In the NEW episode, number 211, Christopher Harris and co-host Kartik Krishnaiyer cover a range of topics including:
• Why do soccer fans and leagues love ESPN+?
• ESPN+ scores again with a fantastic short film
• A big change at NBC gives them an advantage with Premier League renewal rights
• Belgium football is back in the United States
• Plus letters from you, the listeners, in our mailbag section.
Listen to the show via the player above or via this link.
Launched in 2006, the World Soccer Talk Podcast is the longest running podcast on the planet. Every week, we share the latest news about watching soccer on television and streaming, in addition to discussing what we like and dislike, and featuring your questions and feedback in our Listener Mailbag segment.
HEAR MORE: Listen to our archive featuring hundreds of soccer interviews
Send in your questions, comments and feedback via e-mail web@worldsoccertalk.com, via Twitter (@worldsoccertalk) or Facebook. We’ll read them out on-air in the next episode.
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Watching the Golazo show today the 18th. Wow talk about never shutting up. Can they just go from match to match and say let us hear the “REAL” announcers. I didn’t have any particular teams I really wanted to watch so I figured I’d check out the wrap around version and wow just wow I have to mute it. I might just turn on the radio and listen to music as background noise as I watch the matches.
I’m in a smaller MLS market, but locals have had access to matches both on over-the-air TV and via free streaming for the last few years. It would be a massive setback to put all of that access behind a paywall — I think the club sees that as a way to drive attendance and general interest in the local market.
Considering that the only interesting things that have happened on the field in the last few years have involved a rogue duck and a cat running around the field, they could use all the exposure they can get.
@Don Dickerson, I agree with you 100%, it was so bad I switched to TUDN’s wrap around and I don’t speak Spanish.
Great comments on Leicester’s fine year. With just a little more depth then last year. They have, so far, been able to stay near the top. We do hear fairly constant whining from Klopp and others over there team injuries. Leicester has had probably more then most teams and kept working hard. High work rate teams that combine it with skill are my favorites.
I don’t mind the paywalls at all. For $5 bucks a month, you are getting your money’s worth with something like ESPN+, and with all of the bundling and other content, a lot more people already “pay” than people think. Maybe it’s an age thing, but the biggest paywall out there is CABLE. Most people I know my age (under 30) do not have cable, but have a number of subscription services. My friends browse the ESPN app the same way older people browse a TV guide. Great shoutout to the ISL on the podcast, I’ve been watching a good amount (along with A-League) because I’m browsing ESPN early AM and its on live. Even behind a paywall, you will still get the casual and random viewers (again, cable is a paywall). For something like MLS, the biggest hurdle to growing the audience is the blackouts on ESPN! Put all of the games available to stream, the vast majority of people I know who watch MLS do so only on the ESPN stream, they have no clue where to watch the team on local or cable tv.
If I’m a league with rights, I want ESPN to have them. I watch way more Australian soccer than Spanish, French or South American. Why? Because it’s on ESPN. When I don’t know what I want to watch, I check ESPN. I never open any of the other apps unless there is something specific I want to watch that I know is on that app at that time.
The only soccer on ESPN+ I have on lately is the Australian A League because they have fans at their games.
for all the NBC haters here, you might rejoice in the news that ESPN is getting a slice of the NHL rights from NBC: https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/1363307416746668033
@Edward and the other half of the NHL rights will be going to Fox/FS1
Maybe advise ESPN to buy the Conmebol qualifiers instead of that garbage PPV company. Hopefully they lose money and sell to BeIn Sports or TUDN or whoever.