Fulham Next, And Sky Have Their Say On Arsenal TV
Jan 18th, 2008 by 'holic
Fulham brings back memories for this old gooner. My first trip to the Cottage was as a schoolboy over forty years ago, and one thing stands in the memory. It had rained all week and the pitch was like a ploughed field. Arsenal looked to have won it when George Eastham found himself with an open goal and hit the ball goalwards. He turned and celebrated, unaware that the ball had stuck in the mud on the line and we had to settle for a point from a 0-0 draw.
The weather may be similar, but hopefully the result will not be tomorrow. I don’t want to be disrespectful to Roy Hodgson’s charges, but this contest is all about which Arsenal turns up in West London. A week after dropping two points at home to Birmingham a very similar line-up will be charged with securing the all-important away win.
It is a fair bet that Tomas Rosicky will return, possibly in place of Theo Walcott. First goalscorer punters may well be looking at the home side for the best value. Fulham set the tone for their season when taking the lead at the Grove on the opening day of the season, before surrendering the points in the final seven minutes to van Persie and Hleb.
My few pennies will be placed on Emmanuel Adebayor. Fulham have lost a lot of height this season and I fancy the big man to strike relatively early. The main punt however, the infamous ‘holic pound, will be placed on a 2-0 triumph.
Well, They Were Quick To Respond
The preview is compressed to make way for a quick update on the Arsenal TV fiasco. Readers yesterday know I finally got a response from Virgin Media accepting some, but certainly not all, of the responsibility. If, like me, you upgraded your package specifically to receive the new channel continue to complain and request some recompense from them.
Setanta have sadly shown no sign of getting back to me seventy-two hours after I contacted them. Arsenal were the most responsive of the three parties I have to say. Just this morning I directed my query to their new customer service operation. Sadly my query was forwarded to the operators of ATVO, presumably in error. Video Lounge Support, aka BSkyB, took great delight in responding, “I am sorry that you are upset but please note that Arsenal TV Online has nothing to do with Arsenal TV.” You couldn’t make it up, could you?
I was nervous of making a fuss about this issue the other day, thinking it was just a UK problem. The correspondence, and massive response, I am seeing from around the world suggests otherwise. It looks as though the issue facing Setanta in Australia is being replicated around the globe. Apparently the Premier League have a restriction in place which prevents more than two club channels from being broadcast in each region outside these shores? If you have the definitive answer to that I would be delighted to hear it. Failing that I will try and contact them next week to get an explanation for you.
If you are one of the lucky ones making your way to Fulham tomorrow I hope you have a great day out. It usually is. Take care everybody else, and have a great weekend.
I’ll be back with a report on the game, and also with the details of the present for the gooner who has everything. Don’t miss it.
6 Responses to “Fulham Next, And Sky Have Their Say On Arsenal TV”
First drink.
Tired, think I’ll only read your blog tomorrow. When it’s out of date!
See you a week on saturday!
Got a phone call from Virgin Media, 60 hours after I left a complaint on their website. They insist that they have not run out of available channels, but that the fault lies with Satanta, who are not able to provide Virgin Media with a suitable feed. VM claim to be negotiating with Satanta for them to deliver the channel in a format that VM can broadcast. The VM Customer Services operative then fell at the first hurdle but admitting she did not understand the technicalities of the problem, if when or how it would be resolved, and whether VM will charge their customers for Arsenal TV. I told her that “I’m switching to Sky” would be the answer to all of these questions in to not too distant future. I suspect she cared about as much as I believed her story.
The FA rule that affects different regions around the world is ludicrous. So American and Canadian gooners can’t watch Arsenal TV — meanwhile American and Candian chavs and mancs get their channels. What the hell is the rationale behind that idiotic rule?
We had ArsenalTV here in the states last year on GolTV (though it only broadcast the game on Mondays from like 3-6pm and that was it). But they dropped it during the summer, I guess because they didn’t want a channel from a team that was about to fall out of the top 4. Idiots! Anyway, even if you get Setanta now in the US you won’t get ArsenalTV because of this 2 club channel rule. How is that going to help grow the Premier League?? This TV channel is a major marketing tool for the club and its brand. How can Arsenal be denied the opportunity to capitalize on the American market?? And also how can Chelsea and ManU be allowed to monopolize it? Trust me, here in NY there are a lot more Gooners than Chelsea “fans”.
After 3 days I got a phone call from VM. I told them that I had just switched from SKY to VM because of being able to get Arsenal TV. I told them that I had specifically asked the question and was told tyes it would be available when I took out my subscription. The lady agreed that I had been given false information but like others stated that VM were in negotiations and hoped to have it available soon. I said not good enough and I wanted to cancel in total disgust at their service. They then gave me Sky Sports free for two months to compensate and said review it then. I also informed her that there was massive bad feelings about this on Gooner web sites, and that many were thinking of cancelling their subscriptions. This seemed to get more of a reaction. My advice from my dealings at the moment is this. Keep complaining. The more of us that kick up a fuss and threaten to go back to Sky the quicker they will resolve this. If we let it drop the thy just will not bother.
I have kept on at Virgin media about this issue but to no avail.Sent setanta an E-mail and they say its down to the service provider.So it’s not setanta not Arsenal fc but Virgin on the ridiculous media.I have found the respose from Virgin unprofessional and disgusting the way its treating its customers,i keep sendind Virgin E-mails but i really am getting feed up with them……..