German Sports channel changes to different channel

[Mirariel]

Yep, this is precisely what happened: Friday game live, Saturday BL conference live, the evening game was NOT shown, Sunday 2nd BL conference live, none of the two BL matches shown. So they show 6 out of 9 games live (the other 3, I understand, they show sometime during the week).

The Saturday late game I watch in the 'Aktuelle Sportstudio' on the web (on that site I outlined previously in this thread). That leaves the two Sunday games, which basically I will miss. That stinks particularly until Christmas, as there often are 3 Sunday games (due to EL games during the week on Thursday). I am quite annoyed by that, and those talk shows they show instead don't really make up for it to me as that interests me very little. On the upside, its still possible to watch most games.

... oh I have to check out the Sunday Sportschau, they might have some sort of 'Zusammenfassung'.

 

[psychotrope]

A couple of interesting notes: Next week (Week 2) the three games they are showing as replays on Thursday night are the three Bundesliga games they will not be showing live from the weekend: Saturday's late game, Fortuna Dusseldorf v M'gladbach; and the two Sunday games, Wolfsburg v Hannover and Stuttgart v Bayern Munchen. So that means that if you count Die Konferenz, all 9 games from this upcoming weekend will be shown. 6 live (1 Friday, and 5 in Die Konferenz Saturday), and 3 on tape delay. Plus they are showing a replay of the whole game between Nuernberg and Borussia Dortmund which takes place during the early cluster on Saturday on Wednesday night. This Wednesday night replay is new. This will be the first time they've shown a replay on Wednesday night. That means they might be expanding their coverage. At first they had reserved times of 3 repeat games Thursday night, 1 live game Friday afternoon, Die Konferenz Saturday Morning, and the flimsy 2.Bundesliga Konferenz on Sunday (with only 3 games!). But now they are adding a 4th game replay on Wednesday night. And that Wednesday night replay spot appears to continue on after next week too. I really wish they were showing the Saturday late games and Sunday games live. But we're still getting a decent amount of coverage and it may be expanding. We'll see if a little bit of time and more phone calls coming in helps to remind them of what they said themselves: people watch this channel for the Bundesliga coverage.

 

[Mirariel]

Oh this would be good info Psycho: where do we complain (phone number/email)? :> If you share, I call and some others here might also! :>

 

[psychotrope]

Oh this would be good info Psycho: where do we complain (phone number/email)? :> If you share, I call and some others here might also! :>

Go to the www.mygermantvplus.com web site and scroll down to the very bottom and click on "Kontakt". That will take you to a form you can fill out that sends an e-mail to the parent company in Germany or Switzerland. Not sure. They signed off all their emails with "Greetings from Germany." Anyway, I did that on the now defunct My Sports Germany web site and they responded within a couple days. When I wrote back later, a person responded the same day. The person I corresponded with was at an email called info at mysportsgermany dot com. But I only saw that email address because that's where the reply to my form entry came from. I don't know what the new email would be for the new site, but my guess is info at mygermantvplus dot com. Anyway, don't guess. Just fill out the form by clicking on Kontakt http://mygermantvplus.com/kontakt

Please be polite when telling them what content you prefer. They have been very nice so far with me and I would hate to lead people to contact them in a rude way. If you're nice, you're probably also more likely to get a response.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the cutting back on Bundesliga coverage is out of their control as US televising rights may have changed and they are not permitted to show as many live games as they did last year.

 

[Mirariel]

I wrote them... friendly!! I am the pleasantness incorporated anyhow.

 

[kruppma]

I sent an email last week, and received this response last Friday:

Thanks for your email!

Apologies for the changes we had to make re. the new season, but this was unfortunately beyond our power.

You are right, we can't show the Sunday conference for 1. Bundesliga. But you'll be able to see all the goals
in our show "Alle Spiele, alle Tore - Spieltag komplett". Additionally, we show most of the Sunday games and the many of the
late afternoon matches from Saturdays in full length on the following Thursdays - three games from 7.00pm EST onwards.
Maybe that's at least a little compensation.

Here's an overview of our weekly Bundesliga coverage:


- A live game on Fridays at 2.00pm EST, followed by the live show "Mein Stadion" at 4.45pm.
- The live Konferenz for 1. Liga on Saturdays: first tx date: August 25 at
8.30am, followed by the live show "Alle Spiele, alle Tore" at 10.30am.
- The live Konferenz for 2. Liga on Sundays; the Konferenz for the third round will be aired on August 26 at 7.00am
- The third of our three live shows from Sky, "Sky 90", will be aired on
August 26 at 1.30pm for the first time.
- And, as mentioned before, three delayed 1. Bundesliga games every Thursday in full length from 7.00pm EST.

Re. 2 Bundesliga: the situation could change in a couple of months, but we can't tell for sure right now.

We do hope that you will be able to enjoy what we can offer this year.

Best wishes from Germany,

Your My German TV Team

 

[psychotrope]

So my theory was right: for licensing reasons they can't show the Sunday games or all of the games live. But this latest e-mail response from them seems to suggest that they may be catering their Thursday night replays to the games that don't end up being shown live. At least there's that. Thanks for sharing this info, kruppma.

 

[Mirariel]

Personally I do not quite buy the 'licensing' argument. The reason is simple: nobody else in the US (to my knowledge) shows those games. In other words, getting the rights for them, if you already show all the others, should be very inexpensive (the Bundesliga should almost pay them to show it, given that it is free advertising). I point this out since, as a consequence, this might mean that continued bickering by users actually might have a point. I would much prefer seeing all games live rather than watching 10 minutes per game summaries on the web. :/

Be that as it may, there is an upside to this: the late game (the Spiel der Woche - lol, what a joke that term always was ) is usually, just as the Sunday games, of teams of ... lets just say this carefully... less broad appeal (next week for instance Fuerth-Schalke - nice clubs, but we all know already how this will end - as the 'top game' late) or Freiburg-Hoffenheim (i get tired just writing that ) on Sunday. The only general exception to this will be when theres EL, which means the EL teams get to play Sundays. So that is a more positive way to look at it

 

[kruppma]

I did not subscribe yet to Dish; this package is insufficient, compared what they offered before.
It's better to have a Spanish (Hispanic) package with a cable provider or Dish which has ESPN deportes, GOLTV, and Fox soccer, and you can see most of the BL games live.
Unfortunately, I have WOW cable (central Ohio), and they do not offer a Hispanic Package. Waiting for U-Verse to come to my street.

 

[Mirariel]

Well, I guess that most of us do not speak Spanish, so that is a little bit an annoying option for most I would think. I rather see a couple of games less live, but in a language I actually understand and download the others. Dish offers all those things btw, but I have never seen live BL games on Gol TV recently or Fox soccer. I will have to check that out next weekend!

 

[kruppma]

Mirariel,

this is a good site to check out the schedules http://www.livesoccertv.com/. Seems GOL TV is showing some games?

Martin

 

[Mirariel]

Thanks, good link. There seem to be some issues with the info however, for instance it lists the Saturday the evening game which supposedly will be shown on MGTV+ (which it never is). But I bookmarked it and check it out more.

 

[Mirariel]

Great ... of midweek games they show absolutely nothing it seems. So sad. :/