Why do soccer fans and leagues love ESPN+ so much? World Soccer Talk Podcast

9 Comments

1. 

   Gio

   February 24, 2021 at 2:31 pm

   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.

   Reply
2. 

   Chris Guardiano

   February 21, 2021 at 12:53 am

   @Edward and the other half of the NHL rights will be going to Fox/FS1

   Reply
3. 

   Edward

   February 20, 2021 at 9:11 pm

   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

   Reply
4. 

   jason

   February 20, 2021 at 4:18 pm

   The only soccer on ESPN+ I have on lately is the Australian A League because they have fans at their games.

   Reply
5. 

   Mercator

   February 19, 2021 at 3:35 pm

   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.

   Reply
6. 

   Roberto

   February 19, 2021 at 8:32 am

   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.

   Reply
7. 

   Turfit

   February 18, 2021 at 9:40 pm

   @Don Dickerson, I agree with you 100%, it was so bad I switched to TUDN’s wrap around and I don’t speak Spanish.

   Reply
8. 

   disco george

   February 18, 2021 at 6:22 pm

   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.

   Reply
9. 

   Don Dickerson

   February 18, 2021 at 1:33 pm

   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.

   Reply