Random Thoughts Watching the EPL On U.S. TV

1. Does anyone watch Super Saturday+ anymore? Nothing against Nick Webster and Keith Costigan, but after watching 10 hours of Premiership soccer on a Saturday (from the early game on Setanta all the way through to the end of the tape-delayed match at 5:15pm on Fox), can anyone stomach any more soccer coverage? I still think the concept of Super Saturday+ is good except that the time the show is played is wrong, and the format of the program could be improved to make it more of a must-see program.

2. Why are there mistakes in the Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV promos (the ones they play as commercials to promote different programs and top flight matches)? Two examples are: (1) GolTV recently played up their big weekend last week when they had the Barcelona against Real Madrid match on TV, as well as the Milan derby and a huge Bundesliga match. But the voiceover talent person kept on pronouncing the word “derby” incorrectly. It’s pronounced “derby” as in Terence Trent D’Arby and not as in Kentucky Derby. (2) In a promo for Fox Soccer Report, the voiceover talent person mispronounces Bobby McMahon’s name. Aye carumba.

3. Fox Soccer Channel, don’t trick the viewers. I noticed today that during the Reading against Portsmouth and Blackburn versus West Ham matches that Fox has been displaying a new crawl at the bottom of the screen that begins with the words “Breaking News,” which flashes on screen. It then announces a special discount rate for FSC viewers interested in purchasing items from World Soccer Shop.

Personally, I don’t appreciate this trick to get the viewer’s attention to turn away from the match. It’s way too distracting. I have no problem with Fox displaying these crawls at the bottom of the screen as they need to find ways to make money, but what I do oppose is trying to trick the viewer into thinking that it’s real breaking news (i.e. soccer scores, or a major development from a match, etc). Fox and World Soccer Shop doesn’t need to resort to these measures to get fans to read the crawls. We all know they’re there, and if we’re interested in purchasing something, we know that World Soccer Shop is there for us to consider.

And it gets worse. While watching the Spurs against Watford match, Fox used a similar technique in the crawl, this time for Soccer.com where they flashed the word “ALERT!” a few times to catch the attention of the viewer. Please Fox refrain from using these techniques. It cheapens the advertising and viewer experience.