I get this question all the time so I thought I’d do a standing page just to explain the options that us Yanks have to catch Arsenal (or any other EPL, FA Cup, Champions League, or Carling Cup game for that matter) on the “telly.”
English Premier League matches
Two channels currently* carry EPL matches; Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta.
Fox Soccer Channel usually plays 2 live matches and one replay on Saturday and one live match on Sunday.
Setanta carries all the other matches on one of their three channels.
Both of these channels should be available through the multitude of Dish networks, though my calculations show a pretty hefty premium to get both channels. Setanta in particular is an “ala carte” channel and you will have to pay at least $15 extra per month to get it.
This gets complicated if you have cable television because Setanta is not available via cable… Well, sorta. Fox Soccer Channel should be one of the options for those of us who have digital cable. It’s usually in the “most expensive” package. To get Setanta, you’ll have to subscribe to their broadband service. Their broadband service has two tiers “Monthly + Pay per view” and “$150 a year.” If all you care about is EPL matches then the monthly service will do you just fine but very few of us only care about the EPL. Which means you’ll have to make a choice: $10 PPV for a random number of games or the whole broadband package for $150.
I estimate that Arsenal fans can see about 40% of the EPL matches live if they just have Fox Soccer Channel. For Middlesbrough supporters that number would go down to about 10%. If you want to see the other matches, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and buy Setanta.
OR!
Find a pub near you that carries Setanta Premium. The link there is to a venue finder. Use it to get a listing of the closest places that carry Setanta Premium.
Champions League
The early CL season matches are almost exclusively on Setanta whereas the later matches are split between ESPN 2 and Setanta. ESPN choses which matches it wants to play first and those go on it’s live broadcast. It then shuttles the other match over to ESPN Classic — 2 hours after the match has been played.
So, again, if you want/need to see all the CL matches live, you’ll either need to buy the Setanta package (all Champions League matches are PPV on Setanta by the way) or find a pub that has Setanta Premium.
FA Cup
You starting to see a pattern yet? Yes, everything is on Setanta and no tournament is this more true than the FA Cup.
FA Cup matches on Fox Soccer Channel are about as common as a virgin at a Rolling Stones concert. To put the screws to you, all the best FA Cup matches are on Setanta PPV. And to shit all over you, the semi-finals and finals are exclusively on Setanta and cost extra to watch.
If you’re thinking about going to a venue to watch the FA Cup finals or semi-finals, be prepared: there’s a cover charge that Setanta is forcing your publican to collect at the door. I think in 2008, the finals are supposed to cost $25.
League Cup (aka Carling Cup, etc)
These matches are kinda difficult to see live but any that are shown are evenly split between FSC and Setanta.
This year’s final was on Setanta.
Closing thoughts
Americans are very, very lucky in terms of live football on the telly. If you follow a big team like Arsenal, you can literally see every match live on one of three channels. Most English fans have to go down to the pub to watch the match and that’s if it’s a friendly pub and on one of two channels. In fact, this year (2007/08) I have seen all but 2 matches in all competitions live. I have accomplished this by having Fox Soccer Channel at home and a friendly pub who carries Setanta Premium near by.
You’ll probably have a different experience than I have had. Email me. I’d love to fill in the gaps.
Cheers
-Tim
*ESPN bid for the rights to show some EPL matches in Europe but no deal has been set to show those matches in America.
Not sure if this applies, but channelsurfing.net and myp2p.eu stream almost every game (probably from these feeds) so if you need to catch a specific game, hook up your computer streaming the game to a TV (my TV has a DVI input).
(In full disclosure, I have Fox Soccer Channel, no access to Setanta, and watched every Champions League game I could via ESPN2 and ESPN Classic.)
I watch the same way Joe does…using P2P networks. Able to catch every game on there. I think I heard that ESPN are going to buy the rights to the Premiership games in 3 years, so the coverage then could be absolutely outstanding! *Fingers Crossed* PS mate, fancy a link exchange? Let me know if you want to.
http://arsenole.com
JUST can’t fathom this obsession with playing players out of position.
Arsene has described Alex Song as many things in the past and if we’re blunt, not everyone has agreed with him.
Just a month ago the boss said: “He is a good centre back and he is a good central midfielder.”
Not even Arsene had identified him as a right-back. Until Saturday that is.
Resting Theo, resting Vela and not repeating Song, Cesc and Denilson all appeared to matter more than playing Alex Song completely out of position at right-back.
And what a surprise, nine minutes in and we were one down to a goal down our right. Song was nowhere to be seen, Kolo left his man and Denilson was far too sluggish getting back.
At times poor old Song was operating almost in slow motion, such was his unfamiliarity with the role.
We were frankly pretty awful before the break. Never had the gigantic cock-up that is our central midfield been more glaring. Denilson was just weak and Cesc with nobody who could complement his skills in any way whatsoever.
He did manage one beautiful long ball that RVP took down perfectly, but his shot was just off the ground and decently saved by Howard.
You will have read in many reports that Everton almost scored when they had one cleared off the line. I think that a slight exaggeration: there was never any danger of Gael Clichy not chesting it away before clearing.
But generally speaking we were woeful. Apart from one nice run and a good header back from a Song cross, Nasri was very quiet. So too was Comrade on the right, while RVP was hardly firing and Adebayor’s contribution was summed up by the booking he got for diving.
From the other end of the ground it looked embarrassing frankly. A fair few Gooners actually applauded the yellow card. Regular readers will know I’m no Adebayor basher, but frankly, he was pretty poor all through the game.
At the back Silvestre may have been ever so slightly sluggish for the goal but was generally impressing and attacked far more in the air than Gallas and Kolo ever do. Talking of Kolo, he picked up an early injury that got steadily worse until he could barely walk.
Forget JT. This was KT soldiering on when for all the world it looked like he should be taken off. I couldn’t help thinking that if Arsene was so worried about Tuesday that he thought it worth resting Theo, then surely he had to take Kolo off asap before he worsened whatever damage there was.
It was also abundantly clear that reorganising would see Song shift to centre back, Comrade go to right back and Walcott go right wing, in a move that would thankfully leave nobody woefully out of position.
You have no doubt read the reports that identified Theo’s introduction as the solitary reason for our second half comeback.
I can’t help thinking the recovery was mostly due to us getting the equaliser so quickly and that was not Theo’s doing.
The man we had to thank was super Samir Nasri, who smacked one early, low and hard from 20 yards. Exactly the kind of goal out of nothing we need to be scoring.
Buoyed by the equaliser, having everyone in position and yes, by Theo, we bombed on. RVP converted one from six yards out, but sadly only in a rugby sense.
The ref failed to give a foul by Adebayor and made-up for it seconds later by refusing to give what looked the most blatant penalty in the world when RVP was wrestled to the ground.
By now the whole midfield was buzzing and it was some outrageous skill by Nasri that led to things nearly kicking-off. Somehow he kept in a ball that appeared for all the world destined to go out for a throw.
Then he showed great touches to retain the ball before possibly, for once, taking one too many. The tackles began to fly in legally until Hibbert launched himself at Denilson. It enraged the normally placid Clichy who confronted Hibbert (while being sure not to raise his hands). Hibbert then had a right go back.
Both were booked, which by definition meant Hibbert was absolved of any punishment for what had been a pretty poor tackle. Poor refereeing again. The correct decision would have been two yellows for the Everton man: one for the tackle and one for the reaction.
Any fears of another booking for Clichy or on the other hand a reluctance to get stuck in were dispelled when he stole in to possess a blue shirt in the middle of the field.
We kept going and finally led when Denilson fed Cesc who fed Adebayor who fluffed an initial opening before giving it back to Cesc who saw his shot saved.
Even though it popped up right onto RVP’s head, you sense he still tried to figure a way to get it on his left foot.
In actual fact it was not as easy header and he directed it well. Then with a minute left, Theo swapped passes with the returning Abou Diaby (seriously) and slotted neatly first time for a third, clinching strike.
Our goals had arrived on 48 minutes, 70 minutes and 89 minutes. There could be no more graphic an illustration of how our second half performance was a very impressive 45 minute onslaught that gave Everton no time to breath, in complete contrast to the first 45.
It’s no exaggeration to say we were very bad in the first half and very good in the second.
Hey Ransom, I think you meant to post this on my “Arsenal 3-1 Everton, the Good, Bad, and Ugly” post.
Thanks for the comment though!
Speaking of gong to the pub to watch the game, may I recommend the Scottish Arms on Laclede near St. Louis University as a decent football pub in St. Louis. Two big-screen televisions, good beer, good food.
I watched Arsenal lose to Liverpool in last year’s Champion’s League over a great plate of bangers and mash and a Scrimshaw pilser. (Sob!)
But I alos subscribe to Setanta and FSC in on my Dish package.
Sure, thanks for the tip St. Louis. If others have a place here in America that is Arsenal friendly feel free to post it here.
Keep bugging your cable company — Comcast (in the Boston area) is now carrying Setanta for $15/mo premium.
AHHHH, good idea, I will send them a note right now.
Hi there,
I am a long time supporter of Burnley F.C. now doing really well in the Carling Cup. They are playing Spurs I believe on Jan 5 in the semi finals. I was hoping I could watch this game somewhere over here in Georgia.
Any chances of this that anyone could tell me about?
Thanks, Gordon.
We show all games here on my site, if possible we can do a link exchange –
http://gunnerstreams.com/