OneSoccer

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:35 PM, red card said:

I'll listen to Labbe about goalkeeping but she is out of the loop in terms of Canadian sports media.

The ratings show people will watch in numbers the Canadian women's team if wrapped around the Olympics, World Cup & even u19 world championship. 

Playing in Concacaf qualifiers or stand alone friendlies, the Canadian women aren't ready for prime time. They also don't play enough and about 1/3 of their matches aren't literally in prime time.

Canada played Wales in a friendly on a April Friday morning/afternoon where OneSoccer provided a free youtube stream of the match. Total viewers were below 17k. Not enough for an ad supported tv sports network. It's also proven by TSN not showing half of their matches when they had the rights.

It takes time to move a non-top 10 sports property into the top 10 especially when they don't play a regular season type schedule. At least now they have arrived if playing well in 2 major tourneys. But everything else is about a decade away away from gaining traction - assuming they keep on performing well at the Olympics or World Cup. 

Your previous post made sense and seemed reasonable. Here you are using tautological arguments and showing pretty bad faith. 

Obviously, as you said on the previous, you need to build over time. But the US NWT has done so by winning--which we have never done until now--which is what is of absolute important in the US. Best in the world. And with a league in place to feed off the successes, with player recognition on every team. Which is where you slip I'd say.

Saying the women "aren't ready for prime time", when the men have not played in prime time in recent memory either. 

Arguing on the basis of 17k viewers on OneSoccer, when CPL matches have apparently done worse. So you are also arguing that the CPL does not have enough to be on an ad-supported network either, thanks for making that clear. 

But the killer is the logic of saying there is nothing else but the national women's team. Then arguing against the viability of a league. Hey, if there was a league there would be something else apart from the national team. I mean, good logic: one reason a league may not work is when there is nothing between national women's team games, there is no interest in women's soccer. The logic is impeccable. Why don't you just argue the lack of audience for MLS in the off-season is an argument why MLS is not a viable tv product?

[Kent]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:48 AM, Watchmen said:

I'd assume she's driving more at a desire for a WCPL or an NWSL team(s) in Canada, rather a comment on OneSoccer. 

I think you are both right. It sounded like Labbe was talking about TV coverage of the national team. I think the second tweet from Ciara McCormack was talking about equal pay for national team members (the financial transparency could be alluding to this, and/or could also be alluding to understanding if the CSA is helping fund pro men's soccer) and possibly a league.

[nfitz]

According to the schedule on my PVR, BEIN is airing a Canadian Premier League game this evening (10:30 pm).

I don't subscribe, so I'm not sure what is it - if it's even CPL.

[SthMelbRed]

5 hours ago, Kent said:

I think you are both right. It sounded like Labbe was talking about TV coverage of the national team. I think the second tweet from Ciara McCormack was talking about equal pay for national team members (the financial transparency could be alluding to this, and/or could also be alluding to understanding if the CSA is helping fund pro men's soccer) and possibly a league.

The CSA is literally paying the salaries of many CWNT players to play in NWSL, no?

[narduch]

6 hours ago, nfitz said:

According to the schedule on my PVR, BEIN is airing a Canadian Premier League game this evening (10:30 pm).

I don't subscribe, so I'm not sure what is it - if it's even CPL.

These are old matches. 

It's part of a deal between One Soccer and BeIn. One Soccer gets Lille games. BeIn gets Canadian content to satisfy CRTC

[Kent]

6 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

The CSA is literally paying the salaries of many CWNT players to play in NWSL, no?

I believe you are right.

[nfitz]

5 hours ago, narduch said:

These are old matches. 

How old? 2019 old?

[Shway]

I hate the equal pay conversations. 
Equal pay doesn’t equal play.

The play is the entertainment value. I watched every CWNT game, and I’ll honestly say it reminds me of U12 boys soccer, when guys are learning to place/lift the ball high enough the keepers can’t get it. The game is not entertaining because it doesn’t suit the needs of woman.

Decades ago the nets were made bigger because there wasn’t a lot of goals which has only benefited the men’s game, and even still goal keepers are getting bigger and more agile. The woman’s game not so much.

