Thetownend.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/8286886.stm

personally i think this is a fucking disgrace, people should make a stand and not fucking get it otherwise this could be the sign of things to come....

It's awful, I have absolutely no interest in pay-per-view internet only games and I hope most feel the same.

I'm pretty sure most people do feel the same, no-one is going to pay to watch some game streamed over a dodgy website.
This won't catch on, I can't imagine a pub full of punters all huddled round someones laptop watching the game.



What a load of bullshit!
People want a choice?! But the only choice to watch it is to pay to watch it online, that's not a choice.
It's not pioneering or exciting, it's ridiculous.

Rio Ferdinand is a twat for supporting it also, how much is he getting paid for promoting it?

Have you been on the Kentaro website - it's really quite amateur. The illegal stream websites look better :)

http://kentaro.hdlab2.de/

I wouldn't pay £5 to watch a match in HD on my 42" plasma TV, so there is no way I'll be paying it to watch an unimportant England game broadcast from Ukraine over the internet. We've kind of brought it on ourselves though by leading the way in paying for football on TV - smaller countries get drawn against us, see ££££ signs and expect to be able to cash in on it.

The only way this is going to be stopped is if it is a total failure, if no one pays, no one will try it again.

Thank *#*! that this qualifier doesn't actually count for anything.

But it is any different from Setanta (or Sky before them). OK maybe they are subscription rather than PPV but you are still paying to see your national team.

Thanks to Setnata I've become a part time England fan as I wouldn't pay the extra for the privialage. Tell me when there is a major competition on and I'll watch :)

I'm absolutely with you there, Batch, I really don't see this as being any different.

It's a sign of the times, eventually all the television we consume will probably come through the internet, albeit to your tv set.  Whether it's advert supported or charged for is the only real question, although I would expect premium content like this or some films/shows will only be available for a fee.

I guarantee the site will crash and there's bound to be loads of free streams about.

Im sure I heard it mentioned on TV this morning that it would be limited to 1million streams to stop it from overlaoding. Ambitious. I doubt they will get 1million downloads at all. Will be interesting to see if any pubs actally download it to put on their big screens.

As the game is unimportant anyway, I think its important that we don't pay for this.  As has already been said, if no-one pays, the idea will fail.  We could all just listen to it on the radio (if its on).

I certainly won't be paying a fiver, and I don't know anyone else who would.

It's only a fiver if you get it today or tomorrow. It gradually increases throughout the week and is £11.99 if you get it on Friday or Saturday!

Anyone with a bet265 account can watch it free of charge through their website.

i read in the daily mirror the other day that they have secured free rights to the match. just log on to www.dailymirror.co.uk on saturday.

it costs 20p before you ask why i read it!

Have they made so much money they can't be arsed for 100 days of the year :)

In  seriousness thanks for the tip. I wouldn't have seen this if it wasn' for your post. Not sure I'll bother but nice to have the option.

T&C's:



   1.      Customers must have a funded account in order to view the Ukraine v England Live Stream.
   2.      The Ukraine v England Live Stream is only available to customers residing in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

I'll try the normal site i use MYp2p, never had a problem with watching most games. quality is normally very good.

No, I have flid fingers. Which reminds me of the barmaid who asked if we were Norwich fans in the pub next to Brentford station. My reply: "Do I look like I've got webbed hands?" Thank god she didn't answer that.

I'm not sure if it says it in the article which I can't read because its blocked, are any TV channels showing the highlights?

Why would anyone want to pay a fiver to watch an unimportant qualifer in poor quality.

If people decide to actually pay for this then they will believe it is a sucess and it will continue in the future.

We must stop this before it goes too far!

I hate this, it is different from Sky as it makes it harder for pubs to show it. But I don't like England games being on Sky either, I believe they should be available to all on free-to-air.

I agree - interestingly, all Germany game are free-to-air in Germany.

Welcome.  It's nice here.

Can't see any highlights program.

Thank you for the nice welcome!

I hope it's as nice here as your making out!

Its interesting how a lot of the Murdoch media will have it on their websites.

