Ukraine V England Only On The Internet

England's away qualifier for the World Cup in South Africa against the Ukraine was available only on the internet and plenty of England fans have been less than impressed. It has gotten me thinking why we only see an outcry now.

First the background. Setanta had the broadcast rights for that match among plenty others. Setanta went into administration, so their "property" such as TV rights to football events (as far as I can work out) went back to the hands of the national football bodies of those countries. This meant that with the game being in the Ukraine, it was up to the Ukrainians what they did with them, who they sold them to and for how much. In this case they apparently asked more than UK broadcasters were willing to pay, so it went pay-per-view internet only.

Watching a live broadcast on the PC is not a great experience if done through the normal internet connection like broadband as the bandwidth for a decent quality flawless picture at a decent resolution is a drain. A TV tuner card bypasses this, but it does take normal transmissions which can be received by your TV instead of something being streamed only, so in this case a TV card would be useless. Many sports are social affairs where fans gather together with some drinks, watch together, and share the highs and lows of the event with each other. In most cases PC's are not great for this either.

Some England fans were able to go their local cinema to watch the game which many felt was odd, but they at least still saw their team play. The option for watching the game at the pub wasn't on the cards. If the match had been in England they'd have the decision on who they sell the rights to, which makes me wonder how many England home games over the decades have been sold exclusively to the BBC?

The BBC being funded by the extortion racket from UK license fee payers means it's not available outside the UK. This would mean a World Cup qualifier between say England and Spain would leave Spanish fans unable to watch at all. Why haven't the English media and fans railed against this injustice until now? Or is it that because England fans are the ones on the raw side of the deal that it's right to complain? The UK has different countries within it, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, all of whom have national football teams (and other sporting teams) competing at least in the qualifying stages of these tournaments. So why is it that and England match will be shown UK wide when Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all playing their matches at the same time?

Sometimes it's even an England FRIENDLY when the others are playing for points, which just rubs salt into the experience. Could we have some action on that injustice too? Imagine a Scotland friendly being broadcast in England while England are playing for points. I'm sure the England fans would be rather annoyed at that, and quite rightly so. People should be able to feel proud and support their national teams in competitions, regardless of who they are. For popular tournaments like the World Cup, this should extend to being able to watch their national team playing on TV.