The entertainment value is what’s needed to be discussed, there’s wayyyy to much talk about the men this the men that…..when the reality is these woman’s teams couldn’t beat some boys u16 teams. The conversation needs to be how do we get more eyes on the game. It’s the universal conversation for woman’s sports that are dominated by the mens game. (Soccer - make the nets and field smaller, Basketball - the ball is already smaller, let’s lower the nets so there’s more dunking, make the court smaller so it’s played at higher tempo)

Edited August 11, 2021 by Shway

[narduch]

2 hours ago, nfitz said:

How old? 2019 old?

No idea. I just know they share content 

[JohnnyFranchise]

11 hours ago, narduch said:

It's part of a deal between One Soccer and BeIn. One Soccer gets Lille games. BeIn gets Canadian content to satisfy CRTC

makes sense. also explains how onesoccer gets the lille games, i was wondering about that.

[Kent]

I watched the Forge game last night, and part of the CCL game, and a bit of One Soccer Today as well. I put on One Soccer Today via the live channel, because I figured the Forge CONCACAF League game would just come on next that way. It went to some filler content instead, I thought that might be just a minute or something. When it kept going and going I went back to the menu and selected the game manually to find I missed the first couple minutes. For the CCL game I knew it was going to be on the Youtube channel because I had checked the "Upcoming" list earlier and it was absent, but I saw someone in another thread say they couldn't find it, and I know I have been confused by this in the past as well.

Some suggestions for improvement.

1. They should be clearer in their messaging when they are tweeting, or talking on their news programs, or when you are viewing the "Upcoming" list. Is the game going to be on the live channel? A separate channel (channel 2 or something like that?) or is it going to be on Youtube?

2. With regards to Youtube, I can't imagine it would be terribly hard for their Youtube live streams (and replays, not sure if they show up on the OneSoccer app or not) to be integrated into the website/app. Show the game thumbnail in the website, then if you click on it you get taken to the correct Youtube link.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Kent

[narduch]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

I watched the Forge game last night, and part of the CCL game, and a bit of One Soccer Today as well. I put on One Soccer Today via the live channel, because I figured the Forge CONCACAF League game would just come on next that way. It went to some filler content instead, I thought that might be just a minute or something. When it kept going and going I went back to the menu and selected the game manually to find I missed the first couple minutes. For the CCL game I knew it was going to be on the Youtube channel because I had checked the "Upcoming" list earlier and it was absent, but I saw someone in another thread say they couldn't find it, and I know I have been confused by this in the past as well.

Some suggestions for improvement.

1. They should be clearer in their messaging when they are tweeting, or talking on their news programs, or when you are viewing the "Upcoming" list. Is the game going to be on the live channel? A separate channel (channel 2 or something like that?) or is it going to be on Youtube?

2. With regards to Youtube, I can't imagine it would be terribly hard for their Youtube live streams (and replays, not sure if they show up on the OneSoccer app or not) to be integrated into the website/app. Show the game thumbnail in the website, then if you click on it you get taken to the correct Youtube link.

I watched a bit of the CCL last night on YouTube in the 2nd half and there were only 160 people streaming it.

Perhaps they could get higher numbers if they did a better job of  letting people know its available 

Edited August 13, 2021 by narduch

[toontownman]

4 hours ago, Kent said:

I watched the Forge game last night, and part of the CCL game, and a bit of One Soccer Today as well. I put on One Soccer Today via the live channel, because I figured the Forge CONCACAF League game would just come on next that way. It went to some filler content instead, I thought that might be just a minute or something. When it kept going and going I went back to the menu and selected the game manually to find I missed the first couple minutes. For the CCL game I knew it was going to be on the Youtube channel because I had checked the "Upcoming" list earlier and it was absent, but I saw someone in another thread say they couldn't find it, and I know I have been confused by this in the past as well.

Some suggestions for improvement.

1. They should be clearer in their messaging when they are tweeting, or talking on their news programs, or when you are viewing the "Upcoming" list. Is the game going to be on the live channel? A separate channel (channel 2 or something like that?) or is it going to be on Youtube?

2. With regards to Youtube, I can't imagine it would be terribly hard for their Youtube live streams (and replays, not sure if they show up on the OneSoccer app or not) to be integrated into the website/app. Show the game thumbnail in the website, then if you click on it you get taken to the correct Youtube link.

