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Who'll watch England's World Cup qualifier online?

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  • Posted at 12:32pm
  • 09 October 2009
  • by PaulJones-RT
  • 19 comments

England's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on Saturday will be the national side's first game to be shown exclusively online. With England already through to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year, TV broadcasters have proved unwilling to fork out for the rights to the penultimate match and fans will be charged up to £11.99 to see it. But are they willing to pay?

I've occasionally streamed live football over the internet, but the quality has always been poor - sometimes it's hard to spot the ball among the pixels, and working out which player is which can be a nightmare. Presumably, the England game is going to be shown in significantly better definition. But that's not the only thing to consider.

Who really wants to watch the match hunched over a laptop? If you can't make it to a game (and this one's in Ukraine, so you'd have to be a pretty hardcore fan) there are really two sensible ways to watch football - sitting comfortably on the sofa with a beverage of your choice to hand or in the pub, where there's some atmosphere (and more beverages). And in both scenarios, the football's free.

So who's going to watch this game? Will you be paying to see it? What do you think about it only being available online? Should traditional broadcasters have been willing to pay to show it? Post a comment below and let us know.

And if you are intending to watch, but haven't signed up yet, do it now! You've missed out on the early-bird price of £4.99, but you can subscribe today for £9.99 - tomorrow it goes up again to £11.99.

The game kicks off at 5:15pm, with coverage starting at 4:45pm.

To sign up and watch, visit www.ukrainevengland.com.

UPDATED: Saturday, 8:00pm - BBC1 will be showing highlights of Ukraine v England in a Match of the Day special at 10:15pm tonight.

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Post a comment | 19 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 11 October 2009
  • at 11:35am
  • by Steve

Well, just how much money do the FA and others feel that they can wring from members of the public to watch a national side, we all pay a licence fee! why not increase the TV licence fee by say 'X' amount to cover the cost of watching ALL matches, be it Premier League or International matches, saying that the highlight programmes are good value at present. So I'd have to say no to paying for the right to watch my national side!

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 10:49pm
  • by Claire

What about the stuff we actually wanted to see?

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 9:07pm
  • by David SE27

If the game was to be guarenteed to be in clear high quality then perhaps £5 would be ok. But £11.99 for a streaming game is far too high. I could go and see my local side play for that price! Plus the good old Beeb have highlights :)

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 6:55pm
  • by Ray

When TV on the web becomes reliable and doesn't suddenly go off I might consider it but only if it's no more than a fiver.

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 6:45pm
  • by mike

This outrageous

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 6:28pm
  • by Steve

I am sickened that ITV did not put up the cash to show this match. It's obvious decision was based on ratings- clashes with BBC programmes and reduced viewers due to England having already qualified. The BBC are as bad, if not worse- our flagship national channel- pathetic.

Steve

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 6:09pm
  • by ubiquitous_one

yes but I will be watching the game in Ukrainian via SopCast in protest...

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 5:38pm
  • by Virgil

Only a fool would pay to watch on the internet. But the UK is full of idiots. They'll pay, then listen to them complain in a few years when EVERYTHING has a price tag attached. You are digging your own graves here.

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 5:21pm
  • by Jack christian

I think it's a joke that we have to pay to watch our country! They should encourage people to watch not charge them more! We already pay for tv license, sky and Internet per month. Unbelievable and wrong.

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 5:09pm
  • by J-Man

A bit of a rip-off.

Try justin TV for free streaming.

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 4:30pm
  • by carl

once we start paying to watch games were does it end pay per view world cup

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 3:44pm
  • by jacko

I am not paying to watch it or all the games will go the same way

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 2:13pm
  • by Ihan

This is the most stupid idea ever. who ever decided so. I hope this will be the first and LAST.

Kind regards Ihan

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 11:54am
  • by Jimmy

That is a load of s**t.

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 11:23pm
  • by Tobias

I'm playing my laptop through a projector and playing the sound through my stereo. The neighbours are bringing the beers. So no, I won't be hunched over my laptop!

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 9:39pm
  • by barry white

why is this like this? have I missed something in the last few years? What happened to HD TV? Sorry but this is is the 21st century why do I want to watch a computer screen to see the footie?

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 9:18pm
  • by Streaky

I paid to see it first I heard it was going to be online. I'd pay 4.99 to watch /all/ the games I want to see because it would work out cheaper than buying Sky and it's a better medium. As for the quality, you could stream HD over the internet if you want with reasonably low bandwidth. Youtube do it now so it's not like it's hard to do.

It does stink of one extreme to the other though - normally you can't watch /anything/ legitmately online and this match is the only way you can do it.

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 8:14pm
  • by Martin

Radio 5 Live !

  • Posted on 09 October 2009
  • at 6:59pm
  • by JEFF

THEY REALLY CANT BE SERIOUS THAT WE WILL PAY £12 FOR A GAME ON THE INTERNET - THERE MUST BE A LOT OF MUGS OUT THERE

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