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England in World Cup Semi!
Just beaten Belgium (men's) in a game they had to win to get to the Semi-Final of the World Hockey Cup which will be v Netherlands on Friday.
After what has seemed an immeasurably long and difficult week for both the men and women's teams - with some darned good thrashings on the way, I'm amazed that the men have emerged with a fourth-place at worst!! ^_^
Anyhow...well done them and anyone who managed to find the game tucked away on Sky Sports 4.
Just wonder if there were more people watching via pirates and un-blocked Youtube than on Sky??
After what has seemed an immeasurably long and difficult week for both the men and women's teams - with some darned good thrashings on the way, I'm amazed that the men have emerged with a fourth-place at worst!! ^_^
Anyhow...well done them and anyone who managed to find the game tucked away on Sky Sports 4.
Just wonder if there were more people watching via pirates and un-blocked Youtube than on Sky??
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SS4 was good enough for the US Masters Golf so I don't see the problem.
Anyway, well done to England- I enjoyed the last part of the match and will try to watch the semi on Friday.
But that aside - where will I be able to find the viewing figures for today's game when/if published?? If there's over 100k I'll be impressed. But either way, would love to know the breakdown of Sky viewers and those using alternative methods.
As a comparison Dutch TV have studios (obviously) at the game and wander round the crowds. Gives you a much better feel of "being there" then covering it from a studio. Not seen enough of Sky's coverage to know if they have presented any games from within the stadiums (when I was there I certainly didn't see anyone involved with Sky) - be such a pity for the viewers to miss out on the tremendous atmosphere there, in and around the two stadiums.
Well if they don't have Sky they would have known earlier than yesterday it wasn't on terrestrial surely ? A lot of popular sports are just on Sky so a minority sport like Hockey should think itself lucky with all the coverage it got. My favourite sport is Rugby League. To watch the World Cup of that I had to subscribe to Premier Sports even as a Sky subscriber.
Premier Sports? I've heard of it but thought it was a web-based channel?? Anyhow, as for Sky 4 - as a wider issue I notice reading http://www.thefootballlife.co.uk/post/40276750934/spl-viewing-figures-mid-term-report that they refer to Scottish football as being "shunted" to SS4 and it's viewing figures dropping accordingly.
How many instances are there of a game being shown live on SS4 and it getting viewing figures greater than, say, SS1 or SS2, and what would those events be?
Sky have announced today that there will be a Sky Sports 5 so that will cause even more controversy most probably!
It's a fast-moving, exciting game in which England (or Britain) are competitive.
Someone else mentioned Rugby League. I like that sport too - but Sky do give the sport very good coverage - and cup games are on BBC too.
Must say, I prefer Rugby League to Rugby Union (and I don't come from the north!)
Super League on Sky gets more viewers than the Aviva Premiership. And it doesn't matter where you come from.
Hockey isn't a great tv sport, sorry but it isn't, if it was it would get more coverage.
But when the Olympics are over it soon fades from the memory and next time it's on you can't really be bothered......
Unfortunately, only in the 11/12 place play-off game. England ladies beat Belgium 2-1 in the shootout, after 0-0 full time.
Very disappointing tournament for both Belgium and England women's teams. Can't put my finger on it r/e England, never really got into the tournament until it was too late, and in the crucial game v South Africa they were on top and had chances galore until SA scored and that kinda knocked the stuffing out of the team.
Are they under-prepared? Over-prepared and going into the competition over-cooked?? At least they have the Commonwealths which, although hardly world-class, still puts them against Australia again and a chance to save some face this season.
The games will be on the BBC and no doubt because of that will attract a larger audience, but I'd swap any Commonwealth Gold medal for a top-4 spot in the Worlds.
C'on England's men tomorrow!! Can't see them beating the Dutch, but if they can keep it tight and maybe get a shoot-out, who knows? And the Oranje aren't invincible - in last year's Euros a non-fancied Irish team took them all the way and the Dutch just squeezed through.
But what a joy it would be to be in Holland this weekend. Might just be a little bit of bunting out....
Oh and the Commonwealth Games.
Now if they can only get Hockey in the 2019 European Games
maybe but their are some exclusive sport channel are aired live