British expatriates in Thailand who were looking forward to watching World Cup 2010 have been disappointed by a country-wide ban on all English language commentary during the tournament.

The ban, which is believed to be the result of an exclusive agreement between Fifa and Thai broadcasters, means that many bar owners have resorted to illegally airing Malaysian broadcaster Astro Supersport's programmes, which use English commentary.

According to local media reports, however, venues showing Astro Supersport have been raided by police.

Jon Russell, a British expat in Thailand, said: "While many of us expats are keen learners and speakers of Thai, the lack of English commentary during the World Cup has been almost as frustrating as England's tournament performance, particularly as Premiership matches here are broadcast in English or Thai."

In The Phuket Gazette, a spokesman for local broadcaster TrueVisions was reported as claiming that Thailand had been unable to purchase the rights to show the games in English from Fifa.

She said the ban was "due to restrictions by the original provider of the World Cup, Fifa, which is not allowing English commentary in Thailand due to the high broadcast piracy problem among neighbouring countries".

A spokesman for Fifa said: "Fifa only licenses non-local languages on Pay TV (securely encrypted) on a case by case basis. In this particular case we have no further comment."

Rumours that Thailand's broadcasters had chosen not to purchase English commentary have been voiced on internet forums.

Mike Rose, another expat, said that he was managing to follow the "gist" of Thai commentary. "I choose to live in Thailand and don't expect everything to be in English, so although I was slightly disappointed with no English commentary, it wasn't the end of the world."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7878786/Expats-in-Thailand-suffer-World-Cup-disappointment.html

Isn't the game self explanatory ? I mean come on its hardly rocket science. And I am Dutch so im not an American slagging of on soccer.

I miss all the Thai Ho Ho's and Uhooo's when I'm forced to listen to English commentary!

What FIFA are saying here is they don't trust Asians from the poorer part of Asia as they are known to pirate and resell anything they can lay their hands on.

What FIFA are saying here is they don't trust Asians from the poorer part of Asia as they are known to pirate and resell anything they can lay their hands on.

Yeah, thats right...forcing alot of expats to watch illegal streaming with English commentary from ESPN etc....

but Fifa don't trust the Asians..

What FIFA are saying here is they don't trust Asians from the poorer part of Asia as they are known to pirate and resell anything they can lay their hands on.

I'm surprised that FIFA are even aware that the technology to pirate the broadcasts exists.

True have been disabling cards left right and centre that are of the pirated variety - a number of my friends have been cut off multiple times (even after having someone come around to reprogram the card, it goes off again 15 miinutes later). This also happened in the hotel i am currently staying.

Local Burmese TV broadcasts in English - which i found somewhat funny.

True have been disabling cards left right and centre that are of the pirated variety - a number of my friends have been cut off multiple times (even after having someone come around to reprogram the card, it goes off again 15 miinutes later). This also happened in the hotel i am currently staying.

Local Burmese TV broadcasts in English - which i found somewhat funny.

Stand to be corrected, but the World Cup in English was availible legally in Thailand, but you had to pay for it - UBC HD channel ??......

The Thai TV commentary can be annoying even for Thais, as it has the commentators doing lots of advertising during the game too - for some SMS services, to win i-mobile phones, thanking the CAT etc... They do it about 3-4 times every half and on every channel too. I was reading threads of pantip.com complaining about it and people advising to use the radio commentary or how to get the Lao coverage instead!

True have been disabling cards left right and centre that are of the pirated variety - a number of my friends have been cut off multiple times (even after having someone come around to reprogram the card, it goes off again 15 miinutes later). This also happened in the hotel i am currently staying.

Local Burmese TV broadcasts in English - which i found somewhat funny.

Stand to be corrected, but the World Cup in English was availible legally in Thailand, but you had to pay for it - UBC HD channel ??......

Correction, the UBC HD channel was also in Thai only. I have it in english on Astro Vision, which is on my local cable provider. There was a whole thread on this earlier in the month, by the way...

True have been disabling cards left right and centre that are of the pirated variety - a number of my friends have been cut off multiple times (even after having someone come around to reprogram the card, it goes off again 15 miinutes later). This also happened in the hotel i am currently staying.

Local Burmese TV broadcasts in English - which i found somewhat funny.

Stand to be corrected, but the World Cup in English was availible legally in Thailand, but you had to pay for it - UBC HD channel ??......

Correction, the UBC HD channel was also in Thai only. I have it in english on Astro Vision, which is on my local cable provider. There was a whole thread on this earlier in the month, by the way...

Ah thanks.....glad I didnt spring for it them, nearly did, the MF's were advertising for this channel in English....

True have been disabling cards left right and centre that are of the pirated variety - a number of my friends have been cut off multiple times (even after having someone come around to reprogram the card, it goes off again 15 miinutes later). This also happened in the hotel i am currently staying.

Local Burmese TV broadcasts in English - which i found somewhat funny.

Stand to be corrected, but the World Cup in English was availible legally in Thailand, but you had to pay for it - UBC HD channel ??......

