FOX Champions League Coverage Review

Yesterday began the era of FOX’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League.  While most people may not have Fox Soccer Channel nor Setanta Sports to watch it, FOX decided to put one of the games on their regional sports network FSN.

Well, it took 0 minutes for FOX to screw up their coverage.  They had some techincal difficulty on the international feed commentator and were forced to have one of their own do emergency broadcasting for about 20 minutes until they were fixed.  Despite this problem, overall, the coverage was pretty good.  There was no ticker and the international commentators were pretty good.  Also, the broadcast was aired in HD, for those who picked it up, which ESPN did not do until the final.

While it was a solid day for FOX, they did have some hiccups.  First, was their techincal difficulty that they had with the audio.  Secondly, some of the regional sports network, mainly Comcast Sportsnet, screwed up in their HD feed.  However, this was mainly Comcast’s fault on that one.  Third and this is a minor complaint, the Heineken inserts are more annoying compared to ESPN’s Heineken inserts.  The inserts happened for about every segment.

These problems can be worked out, and probably FOX’s coverage will get better in the future.  The only things I miss that ESPN did well is that 2 matches per week that is available in many people’s home, free online replays like how ESPN360 did, and the commentary of Derek Rae.