I see that ESPN is showing the Dublin College Football game between UCF and Penn State next Saturday at 1.30 meaning that we will only get 30 mins of the first College Gameday Live of the season (if we're lucky!) from 4.30. Bit of a shame as College Gameday Live is a show I love to dip in and out of and it would just start the first Saturday game coverage nicely.
Still Alabama's and Florida State's opening games are on Saturday night at 8.30 and 1.00 respectively so a good first Saturday in store.
The Croke Park game is preferable to College Gameday imo, plus we'll probably get the picks which is the best part anyway.
A shame that Clemson @ Georgia and LSU vs Wisconsin couldn't be shown live (perhaps BT will launch one or two more channels when they get CL coverage) or even as an as-live doubleheader on Sunday or Monday.
I see at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday the live game is Arkansas/Texas Tech. In previous years it's always the SEC CBS game (in this case Georgia/South Carolina).
I'm assuming BT/ESPN haven't renewed the CBS/SEC contract - but wondered if anyone knows for sure?
In general looking like the number of college football games is down this year - I have ESPN Player, but so much easier to watch having recorded on Sky+....
I see at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday the live game is Arkansas/Texas Tech. In previous years it's always the SEC CBS game (in this case Georgia/South Carolina).
I'm assuming BT/ESPN haven't renewed the CBS/SEC contract - but wondered if anyone knows for sure?
In general looking like the number of college football games is down this year - I have ESPN Player, but so much easier to watch having recorded on Sky+....
Not always, there have been a couple of time in recent years when they've shown the ESPN/ABC game.
Will probably need to see if it's shown delayed or what happens the following Saturday's before making any definite judgments
I see at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday the live game is Arkansas/Texas Tech. In previous years it's always the SEC CBS game (in this case Georgia/South Carolina).
I'm assuming BT/ESPN haven't renewed the CBS/SEC contract - but wondered if anyone knows for sure?
In general looking like the number of college football games is down this year - I have ESPN Player, but so much easier to watch having recorded on Sky+....
I noticed no CBS games which I thought was odd. Is ESPN player any good? I have seen some poor reviews.
5 live games a week is good going. The only thing missing is they used to join a late west coast game already in progress very late on Saturday. Also they do not seem to be showing delayed games on a Monday/Tuesday that were not shown live.
They are showing my team Baylor on Friday night even if it's a poor matchup I don't care
Probably for the best that they weren't showing the Georgia/SC game as it's in a weather delay and won't be starting anytime soon
Game started after one and a half hour delay. Seems to have been the game of the day again, as so many of the CBS games were last year.
Next week's CBS game seems to be Florida at Alabama at 3.30pm ET, 8.30pm UK. Sky EPG still showing game tbc - we can only hope that we haven't lost the CBS games as the SEC continues to be dominant.
The new (ESPN owned) SEC Network games appear to play second choice to CBS's first pick.
Verne L. and Gary D. are great/entertaining comms. probably the best pairing now that Brent M. and Kirk H. have been split up imo.
Please BT/ESPN - get the CBS game of the week back from next week!!!
we can only hope that we haven't lost the CBS games as the SEC continues to be dominant.
My inkling is that we have indeed lost the CBS games. There seems to be no logical reason to have put the Arkansas at Texas Tech game on instead of Georgia at South Carolina unless they didn't have rights to the UGA-SC game anymore.
I also notice that they are making a real effort to show the main SEC Network game at midnight now on BT Sport 2 even when they have the main ABC Saturday night game on as well at 1am on ESPN. This seems like they are trying to keep an 'SEC presence' in their coverage to try and make up for lack of CBS games.
It may have saved ESPN/BT some money, and you can argue with audiences of only 10-11,000 it is not a big deal, but the lack of some real big regular season games now like Alabama at LSU, Georgia v Florida, Auburn at Alabama and of course the SEC Title Game is a big miss.
ESPN/BT will argue that they show an enormous amount of games and that they show all the Bowl games as well. Correct, and I would hate to see the coverage disappear. But the lack of the main CBS game of the week is a blow, especially when a lot of the main PAC-12 games are on FOX and we miss them as well. The biggest games involving the 2 best conferences are now unfortunately not available, which is a shame.
Unless I'm wrong and we get CBS games back with us this week!
Game started after one and a half hour delay. Seems to have been the game of the day again, as so many of the CBS games were last year.
Next week's CBS game seems to be Florida at Alabama at 3.30pm ET, 8.30pm UK. Sky EPG still showing game tbc - we can only hope that we haven't lost the CBS games as the SEC continues to be dominant.
