USA, England tackle the future of sportscasting

England and USA have more in common this weekend than the fact that both their football teams are competing in the World Cup. Sadly fans of both teams won’t be able to watch their respective games on their home televisions.

Actually that’s not strictly true; fans with a little technical savvy can attach their computers to their TVs so they have in fact a giant monitor to view the webcasts of these games.

Forget TV broadcasting; the webcasting of these matches probably shows the way sporting events will be marketed and sold in the future.

The time is not quite right yet for webcasting only, but it is coming closer. Word from England is that the game will be shown in some cinemas and in the US the game will be shown in bars across the country and fans will be charged $15 each for the privilege of watching.

Not surprisingly fans in both countries are unhappy but there was nothing the respective football powers could do. The TV networks in the UK weren’t prepared to cough up a huge fee for what they considered a meaningless game, as England have qualified for the finals.

Regarding the USA game where qualification is on the line, Honduras’ soccer federation held the sales rights and they chose a company that specialized in closed circuit, pay-per-view events. America’s ESPN tried to ‘sub-contract’ the English-language rights from Copa.tv but the company wasn’t interested.

It’s all a bit of a mess at the moment but by the time the next World Cup rolls around the technologies of the computer and TV will be much better aligned and we’ll think nothing of watching webcasts via wifi in whatever location we choose.