# English Premiership football on Fox HD OTA (LIVE & tape delay)



## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

FOX PAIRS BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE WITH NFL SINGLEHEADERS THREE SUNDAYS THIS FALL AND AS A STAND-ALONE ON FEBRUARY 5

Something that has never happened before in United States. English Premiership football will be shown in HD on an OTA channel!!

It will be on Fox OTA. First 3 telecasts won't be LIVE though. They'll be tape-delayed repeats of LIVE telecasts already shown on FSC earlier on those days. Furthermore, they will be in timeslots head-to-head against NFL on NBC. So, not a whole lot to be expected for ratings by Fox. Looks like cheap way for Fox to increase visibility for FSC, maybe to increase pressure on carriers to pickup FSC-HD.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 2011
Manchester United vs. Chelsea
2:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern i.e. 11 AM - 1 PM Pacific (Pre-NFL) OR
4:30 - 6:30 PM Eastern i.e. 1:30 - 3:30 PM Pacific (Post NFL)

SUNDAY OCTOBER 2, 2011
Tottenham vs. Arsenal
2:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern i.e. 11 AM - 1 PM Pacific (Pre-NFL) OR
4:30 - 6:30 PM Eastern i.e. 1:30 - 3:30 PM Pacific (Post NFL)

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2011
Chelsea vs. Liverpool
2:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern i.e. 11 AM - 1 PM Pacific (Pre-NFL) OR
4:30 - 6:30 PM Eastern i.e. 1:30 - 3:30 PM Pacific (Post NFL)

The big deal is last telecast on February 5, 2012. It will be LIVE in HD telecast of English Premiership football on an OTA channel, for the first time ever in USA! This is on Superbowl Sunday. NBC has Superbowl rights for 2012. This Fox telecast is in a timeslot no way in conflict with Superbowl (not even pre-game). It looks like an attempt to flood more sports programming on a sports-busy day. To get biggest bang for the buck, Fox intends to show the matchup of 2 biggest Premiership clubs for this event.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2012
Chelsea vs. Manchester United LIVE
10:30 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern i.e. 7:30 AM - 10 AM Pacific


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Chandu said:


> SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 2011
> Manchester United vs. Chelsea
> 2:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern i.e. 11 AM - 1 PM Pacific (Pre-NFL) OR
> 4:30 - 6:30 PM Eastern i.e. 1:30 - 3:30 PM Pacific (Post NFL)


Bump for program alert for the big one. Check local Fox affliliate listings. I understand different Fox affiliates in the country will be utilizing different timeslots depending on availability.


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Chandu said:


> SUNDAY OCTOBER 2, 2011
> Tottenham vs. Arsenal
> 2:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern i.e. 11 AM - 1 PM Pacific (Pre-NFL) OR
> 4:30 - 6:30 PM Eastern i.e. 1:30 - 3:30 PM Pacific (Post NFL)


Heads up for progam-alert. Supposedly, the experiment 2 weeks ago for the big one - Man Utd vs Chelsea - got very good ratings for Fox. Very respectable, considering it was going head-to-head against NFL on NBC and/or CBS depending on the market.

Here is a very interesting (and quite incredulous, if you've been following various sports in USA for a long time) thing about Sunday's coverage in general:

NBC-HD will be showing replay of New Zealand All Blacks vs Canada from Rugby Union World Cup, which will overlap some part of this coverage. (Either towards the beginning or the end, depending on the market.)

Fox-HD will of course be showing replay of Tottenham vs. Arsenal - North London derby from English Premeirship football (subject of this post).

CBS-HD is guaranteed to be covering some NFL telecast, depending on the market.

So on 3 different OTA channels, 3 different codes of football - Rugby Union, Association Football, American Football - will be seen concurrently in high definition!!! This in my opinion is quite historic, a never before event in this country. If someone predicted a chance of such occurence 10 years ago, I would've called them crazy. I have been closely following various sports in these country for decades. We surely have come a long way w.r.t. their coverage compared to before, and looks like it's going to get better in the future.









[BTW, that's not even taking into account LIVE coverage of AFL 2011 Grand Final on ESPN2 in high definition on Friday night/Saturday morning. Meaning, coverage of yet another code of football - Australian Football!! Granted, that wasn't on OTA. But I'm just talking about coverage of so many different codes of football on mainstream channels in America now. A plethora, compared to before.]


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks for this! I've just set for the Spurs game, starts 2:30 on Ch. 2 here in the Bay Area.


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

No problem. I think it is supposed to follow immediately after 49ers football. Hopefully the NFL doesn't go into extra-time, or the NFL post-game stuff doesn't keep dragging on - allowing English football coverage to start on time.