The new (ESPN owned) SEC Network games appear to play second choice to CBS's first pick.
Verne L. and Gary D. are great/entertaining comms. probably the best pairing now that Brent M. and Kirk H. have been split up imo.
Please BT/ESPN - get the CBS game of the week back from next week!!!
Will be interesting to see how that pans out, as I understand it the majority of picks/timings haven't been made past Week 4 of the season yet (Other than Florida/Georgia)
Out of interest has ESPN actually shown any other SEC Network games other than the two on the opening Thursday?
Will be interesting to see how that pans out, as I understand it the majority of picks/timings haven't been made past Week 4 of the season yet (Other than Florida/Georgia)
Out of interest has ESPN actually shown any other SEC Network games other than the two on the opening Thursday?
In the past CBS normally wait until the week before to decide the best game, unless it is obvious, so presumably the same this year.
There were 4 SECN games shown in week 1. In addition to the 2 on opening Thursday, 1 on Sunday live (when no NFL) and one as-live during the week.
Interestingly, none in week 2 or 3 since. Brent M. and Jesse P. were at Kentucky/Florida yesterday, and there was a live look in on the US ESPN coverage which we also got, as ESPN continues to plug SECN over there. That did also turn out to be a good game from the score.
Good point made by Gray 77, that if we don't get CBS games, then combined with no Fox/PAC 12 coverage - plus of course no NBC/Notre Dame, then BT/ESPN coverage really will be watered down, especially as the only midweek "as live" games appear to be repeats (other than 1 so far). And the thought of not getting the SEC Championship game on CBS!!!!!!!.....
Also, College Football Final doesn't get broadcast today - it's at 9am on Monday, and there only appears to be the one showing/no repeat.
In the past CBS normally wait until the week before to decide the best game, unless it is obvious, so presumably the same this year.
There were 4 SECN games shown in week 1. In addition to the 2 on opening Thursday, 1 on Sunday live (when no NFL) and one as-live during the week.
Interestingly, none in week 2 or 3 since. Brent M. and Jesse P. were at Kentucky/Florida yesterday, and there was a live look in on the US ESPN coverage which we also got, as ESPN continues to plug SECN over there. That did also turn out to be a good game from the score.
Good point made by Gray 77, that if we don't get CBS games, then combined with no Fox/PAC 12 coverage - plus of course no NBC/Notre Dame, then BT/ESPN coverage really will be watered down, especially as the only midweek "as live" games appear to be repeats (other than 1 so far). And the thought of not getting the SEC Championship game on CBS!!!!!!!.....
Also, College Football Final doesn't get broadcast today - it's at 9am on Monday, and there only appears to be the one showing/no repeat.
Thanks for the info on what SEC Network games they've shown
As much as I like the SEC for me if we lose the CBS games the biggest loss will be Army-Navy in December.......it's one of my favourite games of the year.
The surprising thing about next week schedules is that the 8:30 game is TBA while they've already chosen what will be shown from the late games
The surprising thing about next week schedules is that the 8:30 game is TBA while they've already chosen what will be shown from the late games
The late games are stand alone games though. The ABC Saturday night game is set in stone at Clemson at Florida State and the midnight game on SECN is set in stone as well. The 5pm and 8.30pm games (UK times) usually have a couple of options with one on ESPN, one on ABC and maybe one on ESPN2 in the US. So, I think that's why they are still showing them as TBA because they don't know what game will be the main ESPN or ABC ones yet.
The late games are stand alone games though. The ABC Saturday night game is set in stone at Clemson at Florida State and the midnight game on SECN is set in stone as well. The 5pm and 8.30pm games (UK times) usually have a couple of options with one on ESPN, one on ABC and maybe one on ESPN2 in the US. So, I think that's why they are still showing them as TBA because they don't know what game will be the main ESPN or ABC ones yet.
For the 8:30 kick offs the games for Week 4 are already set in the slots, they know now what games will be shown regardless of how they are distributed regionally on ABC/ESPN2. The only way it would matter is if they were tied into taking the one from a certain channel eg ABC, which would be a strange arrangement if they were.
2. These are selected 12 days in advance (except i believe for last week of the 'regular season').
3. If we have lost the CBS games then that means of the four major conference championship games only one (ACC) will be shown live with ES possibly airing delayed highlights of the Big Ten.
How long will the ESPN branding remain with the channel, will it become BT Sport 3 when they start with the Champions League coverage from next season onwards ?
