Satelitte providers and football (college and pro)

It looks like my family and I will be moving to the UK in the fall.  My husband is very concerned about important things like American football availability.    We have DirecTV and every football package available during the season.  What satalitte providers are in the Essex area? And how much pro and college football is available?

Cable is pretty limited to Virgin and Sky.  You can get NFL football but at American times, so quite late at night.  I don't believe any college football is shown.

There's plenty of college ball on NASN - ESPN America, I think it's called now.  It's available on Sky (and I assume Virgin - it was a subscription channel before Setanta went bust).  As Sara mentioned, the live games will be shown at American times, then replayed several times over the next couple of days.  There's usually two or three match-ups each Saturday and the better your team is doing, the more likely it'll be that your game will be one of them! (I had a time of it trying to catch Georgia games the first year I lived here, but last year was another story altogether.  At least in the first half of the season....)

Well, we are a University of Southern California family so hopefully, it won't be hard to see them (fingers crossed).  Thank you for the info!  Does satelitte TV exist there?  DirecTV?

Yeah, I doubt you're going to have trouble catching USC games.

Virgin and Sky are the two satellite providers. Cable as a separate service doesn't exist in the UK.  You either have an antenna which will pick up the five terrestial network channels - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, and Five - or a Freeview box which picks up a few more (BBC3, BBC4, ITV2, a couple of specialty channels like Dave, maybe, and a LOT of QVC/bidTV shopping channels), which is sort of like having VERY basic cable.  For anything near what normal cable would offer, you'll need Sky or Virgin, which are dish-only services with a number of "mixes" that you can choose from.

Well, we are a University of Southern California family so hopefully, it won't be hard to see them (fingers crossed).  Thank you for the info!  Does satelitte TV exist there?  DirecTV?

Sky is satellite, and is more popular than cable. Probably your best choice for NFL as they carry additional games only on satellite.
Sky Sports is available on both satellite and cable....last season NFL games were
All the Thursday/Saturday games
A Sunday game at 6pm (the 1pm game in US) and another at 9pm (the 4pm game) - now this is where Sky satellite differs from cable as on satellite you can access an alternate game at both these times via an interactive option. Then the Sunday night game is live.
Also MNF is on live.
All the playoff games shown live.

Also you could subscribe to NFL online and watch any game live that Sky Sports aren't showing.

College is on ESPN America, currently part of the standard subscription on Sky but £10 a month on cable - not sure how long for though as this is just since the demise of Setanta and I expect that ESPN will bundle it up with their newly acquired Premier league (English football) coverage.

Yeah, I doubt you're going to have trouble catching USC games.

Virgin and Sky are the two satellite providers. Cable as a separate service doesn't exist in the UK.  You either have an antenna which will pick up the five terrestial network channels - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, and Five - or a Freeview box which picks up a few more (BBC3, BBC4, ITV2, a couple of specialty channels like Dave, maybe, and a LOT of QVC/bidTV shopping channels), which is sort of like having VERY basic cable.  For anything near what normal cable would offer, you'll need Sky or Virgin, which are dish-only services with a number of "mixes" that you can choose from.

Virgin is a cable service!

Virgin is a cable service!

Ah, my mistake.   I've never had Virgin, only Sky, and as the telly channels are all advertised as "Sky channel 232, Virgin channel 253" or whatnot, I assumed it was similarly a dish service.

As TykeMan said, Sky is your best option for the NFL.  With the choice of games, it's a lot like what you'd get in the US if you didn't have DirecTV; i.e. 2 of the early Sunday games, 2 of the late Sunday games, and Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night games.  During the playoffs you get everything.  As others have mentioned, if you want to watch MNF live, you're going to be up late. 

If a game you want to see isn't on Sky, you can see it on the internet using Yahoo Game Pass, but how good this looks will depend on how fast your internet connection is.  Slingbox is another option, and this year I'm going to try hooking up a Slingbox at my parents' house and see how that is for watching games via the internet.

Is ESPN America on the Sky Sport's package?  I am very sure I have to pay extra for it?  But everything is changing now anyway...

Vicky

Is ESPN America on the Sky Sport's package?  I am very sure I have to pay extra for it?  But everything is changing now anyway...

Vicky

No, it used to be on the Setanta Sports pack....it's now on the News and Events pack with Eurosport, Sky Sports News, Fox News....so most people with Sky will get it....see the seperate post I made about it. Just watching last nights Cubs game that I recorded.

Dammit!  I'm missing baseball!




Vicky

Virgin isn't dish - it's cabled and so therefore the only option for people who live in buildings that don't allow dishes (they're also the only CABLE internet provider in the UK) - ESPN American has to be ordered directly from ESPN America as a tack-on to any TV package and costs £10/month.

On August 3, 2009, Sky changed the ESPN America from the News & Events pack to a separate subscription for ESPN as TykeMan predicted.  There's now a £10/month subscription for ESPN, ESPN HD, and ESPN America channels.  This is due to their buying Setanta of course.  ESPN channel has 46 premier league games.  I hear that Virgin now includes the ESPN America station however.  Of course we just signed a contract with Sky though.

I'm torn on whether this is worth it for the maybe one game of week of my baseball team...and wonder how many times my team's NFL games will be broadcast for the season.  But, then when I watch the games, they are some of my happier moments.

Go CUBBIES!

I'm torn on whether this is worth it for the maybe one game of week of my baseball team...and wonder how many times my team's NFL games will be broadcast for the season.  But, then when I watch the games, they are some of my happier moments.

For the NFL, it's all going to depend on how they've sold the games here in the UK.  Last year, the games that were shown on Sky were broadcast in the US on Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN.  This year, with ESPN available in the UK, I'd imagine ESPN will keep the games they've got the rights to and tell Sky to go pound sand.  That said, it's only one game per week, so you ought to look at the schedule of Monday night games and see how many times your team will appear.