Quite interestingly, New Zealand All Blacks vs Canada Rugby Union football is expected be over by 2:30 PM on NBC, with ~ 15-30 mins of post-game. Probably setting stage up for elimination rounds of World Cup quarterfinals onwards etc. So it's quite likely, would be able to jump from one code of football to another code of football on multiple channels without skipping a beat. :grin:


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

This coverage is going very well so far in my opinion. Displaying good quality derby football in front of passionate DERBY crowds in high definition on an OTA channel!







In my opinion, Fox could even do well accommodating yet another match probably involving Manchester City later in the season.

I suppose it might be difficult if they've already set all their calendars by now. But given that Fox controls bulk of FSC rights and Fox NFL schedules all set - why not Fox add yet another quality derby football match on OTA? Like Manchester United vs Manchester City???


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

On the Spurs match, my screen pixillated badly, then went black for about ten seconds. Twice, the second being around the 1:40 mark. 

Would those who taped it mind checking and reporting if that was system wide or not?


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Hmm, interesting. I didn't record it. But I was channel switching back and forth between Fox and NBC in the early minutes. (Catching all the discussion of Rugby World Cup quarterfinal setup, post-match stuff on NBC.) So it's quite likely I was not tuned to Fox at those specific moments. Whatever else I caught, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The HD picture quality was very good, similar to Everton-Liverpool derby on ESPN2 yesterday.


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Chandu said:


> SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2011
> Chelsea vs. Liverpool
> 2:00 - 4:00 PM Eastern i.e. 11 AM - 1 PM Pacific (Pre-NFL) OR
> 4:30 - 6:30 PM Eastern i.e. 1:30 - 3:30 PM Pacific (Post NFL)


Reminder about program alert for tomorrow!


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks! 

Again, Ch. 2 in the SF Bay area.


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Great to watch Chelsea getting beaten back-to-back; Arsenal followed by Liverpool!

It's quite crazy that 4 teams: Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal are now all tied on 22 points. Although it's Tottenham that holds the biggest advantage with 2 matches in hand. If they win both, could leapfrong quite high in the table.

Tottenham are playing in the Monday Night Football match tonight versus Aston Villa which will be shown LIVE on espn3.com (and ESPN Deportes).


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Quite a match! Beautifully broadcast, too.


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Chandu said:


> FOX PAIRS BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE WITH NFL SINGLEHEADERS THREE SUNDAYS THIS FALL AND AS A STAND-ALONE ON FEBRUARY 5
> 
> The big deal is last telecast on February 5, 2012. It will be LIVE in HD telecast of English Premiership football on an OTA channel, for the first time ever in USA! This is on Superbowl Sunday. NBC has Superbowl rights for 2012. This Fox telecast is in a timeslot no way in conflict with Superbowl (not even pre-game). It looks like an attempt to flood more sports programming on a sports-busy day. To get biggest bang for the buck, Fox intends to show the matchup of 2 biggest Premiership clubs for this event.
> 
> ...


BUMP - PROGRAM REMINDER for Sunday morning!


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## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Chandu said:


> BUMP - PROGRAM REMINDER for Sunday morning!


One more program alert, if you happen to be in San Francisco Bay area:

Instead of showing this match LIVE on 1st choice Fox affiliate KTVU-HD, it will be seen in that timeslot *7:30 AM to 10 AM Pacific* on 2nd choice Fox affiliate *KICU-HD* instead. Check your provider grid for exact channel number for KICU-HD. If you're on OTA, it's 36.1, if you have Comcast it is channel 706 and so on.

BTW, Fox pulled a short-notice stunt putting LIVE English Premiership football on OTA TV just few days ago. That is on Jan. 23, they televised Arsenal vs. Manchester United LIVE on OTA. That was the FIRST EVER time English Premiership football was shown LIVE on OTA in this country. However, it was not in original plans of the press release posted. It was abruptly added with very little (like a week) notice. Very few nationwide Fox affiliates were able to accommodate it due to short notice. I certainly wasn't aware of this at all, as lately my attention had been taken more by the Presidential Election politics campaign than English football. Apparently, on that day in San Francisco Bay area they used KICU-HD instead of KTVU-HD as well; so I missed it. Oh well!

Anyway, at least this time hoping whoever is interested finds this alert with some advance notice.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

In the Bay Area, it's Ch 36 for KICU. 
Thanks of the heads up!


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## ddebrunner (Sep 7, 2009)

So do we thank Directv for improving the picture on KICU?

The Man U vs. Arsenal match about three weeks ago was not watchable, almost as though every other frame was being skipped. Maybe KICU was not set up bandwidth wise for a sports program. It didn't seem to be the source as the replay on fox soccer later was fine.

But the Man U v.s Chelsea game was fine, I wonder if Directv upped the bandwidth for the showing. If they did, good job!


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