*Official* English Football Season 2014-15

[Furball]

BT's coverage is great - apart from their English games. Their Scottish coverage is much better than Sky's, and Sunday Night Football is the best football show on TV.

 

[Furball]

Yeah was just discussing this with my mate, what exactly do itv have next season?

England games.

Do ITV or BBC have FA Cup rights?

 

[GIMH]

England games.

Do ITV or BBC have FA Cup rights?

BBC got it back this season

Think ITV are a strong chance for Prem highlights the season after next. BBC supposedly losing the football league to C5 too

 

[sledger]

I hope 5 get John Barnes back as anchor, like they did back in the day.

 

[GIMH]

I hope 5 get John Barnes back as anchor, like they did back in the day.

Kid bro was on holiday last week in Fuerteventura and watched our cup game on TV over there, apparently Barnes was the pundit.

 

[sledger]

Haha, brilliant.

 

[Pothas]

BBC got it back this season

Think ITV are a strong chance for Prem highlights the season after next. BBC supposedly losing the football league to C5 too

Well C5 can't do it much worse than the FLS so like the sound of that.

I keep forgetting about BT getting Champions League. I hate this.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Bet he won't though - the bloke is the highest paid union worker in the entire world apparently. Can't see him giving it up after hanging on to the position for so long.

Course he won't. Not without a big payoff which they can't afford so he stays on.

 

[Cabinet96]

In principle I do not really approve of the lack of football coverage on terrestrial TV - but, realistically, part of me is glad they have lost it all because the terrestrial coverage is soooo much worse than Sky (BT is pretty ordinary too tbf). I despise Lineker, Shearer, Chiles, Savage, the majority of the BBC commentators, and all of the ITV ones. Most of the other pundits are bland/crap too. Sky are just so obviously the best (and that's despite Jamie Redknapp and a few other inexpedients).

What's more, the only time I ever watch football on an actual TV is in a pub or at the house of the Snr Sledgers. When I'm in my own accomodation I watch online, so the change, from my perspective, will make no real difference (apart from putting up with Michael Owen and Ian Darke - which I concede is a pretty grim prospect).

My view always tends to be this. But I appreciate this is a pretty selfish viewpoint on my behalf.

BT's coverage is great - apart from their English games. Their Scottish coverage is much better than Sky's, and Sunday Night Football is the best football show on TV.

Their English games are proper **** though. The European football show is great, but I'm worried they'll just bring out the Savage, Owen type ********s for the Champions League because it's mainstream, unlike Germany, France and Italy. In which case I'd much rather have Sky, who actually do a really good job with the production with 6pm Wednesday build up and highlights of all the games at 11pm. Plus they're getting Henry, which will mean their punditry levels will probably increase next season.

 

[Furball]

You'd hope they'd see sense and use the European Football Show format and pundits and bring in an English pundit alongside.

 

[Pothas]

I like all the people on the European Football (still never seen it) but I just hate BT sport for reasons of self-interest.

 

[Cabinet96]

You'd hope they'd see sense and use the European Football Show format and pundits and bring in an English pundit alongside.

You'd think everyone would do this everywhere though. The European Football Show is good because it's got proper journalists who specialise in their subjects and know a lot, not just random Jamie Redknapps. But there's something about mainstream stuff which makes them bring out the simpletons who speak in cliches and know little beyond the peripheries of anything. It's like Channel Nine.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah, it just seems to obvious. You can obviously have former players as well. I would be almost certain BT will not do it though.

 

[GIMH]

BT Sport is okay really, simply because I get it for free in HD, so can't complain. I believe they are going to change that when they start showing the CL

Oh also I like it because they have Steve McManaman and on Tuesday he said "If Everton are going to improve they'll have to get better."

 

[Uppercut]

It doesn't affect me personally, but I still really hate it. With every game that goes off terrestrial we're inadvertently creating an underclass of poor kids who only ever get to see really **** sports like snooker and darts. Football used to be the absolute epitome of working class culture, it's tragic.

 

[Ikki]

It doesn't affect me personally, but I still really hate it. With every game that goes off terrestrial we're inadvertently creating an underclass of poor kids who only ever get to see really **** sports like snooker and darts. Football used to be the absolute epitome of working class culture, it's tragic.

Illegal streams?

 

[Uppercut]

It's not exactly a solution is it? To appeal to your Cribbertarian sensibilities, it's a bit like saying draconian drug laws aren't a problem because, if you're smart enough, you can just break them and get away with it.

A sport moving behind a paywall is the beginning of the end of its cultural importance; first boxing, then cricket, now football. The prices are set to exclude everyone but the people who are already in love with it, and so there's no opportunity to fall in love with it in the first place, and each subsequent generation of kids is less interested than the one before. I mean, we can't do anything about it now, the cat's not getting back in the bag. It was ****ed as soon as we tried to shoehorn football clubs into the post-Thatcher one-size-fits-all market model. This is just the inevitable conclusion. It's a load of ****e. /rant

 

[GIMH]

#AgainstModernFootball

 

[Ikki]

It's not exactly a solution is it? To appeal to your Cribbertarian sensibilities, it's a bit like saying draconian drug laws aren't a problem because, if you're smart enough, you can just break them and get away with it.

A sport moving behind a paywall is the beginning of the end of its cultural importance; first boxing, then cricket, now football. The prices are set to exclude everyone but the people who are already in love with it, and so there's no opportunity to fall in love with it in the first place, and each subsequent generation of kids is less interested than the one before. I mean, we can't do anything about it now, the cat's not getting back in the bag. It was ****ed as soon as we tried to shoehorn football clubs into the post-Thatcher one-size-fits-all market model. This is just the inevitable conclusion. It's a load of ****e. /rant

Well I wasn't saying it was a solution I'm just saying illegal streams are so common now that I think basically everyone will still have access if they actually care for it. In an indirect way those streams will probably force the TV companies to make it cheap enough.

Maybe it will affect it's place in the broader culture; but if so I'm not sure how much it will. Football is far and away the most popular sport in the world and I think because it pervades cultures in a myriad of ways that it will peak peoples' interest to at least try to find a match to watch.

 

[Cabinet96]

The issue re streams is that no 8 year old kid is going to find an illegal stream of a sport he's barely ever watched. You get into this stuff by it being shoved in your face to an extent, not by having to go out of your way to find it.