FoxSoccer.tv Drops the Ball with Man United v Liverpool Coverage

Anyone watching the Manchester United against Liverpool match live on FoxSoccer.tv Sunday would have been terribly disappointed with the poor quality of the service.

You would think that for the biggest game of the Premier League season that Fox would be prepared. But they were not, far from it. Indeed, this would have been a perfect day for FoxSoccer.tv to show how good the experience can be, to convince soccer fans who may have bought a day-pass that they should sign up to become a regular subscriber. Sadly, the FoxSoccer.tv experience was amateurish and disgraceful.

Here are just some of the issues that users, myself included, experienced:

1. Many soccer fans were unable to log on to FoxSoccer.tv. Some users experienced the pages timing out especially during the first 30 minutes. In that same time span, others received the following error message: “General error. We’re sorry, but a general error has occured [sic]. To report a problem, please contact our support. Please click on your browser’s BACK button to return to where you were.”
2. There was no audio commentary until the 25th minute. FoxSoccer.tv subscribers around the country all experienced the same issue of hearing no audio commentary for the first 25 minutes of the Manchester United against Liverpool game. It was like watching a silent movie. Around the 22nd-23rd minute mark, the game was paused for everyone as it buffered and when the buffering stopped, the audio commentary could be heard for the rest of the match.
3. Even on medium quality, buffering happened during key moments of the game. In the 95th minute of the game, during the most crucial moments of the match before the final whistle blew, the game between Man United and Liverpool buffered. And for me, it never stopped buffering (you can see it in the screenshot above). As a result, I was never able to see the end of the game and had to visit a website after the final whistle to find out what the final result was. Also, even at the medium quality, there were a few times when the game buffered which was never the experience I had when I was using Setanta-i.com in the past.
4. FoxSoccer.tv technical support was too slow to respond. During the game, I tried FoxSoccer.tv’s live chat feature to see if they could answer my question about the lack of audio commentary. I was on hold with them for 28 minutes waiting for a live chat operator to become available, but they never did, so I gave up. See my screenshot below for the chat correspondence.

Also, how hard is it to begin the FoxSoccer.tv broadcasts a few minutes early? The Manchester United against Liverpool game was scheduled to kick off at 9:30am ET. At 9:32am, the ‘Watch’ button finally appeared and I saw the kick-off but missed all of the team line-ups and pre-match buildup from the commentators. And that’s just for starters. Here’s my list of what’s missing on FoxSoccer.tv.

With the abysmal experience that soccer fans experienced on Sunday morning with the Manchester United against Liverpool game on FoxSoccer.tv, I think that the FoxSoccer.tv team needs to focus on quality right now rather than quantity. Sure, the relaunch of FoxSoccer.tv is only three weeks old, but it’s imperative that the broadband service significantly improve its quality and customer service very quickly otherwise the remaining games of the Premier League and Champions League season will be ruined for soccer fans.

It’s even more important that FoxSoccer.tv fixes the live Premier League broadcasts because there are many soccer fans out there who don’t have access to Fox Soccer Plus. So their choices are to watch the game on FoxSoccer.tv, see if a local pub is showing the game or watch the game online via an illegal stream. FoxSoccer.tv has the potential to become a powerful medium to watch games online. But we’re a long way from that right now because on today’s disaster.

What was your experience watching the Man United against Liverpool game on FoxSoccer.tv? Share your feedback in the comments section below.