FC Bayern Forum

kofta wrote:Just thought I'd share with you all my overall experience with watching Bayern play, the Olympiacos game was the stimulus for this post...

Oh, and I'm sorry it took me this long after the game to write this; it took a while to bloody calm myself down after realizing what happened...even thinking about it now is starting to boil my blood! Apologies if this post drags on...

So I had resigned myself to the fact that I would happily watch Bundesliga/Pokal/friendly/other matches via crappy, laggy online streams (and would be ecstatic when I'd find a good quality stream), to the point that it really didn't bother me anymore...I was just glad that I was able to watch the game...

Now as some of you may know, and as conveniently indicated by the flag to the right I come from the land Down Under and kick off for Bayern Bundesliga/Pokal games are ALWAYS at pretty late and inconvenient times, between 11:30pm-5:30am, depending on which day the game is played, mid week games and daylight savings time, but I will persevere for the majority of the season to stay up/wake up for the games, including midweek Bundesliga/Pokal games

I would, however, take solace in knowing that when it comes to Champions League games, (which don't kick off at the most amazing of times either), I will be able to watch them in High Definition, perfect quality, as I have a subscription to Foxtel (our version of cable) including the sports package, which shows 2 Champions League games on TV, live, via ESPN and ESPN 2...this subscription also includes an iPad/iPhone app for those lazy, in bed, cold mornings AND access to espn3.com.au which gave you the choice to watch ANY of the games currently in progress that matchday...should all else fail, our free-to-air channel, SBS, would also show one of the games live (although more often than not, it would be a game with Barca/Real Madrid/some EPL club playing) and even then, they would show replays of ALL the matchday's games later on in the day...this had been the case for as long as I can remember, like literally, FOREVER...

Which brings me to our match against Olympiacos...my morning started the same way it always did on Champions League game days...turned on the TV to ESPN/ESPN 2...nothing, checked SBS...also nothing, logged onto espn3.com.au and you guessed it...S T I L L. N O T H I N G.

A frantic stream search then ensued, until I found something of respectable quality, watched the first half and was so frustrated by the combination of our game play and the lack of ESPN/SBS/online broadcast, that I decided to call it a night and hit the sack (not my proudest Bayern moment)

The next morning, I decided to trawl the internet for some information...turns out freakin beIN Sports had obtained the rights to the Champions League games in Australia for the next three years (although SBS decided to call it securing the rights since they'll be showing one game per match day, across both days, and a one hour highlights show)...absolute joke...all other sites basically call it as it is, beIN Sports obtains Australian broadcast rights for UEFA Champions League and home of football loses Champions League rights

I'm pretty pissed off that it'll be at least another $170 to be able to watch the games, although, the beIN subscription includes all Bundesliga games, and multiple other football leagues (La Liga/Ligue 1/Serie A/Europa League etc...)

I guess that's the position I'm in now, looks like I'll be biting the bullet and signing up next week

Apologies once again for the long post...