Coverage of Cardinals/Dodgers so far this evening has been a bit mad, first the pictures went during the opening preview.....were fixed after the first out and now they've come back from the break with Fox Sports 1 pictures and ESPN Radio commentary!
Coverage of Cardinals/Dodgers so far this evening has been a bit mad, first the pictures went during the opening preview.....were fixed after the first out and now they've come back from the break with Fox Sports 1 pictures and ESPN Radio commentary!
It wasn't in sync though, which was a shame. That would be a much better option than having to put up with Harold Reynolds.
I find the FOX commentary tough to listen too at times but I really like the TBS crews. Do we know when we are likely to have the MLB International feed, if I remember correctly did we have them for one of the Championship Series last year as well as the World Series? Hopefully they will replace the FOX crew, I enjoy listening to Gary Thorne and to a lesser extent Rick Sutcliffe although the graphics they use always seem quite outdated.
I think the problem with the Fox Sports 1 audio during last night coverage of the Dodgers @ Cardinals game was only an issue during the first inning, by the time they returned for the top of the second they were able to take the normal feed with Joe Buck and co (albeit I don't know if the problems recurred later on, as being someone who has primarily listened to the Division Series on the radio, I opted to mute the BT Sport app and stay with ESPN Radio by syncing up the pictures to one of their affiliates that was carrying the game through TuneIn).
As for City2000's question about the international feed, Rick Sutcliffe has tweeted that he'll be at the American League Championship Series, which I guess he'll be covering with Gary Thorne for MLB International before doing the World Series for them, as Thorne had indicated they would during this year's All-Star Game. Unfortunately the ALCS is the series TBS are showing, I'd have preferred to hear them doing the NLCS as that is on Fox Sports 1 like you but there you go. As for the MLB International graphics being old fashioned - they certainly are, but then they've been using the same graphics and theme tune since 2001! I really like them and think the MLB International theme is one of the best theme tunes in sports, although I'm sure that's partly down to the nostalgia value of them reminding me of when I first got into baseball as a teenager.
One really positive development regarding BT Sport's coverage of the Major League Baseball Playoffs is that so far every game they've shown (as far as I'm aware, I may have missed checking in to one or two) has been streamed on the BT Sport website and mobile app to subscribers. There's been no online testcards telling us that streaming has been preventing due to rights restrictions, regardless of the broadcaster being ESPN, Fox, TBS or the MLB Network. Hopefully this will continue all the way through to the World Series. I can understand why certain regional telecasts are blocked to BT Sport customers online during the regular season - we still get a pretty good deal with almost all of the ESPN national telecasts, some local games plus delayed screenings and Baseball Tonight going out online, but I can see why they'd want to hold a few things back in order to convince really hardcore baseball fans to subscribe to MLB.TV and get just that bit more live access to games. But last year I found it really frustrating and confusing why BT Sport weren't able to stream the World Series on their app. Surely it makes sense to open up the league's showpiece series, which is made available free-to-air in as many countries as possible, to as many viewers as you can for the good of the sport? Hopefully this will be corrected this year and so far the signs are encouraging.
If Saturday's BT Sport1 5pm college football game over-runs, then at 8.30pm we could have 3 college football games live on all 3 BT/ESPN channels at the same time, as BT2 start their game and ESPN continue as usual. Quite amazing, and I think it would be a first in the UK?
The viewing figures for College Football seem to get good numbers relative to other transmissions/sports, and BT/ESPN seem to be acknowledging that, which is great, including College Gameday which thankfully now seems to be back as permanent/in full and many more midweek games live than we had in the past.
Rankings - Imo the CFB Play-off Selection Committee is doing a great job in their weekly rankings so far (although they ought to be able to decide by Monday evening, not Tuesday evening). There are still several elimination games to come, but any reservations about the new committee seem to be unfounded so far, although no doubt whoever ends up at numbers 5 and 6 at the end will feel otherwise. I used to enjoy the BCS top 2 discussions on the CF Live talk shows, but these are even better now.
If Saturday's BT Sport1 5pm college football game over-runs, then at 8.30pm we could have 3 college football games live on all 3 BT/ESPN channels at the same time, as BT2 start their game and ESPN continue as usual. Quite amazing, and I think it would be a first in the UK?
The viewing figures for College Football seem to get good numbers relative to other transmissions/sports, and BT/ESPN seem to be acknowledging that, which is great, including College Gameday which thankfully now seems to be back as permanent/in full and many more midweek games live than we had in the past.