I had the same issue in thinking the Forge game would just be up next on their main channel but when it was 6.03 and the game coverage was supposed to start at 5.55 CST I thought I would go back and check. Missed the first minute or so but I watched it both on my phone via the app and Roku on an off once the CPL game had started. It was on their main stream menu just not playing on their main channel. Had no clue it was also on Youtube lol. 

[Kent]

55 minutes ago, toontownman said:

I had the same issue in thinking the Forge game would just be up next on their main channel but when it was 6.03 and the game coverage was supposed to start at 5.55 CST I thought I would go back and check. Missed the first minute or so but I watched it both on my phone via the app and Roku on an off once the CPL game had started. It was on their main stream menu just not playing on their main channel. Had no clue it was also on Youtube lol. 

As far as I know the only thing on youtube was the America vs Philadelphia champions league semi final. That's what I was referring to.

[toontownman]

Ah. I see.

 

[narduch]

With the Olympics over Nigel Reed is back announcing for One Soccer 

[m-g-williams]

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I know OS has done one-offs in French for Canadian Championship matches involving the club formerly known as the Impact, but having something more permanent is reassuring. 

[narduch]

10 minutes ago, m-g-williams said:

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I know OS has done one-offs in French for Canadian Championship matches involving the club formerly known as the Impact, but having something more permanent is reassuring. 

Yesterday's Blainville match was available in French.

[boris4c]

Any news as to when OneSoccer will become available on the Fire TV Stick? 

[red card]

More fodder that TSN/SN weren't good for Canadian national teams.

 

[narduch]

1 hour ago, red card said:

More fodder that TSN/SN weren't good for Canadian national teams.

 

 

[Watchmen]

57 minutes ago, red card said:

More fodder that TSN/SN weren't good for Canadian national teams.

 

Bell and Rogers aren't charities. If they thought they'd make money off airing Canadian soccer games they would. 

And blaming the media for "failing" Canadian soccer is bullshit. The CSA was poorly run for decades. I mean, damn.  It wasn't the media's fault that Canadian soccer had no cup/competition until fans stepped up and created the Voyageurs Cup. It wasn't the media's fault that the Bank of Montreal handed out blue noise makers vs Honduras, or regularly had Caribbean bands at Canada home matches. The media didn't hire Dale Mitchell as coach after he'd just failed with the u-20s. The list of CSA failings goes on, they dug themselves a hole, and it's going to take time to get out of it.

[narduch]

Just now, Watchmen said:

Bell and Rogers aren't charities. If they thought they'd make money off airing Canadian soccer games they would. 

And blaming the media for "failing" Canadian soccer is bullshit. The CSA was poorly run for decades. I mean, damn.  It wasn't the media's fault that Canadian soccer had no cup/competition until fans stepped up and created the Voyageurs Cup. It wasn't the media's fault that the Bank of Montreal handed out blue noise makers vs Honduras, or regularly had Caribbean bands at Canada home matches. The media didn't hire Dale Mitchell as coach after he'd just failed with the u-20s. The list of CSA failings goes on, they dug themselves a hole, and it's going to take time to get out of it.

They also aren't innovative companies. 

How hard is it to bid on the most popular rights and the show them in Canada? That is basically all Bell Media does.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Think Victor Montagliani is going a bit over board with that. English Premiership and Champions League coverage on cable helped boost the sport's profile when the domestic pro game was at a low ebb in the 90s up to the launch of TFC and they have shown MLS games in more recent times which is part and parcel of soccer in Canada whether he likes it or not.

CanPL was Montagliani's pet project in many ways and it would be reasonable to question whether the CSA could have done more than they did on the women's side of things over the last decade or so under a different CSA president. Were the Whitecaps given every possible encouragement when they were kicking the tires a bit on NWSL, for example?

It was the CSA's decision to hand CWNT rights over to CSB and from there onto Onesoccer along with the CMNT ones and that always looked a little questionable to me in gender equity terms when there was no fixed timeline being provided by Bob Young & co for a women's league only a vague aspiration.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ansem]

1 hour ago, narduch said: