A Call to the Readers
By: Angela | September 19th, 2008Hi folks. I just wanted to quickly drop in and leave a little note for you guys. Loyal reader and all around nice guy Luke and I have been doing some talking in comments and I am going to post one of his replies here, but I just thought I’d mention that Gol TV has chosen not to air some matches of the Bundesliga live. For me, and probably most American folks that watch via Gol TV, this is most bothersome. I actually would get up on my weekends awful early to catch Bayern matches. I’m sure fans of other teams did the same thing. Why? Because that’s the point isn’t it? Catch the game as it happens. Watch your boys play when they’re playing. I don’t want to avoid the internet like the plague for two hours so I don’t know the result before it’s even aired here.
So why not send emails. Lots and lots of emails so that Gol TV knows we’re not happy by this development. Below is Luke’s comment along with where to send your emails:
To all the Americans here relying on GOLTV for their Bundesliga coverage: Their schedule has Bayern vs Bremen being shown on 2 hour delay (with no live match beforehand either?!?!!!) They did the same last week with Dortmund-Schalke, so if this is their new policy, and they can’t show the biggest matches live, I think we ought to step up the protest emails. They ought to know that viewers like us who are generally waking up abnormally early to watch German soccer on a Saturday morning (a rare enough breed) will not be tuning in their coverage if they can’t put it on live. I know exactly what online feed I’ll be looking for Saturday morning because of this nonsense. It’s a shame, because GOL is doing what it can to raise the profile of the Bundesliga in this country generally, and all I can think is that they think they’ll reach a bigger audience 2 hours later. Oh, by the way they are showing the Sunday Wolfsburg-Hamburg match live, apparently due to Wolfsburg huge international following. (with all apologies to the Wolfsburg Offside)
Send emails to:
info@goltv.tv
pr@gotlv.tv
Category: Team News
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Comments
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Thanks Angela, for raising the visibility of this issue. I would like to add a couple points:
1) This may not be GOLTV’s fault. For all I know, it could be an issue with the DFL making the matches available live. I know there were licensing issues with some La Liga matches last season and GOLTV was basically held prisoner in that situation. So, it’s important to ask if it’s a programming decision or something out of their control. Obviously, we oppose it if it’s a programming decision.
2) GOLTV and Dish Network fought a fairly ugly and public contract dispute recently that ended in Dish Network dropping GOLTV from their service. However, it’s Dish Network that carries ProSiebenSat.1 Welt on their German language service, which is, to my knowledge, the only other source for live Bundesliga on TV in the US, although it is a “Konferenz” feed. While many dropped Dish for DirecTV to get their GOLTV, I’m sure Dish Network’s German language service will appeal to many if it is the *only* way to catch your club live going forward.
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They’ve been doing it with Serie A too, generally delayed.
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Luke: Thanks for those points. I dropped Dish and went to DirecTV and am much happier with the service overall so I’m not disappointed by the switch. It’s cheaper and better
Alessio: I didn’t know they were doing that with Serie A. I wonder why they’ve decided to do this. It’s just crazy. I’d rather watch live.
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I think the issue with Serie A is that they conflict with the Premier League on FSC. So, no surprise the English teams get top billing. Meanwhile the Bundesliga is delayed for what, some FIFA interview show?
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I’ve been searching through the net to find any information regarding the Bundesliga games, but have so far come up empty. All I can find is the odd blog like this one discussing the issue. It’s pretty frustrating for Bundesliga fans. I had to put up with limited and useless coverage when Fox Soccer had the rights to the Bundesliga a few years back. Now it seems GolTV is going down the same path. Of course, it may not be Gol’s fault and there could be other issues at play, but it would be nice if they would come out and provide some info. I’ve been reading so many articles with Gol promoting their Bundesliga coverage it’s turning into a farce. You can’t advertise on your website about your extensive coverage and then not have it. I’ll write Gol and complain (thx. for the address Luke). But I’m going to try and seek out online alternatives. I guess I’ll have to accept that the North American audience just doesn’t garner the attention. Unfortunately for us here the Premier League and La Liga are the glamour leagues, so us fans of the other Euro leagues get the screw. Like the CL coverage. I have the option to watch games like Chelsea vs. Cluj or Fener vs. Kiev (no disrespect to those teams, but) instead of a more interesting match (in my opinion) like Bayern vs. Lyon. I mean, come on, the Turkish V. Ukraine top dogs or the German V. French top dogs. Who would you rather watch?
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Travis: I’m hoping GOLTV will realize that we are out there in greater numbers than they realized. Ironically, if the EPL goes to ESPN, perhaps Fox Soccer will pick up the Bundesliga rights again!
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i think its crazy what they are doing to the bundesliga. last week they showed one game on saturday and the game on sunday was schalke v koln from friday. they used to show the friday game, two saturday and one sunday with three of those being live. what the hell happened? now its two game a week and 0 live games. has anyone tried calling goltv? i wrote an email a couple weeks ago on a thursday or wednesday questioning the schedule for the weekend, the only response was a copy of the schedule. the bundesliga has the highest attendance in europe and the highest average of goals, why does goltv screw this up for us. we need our bundesliga back. what can we do?
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