televised
Are you and England or USA fan? Planning to watch this weekend’s World Cup qualifiers on television? You better start making new plans then.
Team USA is playing away to Honduras, and needs to keep picking up points in order to book a spot in South Africa. But unfortunately the game rights were sold in the USA on a closed circuit television deal, which means bars had to pay big money (I think in the thousands) to screen the game, and so will likely be charging an entry fee for people to come in and watch. According to USSoccer.com’s list of places to see the game, not many bars were keen on that deal.
As most of our English readers will be aware by now, Saturday’s Ukraine vs England World Cup qualifier will not be broadcast on television in the UK. At all. Instead it’s being shown as an internet broadcast only.
Those keen to see the England game can sign up to watch Ukraine vs England here (provided you’re not in a restricted territory) with prices beginning at £4.99 and rising to £11.99 as the game gets closer.
The big questions are: Why and How? Why are two international football matches unavailable to watch on regular television? How did this happen?
The common misconception is that the American and English soccer authorities are to blame. But that’s not really the case. In international games it’s the home team that gets to sell the TV rights. So the Honduran FA sold it to the highest bidder, which happened to be the closed circuit television people.
With the England game, it’s basically Setanta’s fault. The Ukrainian FA had sold the UK rights to Setanta, which then famously folded, and so the game was open for bidding again. But… England had already qualified, making the game much less attractive to bidders. And so online broadcaster Perform stepped in.
101GreatGoals sound semi-optimistic that the England game could represent the start of an online football viewing revolution. I’m not so sure. Public reaction to the way this game is broadcast has not been smiley faces. And the internet broadcast deal is basically the deal of last resort.
(Note: If you’re in North America, the England game is on Setanta USA and Setanta Canada, neither of which folded when Setanta UK did.)
So what can be done? How could the rules be changed to ensure future international games are available on regular television? I’d quite like to see a situation where home teams don’t get to sell the TV rights in the away team’s nation. The Honduran and Ukrainian FAs have no interest in whether US or English fans can see the game easily, they just sell to the highest bidder. So maybe a simple new FIFA rule could mandate that the away team is allowed to sell it’s own TV rights in its own country. Downside is that the smaller home teams would miss out on a payday when they host a team with a lucrative media market.
Tom Dunmore at Pitch Invasion has a similar, but maybe better idea:
A solution could be for confederations to manage rights sales as a bloc and ensure they are sold (or resold) to mainstream broadcasters. This may have a benefit for smaller nations packaged with larger nations, just as collective Premier League rights sales benefit the likes of Bolton and just as UEFA have started centrally selling the Europa League rights, but this would also mean a smaller share for England in UEFA or the U.S. in Concacaf (as well as the frightening thought of Jack Warner handling more money). It would also mean trouble for increasingly lucrative and powerful sports marketing agencies like Kentaro, Soccer United Marketing and Traffic, who typically resell rights to the highest bidder.
If that was put forward, I’d vote for it. Not that we get to vote on such things. We’re just the paying public.
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Comments


what a jip. How much will it be to stream the games online?




wow….money really rules the world….(obviously)…hate to be hondurian fans in the US….cant even watch an important game….




On the plus side, I get my Saturday night back.
On the minus, though… Wow. An entire nation won’t be able to see its country possibly finally qualify for 2010, and all because of selfishness and greed?
I am appalled by this.
Posted from
United States




Mmmmm, the sweet smell of capitalism.
What a farce.




It’s really pathetic. I swear CONCACAF FA’s do it out of partly spite for the US as well, as Mexico did it to ESPN earlier in the summer.
Posted from
United States




Bastards. I’m busy Saturday night anyway but still…bastards.
Posted from
United Kingdom




“It’s really pathetic. I swear CONCACAF FA’s do it out of partly spite for the US as well, as Mexico did it to ESPN earlier in the summer.”
Yup, we hate you. Either that, or the Honduran FA has some silly notion of making money by selling to the highest bidder.




Sure you can watch Team USA on Galavision, for free by the way… but why would you want to watch them play? They’re horrible!
Posted from
United States




By the way you can watch the Under-21 England vs Macedonia game on the FA website for free… streaming live brother… http://www.thefa.com/England/MensUnder-21Team/MatchCentre/2009/EnglandMacedonia/MatchPreviews/Online_broadcast.aspx
Posted from
United States




Why couldn’t ESPN come in and purchase the rights to broadcast it the same way a bar would? Or couldn’t there be some kind of deal between ESPN and USSF to split the bill in situations like this?
I just find it hard to believe that in this world where money can solve anything that there isn’t some kind of solution for US fans.




Maybe Obama can propose another stimulus package which includes ESPN broadcasting the games for free…
On the real though, I’m 100% sure that the games are being shown on Galavision… in Spanish but on TV just the same.
Posted from
United States




http://www.univision.com/content/channel.jhtml?chid=6&schid=1775&secid=10815
Unless “The Musical Parody” refers to the Honduras vs. USA match, I don’t think that’s right.
And I’d be amazed if the entire blogosphere missed the fact that the game is freely available in Spanish.




Jose… you sure about that? I saw a commercial the other day announcing USA vs Costa Rica but come to think of it, nothing about Honduras vs USA… hmmm maybe I was wrong? Could it be? Is it a possibility? Yeah maybe… anyway who cares about Team USA… I’m plucking down $29 dollars to watch Ecuador vs Uruguay, that’s a match that means something!
The CONCACAF makes me want to throw up…
Posted from
United States




anyone know any feeds for tonight?




thanks a low




This is bad news as sports comes as the best entertainment to most of us.


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