NewsCorp are desperate for people to pay for their online versions of their newspapers. They know that once people do it, they will keep doing it out of habit (like I still subscribe to STFCWorld even though I have no need to and havnt used the site for months).

All this Kentaro bollocks looks to be a bit of a front. Bit of a hunch, but I think this is a big tester for the future of all the Murdoch media.

You are right Spencer.

It is either Murdoch himself or one of his mouth-pieces that have a campaign against the BBC and it's website, which for me is the first place I go on the internet.

I fucking hate Rio Ferdinand. He's actually backing this ludicrous idea! Caaaant.

Here is the article I refer to above

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/28/james-murdoch-bbc-mactaggart-edinburgh-tv-festival

It was James Murdoch, not Rupert, but the interests are the same.

Didn't know that James Murdoch was Herr Flick.

http://www.denofgeek.com/siteimage/scale/800/600/14611.png

some odeon cinemas will be showing it if anyones interested?

You could be right Spencer, as it today's Sun there is virtually a page advert on how you can order the game via their website, by a Sun jouno saying how wonderful an idea it is.

I still won't though.

at the end of the day, while the home nation can sell the rights to the match you cant really say that free-to-air TV channels should show it. They cant really afford it. TBH Ukraine are having a laugh by trying to charge £2million for what is nothing more than a friendly.
Im also struggling to find somewhere I can watch the Scotland v Japan game on Saturday morning, its looking like a t'interweb job for me as well.

i wouldn't bother, at this rate they won't have a team to put out!

The biggest problem is that the FA's in smaller countries have fuck all money and when they get drawn against us they start rubbing their hands in anticipation of the money they'll be able to cream off it. They think they can charge what they want and get away with it because we're England, loaded and will pay it without thinking.

The concern is that it is a slippery slope and could easily end up with us having to pay even more to watch future England games via pay per view. There are plenty of ways the FA, FIFA, UEFA and our own government could stop it but whether they will is another question.

Though I'm not sure an unimportant qualifier is too much to get bothered about and its hard to argue it should be on the protected list, ensuring free to air coverage. Highlights should be on the protected list as should any important deciders in the qualifiers. Another option would be a 'non pay TV' list, ensuring they stay on free to air or an existing subscription channel (eg, Sky, ESPN or EuroSport).

I must admit, I really don't give a fuck about this game and won't even be following the text coverage on the BBC.

Can we stop referring to Ukraine as a small country...largest one solely in Europe.  But of course your point is valid...the Ukrainian FA is probably not asking for £2m either, but after every middle man has added his percentage, the price goes up.

it's a bit weird as it's on sport baltic, as is the ireland game. i'm sure there'll be pubs putting the game on from non british sources...

Word is ITV got an offer to screen highlights rejected. Plenty of time to sort it out yet though.

i think its bloody stupid. thats all

Well said.

I obviously meant small in the financial sense and to a lesser degree in general football terms, it might be a big country area wise but their FA has got fuck all money compared to ours. I doubt they care who they piss off either, whereas we have to be on our best behaviour especially at the moment with us trying to get a World Cup.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/8295186.stm

good news for scotland fans

Bad news for everyone else, a complete waste of the licence fee. I feel like complaining.

well it's not that bad, fans of clubs of championship level or below might see their favourite players

Great! I can watch the B international now!

you said you were going to anyway...i was trying to be nice :(

thank you :) I was going to watch it anyway, but i can mong out on the Sofa and watch it instead of perching on the chair at the computer. Although after 10 withdrawls, is there any point? Plus I will only get pissed off that I am not there.

you're welcome

i wouldn't go all the way to japan to watch that...don't beat yourself up over it!

I would normally. :-(

I just couldn't believe that players would withdraw from this game with "slight knocks".  Unbelievable.  The biggest shock of all was Darren Fletcher.  What a shock that was.

Fletcher pulling out was a shock. But if players do have slight knocks, taking them on such a long flight wont help. If clubs are pulling players out because the game is in Japan, then its a bit daft as these players will still be home before anyone else on international duty as we arent playing on the wednesday. Also, if we had made the play offs I doubt we would be getting anywhere near as many withdrawls.