Rankings - Imo the CFB Play-off Selection Committee is doing a great job in their weekly rankings so far (although they ought to be able to decide by Monday evening, not Tuesday evening). There are still several elimination games to come, but any reservations about the new committee seem to be unfounded so far, although no doubt whoever ends up at numbers 5 and 6 at the end will feel otherwise. I used to enjoy the BCS top 2 discussions on the CF Live talk shows, but these are even better now.
Fwiw my CFP idea:
8 teams.
All power 5 champs.
Committee selects 4 teams not playing in conference champ game to contest two play-in games (thus teams can't benefit from sitting at home).
Final team is selected by committee from conference champ game losers.
Comments
The Croke Park game is preferable to College Gameday imo, plus we'll probably get the picks which is the best part anyway.
A shame that Clemson @ Georgia and LSU vs Wisconsin couldn't be shown live (perhaps BT will launch one or two more channels when they get CL coverage) or even as an as-live doubleheader on Sunday or Monday.
I'm assuming BT/ESPN haven't renewed the CBS/SEC contract - but wondered if anyone knows for sure?
In general looking like the number of college football games is down this year - I have ESPN Player, but so much easier to watch having recorded on Sky+....
Not always, there have been a couple of time in recent years when they've shown the ESPN/ABC game.
Will probably need to see if it's shown delayed or what happens the following Saturday's before making any definite judgments
"Do we need to renew CBS rights?"
"What do they cover?"
"SEC games."
"We'll get the best of those with the new SEC network which is covered by ESPN."
Hope i'm wrong.
I noticed no CBS games which I thought was odd. Is ESPN player any good? I have seen some poor reviews.
5 live games a week is good going. The only thing missing is they used to join a late west coast game already in progress very late on Saturday. Also they do not seem to be showing delayed games on a Monday/Tuesday that were not shown live.
They are showing my team Baylor on Friday night even if it's a poor matchup I don't care
Game started after one and a half hour delay. Seems to have been the game of the day again, as so many of the CBS games were last year.
Next week's CBS game seems to be Florida at Alabama at 3.30pm ET, 8.30pm UK. Sky EPG still showing game tbc - we can only hope that we haven't lost the CBS games as the SEC continues to be dominant.
The new (ESPN owned) SEC Network games appear to play second choice to CBS's first pick.
Verne L. and Gary D. are great/entertaining comms. probably the best pairing now that Brent M. and Kirk H. have been split up imo.
Please BT/ESPN - get the CBS game of the week back from next week!!!
My inkling is that we have indeed lost the CBS games. There seems to be no logical reason to have put the Arkansas at Texas Tech game on instead of Georgia at South Carolina unless they didn't have rights to the UGA-SC game anymore.
I also notice that they are making a real effort to show the main SEC Network game at midnight now on BT Sport 2 even when they have the main ABC Saturday night game on as well at 1am on ESPN. This seems like they are trying to keep an 'SEC presence' in their coverage to try and make up for lack of CBS games.
It may have saved ESPN/BT some money, and you can argue with audiences of only 10-11,000 it is not a big deal, but the lack of some real big regular season games now like Alabama at LSU, Georgia v Florida, Auburn at Alabama and of course the SEC Title Game is a big miss.
ESPN/BT will argue that they show an enormous amount of games and that they show all the Bowl games as well. Correct, and I would hate to see the coverage disappear. But the lack of the main CBS game of the week is a blow, especially when a lot of the main PAC-12 games are on FOX and we miss them as well. The biggest games involving the 2 best conferences are now unfortunately not available, which is a shame.
Unless I'm wrong and we get CBS games back with us this week!
Will be interesting to see how that pans out, as I understand it the majority of picks/timings haven't been made past Week 4 of the season yet (Other than Florida/Georgia)
Out of interest has ESPN actually shown any other SEC Network games other than the two on the opening Thursday?
In the past CBS normally wait until the week before to decide the best game, unless it is obvious, so presumably the same this year.
There were 4 SECN games shown in week 1. In addition to the 2 on opening Thursday, 1 on Sunday live (when no NFL) and one as-live during the week.
Interestingly, none in week 2 or 3 since. Brent M. and Jesse P. were at Kentucky/Florida yesterday, and there was a live look in on the US ESPN coverage which we also got, as ESPN continues to plug SECN over there. That did also turn out to be a good game from the score.
Good point made by Gray 77, that if we don't get CBS games, then combined with no Fox/PAC 12 coverage - plus of course no NBC/Notre Dame, then BT/ESPN coverage really will be watered down, especially as the only midweek "as live" games appear to be repeats (other than 1 so far). And the thought of not getting the SEC Championship game on CBS!!!!!!!.....
