Okay, perhaps that headline is unfair. It is, after all, entirely possible for us Americans to support our national team and local clubs and still want to watch European soccer. After all, we like seeing a game played at its highest level, and the Association football leagues in Europe are still the top drawer.
Plus, we live in an era where it’s much easier to follow world sports than it was 10-20 years ago. There are all sorts of TV channels and Internet sites dedicated to bringing you wall-to-wall soccer coverage. It’s never been easier to be a fan of the beautiful game.
But that doesn’t mean it won’t cost you.
For the full European football experience, you’re going to need three channels — Fox Soccer Channel, GOLTV and Setanta Sports. That will get you live and tape-delayed games in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Scotland and the Netherlands — to say nothing of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the good ol’ USA. You’ll also get the Champions Leagues for Europe, Asia and the Americas, not to mention plenty of international competitions.
Chances are you won’t find all three channels on your local cable service. (You definitely won’t find Setanta Sports on cable.) so you’ll have to switch to satellite TV. Let’s assume for a moment that your basic 150-channel lineup and DVR service will cost you about the same amount as cable.
If you go with DirecTV, FSC and GOLTV are only available through the Sports Pack, which costs an extra $12 a month. If you go with Dish Network, you’ll have to upgrade to America’s Top 250 to get FSC and GOLTV, which is a good $13 a month more than the standard Top 100 Plus package. You also have to buy Setanta Sports separately — another $15 a month.
So to get all the soccer you can watch, you’ll be spending about $27 a month on DirecTV and $28 a month on DISH. That adds up to $324 or $336 a year. And that’s before you add in any pay-per-view games you might want to watch.
Now if you don’t mind missing out on a few Premier League matches and international club competitions, you could cut out Setanta and save about $180 a year. If you live here in the Triangle, that’s $180 you could put toward supporting your local team for a full season, and you’ll still get plenty of Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga action on your TV. Oh, and the Champions League will be on ESPN2. It’s all a matter of priorities.
Still, you have to be a pretty dedicated soccer fan to spend $336 a year on TV coverage. Most casual fans just aren’t going to spend that kind of cash to get into the game — especially if it comes down to, say, a year’s worth of televised soccer or an iPod. It would be nice to see that price come down a bit in the future, but until soccer really does become a major sport in America, don’t hold your breath.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Ronald Dale..... // Jan 16, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I did hear a rumor that DirecTv would be getting Setanta this year, nothing more just a rumor.
2 Dave // Jan 16, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Ronald: DirecTV already has Setanta if you’re willing to pay for it. Do you mean it’ll be available another way?
3 a different dave // Jan 16, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I don’t have the option of getting satellite (ie DirecTV). I get both FSC and GolTV through Comcast cable, though; it’s only something like an extra $7-15 a month for their digital sports package, IIRC; I don’t recall the exact amount.
I spend more than that per year on MLS, on my Revs season tickets and MLS Direct Kick package.
I guess I fail the “Euro-snob” test and will have to turn in my secret decoder ring.
4 Will // Jan 17, 2008 at 11:37 am
We have dish network, and get the Top250, but not Setanta, though when Cardiff City were playing a televised match, we did try it out for a couple days. I do love being out of contract.
Of course, you also need FSC to get the best US National team coverage, the best MLS coverage (along with HDNET, actually, which does have a beautiful picture, and commentary no worse than ESPN2), and ANY coverage of USL. Also, though I could be mistaken, I think on Dish ESPNU is part of the Top250, and that gives you some NCAA and USA Under-## teams. I figure the Eurosnobbery aspect of it runs me about 50% of the $13/month.
Don’t ask me about the streaming Cardiff City audio, though, ESPECIALLY with the current exchange rates. Ugh.
5 John (UK) // Jan 17, 2008 at 3:08 pm
If you think being a Eurosnob is expensive, you should try being European.
To get all the available English Premier League and European Champions League games you need Sky (satellite, I can’t get cable in my area) with sports package (£34 per month) plus Satanta (£10 per month). This gives a grand total of £528 per year or $1034!!!!
I live without Satanta but that’s still $800 per year, eek.
6 Dave // Jan 17, 2008 at 3:52 pm
John: How many games do you get to choose from on the average weekend?
7 John (UK) // Jan 18, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Dave,
We usually get two on the Sunday and one on Saturday. This season the Saturday game is normally the late kickoff on Setanta.
We don’t get to see games at the traditional kickoff time of 3pm on a Saturday due to some strange rules put in place by the FA.
The European Champions League coverage is better. If you have satellite or cable you can watch any game you want.