Also, College Football Final doesn't get broadcast today - it's at 9am on Monday, and there only appears to be the one showing/no repeat.
Thanks for the info on what SEC Network games they've shown
As much as I like the SEC for me if we lose the CBS games the biggest loss will be Army-Navy in December.......it's one of my favourite games of the year.
The surprising thing about next week schedules is that the 8:30 game is TBA while they've already chosen what will be shown from the late games
The late games are stand alone games though. The ABC Saturday night game is set in stone at Clemson at Florida State and the midnight game on SECN is set in stone as well. The 5pm and 8.30pm games (UK times) usually have a couple of options with one on ESPN, one on ABC and maybe one on ESPN2 in the US. So, I think that's why they are still showing them as TBA because they don't know what game will be the main ESPN or ABC ones yet.
For the 8:30 kick offs the games for Week 4 are already set in the slots, they know now what games will be shown regardless of how they are distributed regionally on ABC/ESPN2. The only way it would matter is if they were tied into taking the one from a certain channel eg ABC, which would be a strange arrangement if they were.
1. CBS have 1st pick of SEC games each week.
2. These are selected 12 days in advance (except i believe for last week of the 'regular season').
3. If we have lost the CBS games then that means of the four major conference championship games only one (ACC) will be shown live with ES possibly airing delayed highlights of the Big Ten.
The Sky EPG is now showing the Saturday ESPN 8.30pm game as Florida at Alabama - which is the CBS SEC game (3.30pm ET USA)!
Thank you BT/ESPN.
Excellent, was getting worried at the lack of news the closer we were getting to the weekend!
It wasn't in sync though, which was a shame. That would be a much better option than having to put up with Harold Reynolds.
Yep, it wouldn't have bothered me either had you not been able to hear strikeouts called before the pitch was thrown!
As for City2000's question about the international feed, Rick Sutcliffe has tweeted that he'll be at the American League Championship Series, which I guess he'll be covering with Gary Thorne for MLB International before doing the World Series for them, as Thorne had indicated they would during this year's All-Star Game. Unfortunately the ALCS is the series TBS are showing, I'd have preferred to hear them doing the NLCS as that is on Fox Sports 1 like you but there you go. As for the MLB International graphics being old fashioned - they certainly are, but then they've been using the same graphics and theme tune since 2001! I really like them and think the MLB International theme is one of the best theme tunes in sports, although I'm sure that's partly down to the nostalgia value of them reminding me of when I first got into baseball as a teenager.
One really positive development regarding BT Sport's coverage of the Major League Baseball Playoffs is that so far every game they've shown (as far as I'm aware, I may have missed checking in to one or two) has been streamed on the BT Sport website and mobile app to subscribers. There's been no online testcards telling us that streaming has been preventing due to rights restrictions, regardless of the broadcaster being ESPN, Fox, TBS or the MLB Network. Hopefully this will continue all the way through to the World Series. I can understand why certain regional telecasts are blocked to BT Sport customers online during the regular season - we still get a pretty good deal with almost all of the ESPN national telecasts, some local games plus delayed screenings and Baseball Tonight going out online, but I can see why they'd want to hold a few things back in order to convince really hardcore baseball fans to subscribe to MLB.TV and get just that bit more live access to games. But last year I found it really frustrating and confusing why BT Sport weren't able to stream the World Series on their app. Surely it makes sense to open up the league's showpiece series, which is made available free-to-air in as many countries as possible, to as many viewers as you can for the good of the sport? Hopefully this will be corrected this year and so far the signs are encouraging.
The viewing figures for College Football seem to get good numbers relative to other transmissions/sports, and BT/ESPN seem to be acknowledging that, which is great, including College Gameday which thankfully now seems to be back as permanent/in full and many more midweek games live than we had in the past.
Rankings - Imo the CFB Play-off Selection Committee is doing a great job in their weekly rankings so far (although they ought to be able to decide by Monday evening, not Tuesday evening). There are still several elimination games to come, but any reservations about the new committee seem to be unfounded so far, although no doubt whoever ends up at numbers 5 and 6 at the end will feel otherwise. I used to enjoy the BCS top 2 discussions on the CF Live talk shows, but these are even better now.
Fwiw my CFP idea:
8 teams.
All power 5 champs.
Committee selects 4 teams not playing in conference champ game to contest two play-in games (thus teams can't benefit from sitting at home).
Final team is selected by committee from conference champ game losers.