Correction, the UBC HD channel was also in Thai only. I have it in english on Astro Vision, which is on my local cable provider. There was a whole thread on this earlier in the month, by the way...

Ah thanks.....glad I didnt spring for it them, nearly did, the MF's were advertising for this channel in English....

There were quite a few bar owners and others that were pretty upset after they had paid the extra money to change over to the HD box. I still don't understand though why it was illegal to show it on Astro Vision on cable as the cable company paid a licensing fee to Astro Vision. I guess it had to do with showing it to the public in a bar rather than viewing it in your home.

turn down volume, listen via live internet radio. problem solved.

turn down volume, listen via live internet radio. problem solved.

I tried that. There was 1.5 minute delay from the picture, at least at my house... Most cable companies have Astro Sports. At least in Phuket, they all do. 350 Baht a month.

In The Phuket Gazette, a spokesman for local broadcaster TrueVisions was reported as claiming that Thailand had been unable to purchase the rights to show the games in English from Fifa.

She said the ban was "due to restrictions by the original provider of the World Cup, Fifa, which is not allowing English commentary in Thailand due to the high broadcast piracy problem among neighbouring countries".

Well here is a highly intelligent thinking. We don't allow English commentary in because we are afraid of piracy.

Wake up FIFA! People will try to get an illegal broadcast from another country, BECAUSE they cannot get English commentary here.

I wonder what's the IQ if Sepp Blatter. Roughly the same as room temperature (in Switzerland).

True have been disabling cards left right and centre that are of the pirated variety - a number of my friends have been cut off multiple times (even after having someone come around to reprogram the card, it goes off again 15 miinutes later). This also happened in the hotel i am currently staying.

Local Burmese TV broadcasts in English - which i found somewhat funny.

Stand to be corrected, but the World Cup in English was availible legally in Thailand, but you had to pay for it - UBC HD channel ??......

I don't think I will...

In The Phuket Gazette, a spokesman for local broadcaster TrueVisions was reported as claiming that Thailand had been unable to purchase the rights to show the games in English from Fifa.

She said the ban was "due to restrictions by the original provider of the World Cup, Fifa, which is not allowing English commentary in Thailand due to the high broadcast piracy problem among neighbouring countries".

Well here is a highly intelligent thinking. We don't allow English commentary in because we are afraid of piracy.

Wake up FIFA! People will try to get an illegal broadcast from another country, BECAUSE they cannot get English commentary here.

I wonder what's the IQ if Sepp Blatter. Roughly the same as room temperature (in Switzerland).

I totally agree with your second sentence! I had read or heard somewhere it was because the Thai company (RS) that bought the right from FIFA only paid for the rights to the video and didn't want to pay the fee for the english commentary, which makes more sense to me. Once again Thailand is for Thai, not farang. Why should a Thai company pay more for the english commentary?

Isn't the game self explanatory ? I mean come on its hardly rocket science. And I am Dutch so im not an American slagging of on soccer.

but now you've made yourself look like a high-falootin' dutch punk. i'm an american and i love soccer, spread the word.

Isn't the game self explanatory ? I mean come on its hardly rocket science. And I am Dutch so im not an American slagging of on soccer.

but now you've made yourself look like a high-falootin' dutch punk. i'm an american and i love soccer, spread the word.

I don't like it much but i mean without comments is pretty easy to understand. But its a good thing Holland came so far.

Were not all anabolic brain dead, good commentary can often make the particular match more enjoyable.

Were not all anabolic brain dead, good commentary can often make the particular match more enjoyable.

I would say that brain dead people would need a simple game explained to them while smarter people don't need that. So i would say if one of us is brain dead its not me.

Anyway i like it how people make assumptions and then augment those assumptions with old wives tales. Just shows how stupid they really are.

I did not mean to offend anyone when i said the game is self explanatory. Its harder to understand a movie in Thai then a soccer game. Some people just get to agitated about a game.

I prefer the spanish language version rather than the espn version. The spanish channel shows a full screen and just a better put together program. I donot speak spanish but in the end a better show.

I prefer the spanish language version rather than the espn version. The spanish channel shows a full screen and just a better put together program. I donot speak spanish but in the end a better show.

I would say that it depends a lot on the camera man and the one who sets up the show. Just out of curiosity does every country have their one camera's or are there just a few sanctioned cameras that take it for everyone ?

In The Phuket Gazette, a spokesman for local broadcaster TrueVisions was reported as claiming that Thailand had been unable to purchase the rights to show the games in English from Fifa.

She said the ban was "due to restrictions by the original provider of the World Cup, Fifa, which is not allowing English commentary in Thailand due to the high broadcast piracy problem among neighbouring countries".

Well here is a highly intelligent thinking. We don't allow English commentary in because we are afraid of piracy.

Wake up FIFA! People will try to get an illegal broadcast from another country, BECAUSE they cannot get English commentary here.

I wonder what's the IQ if Sepp Blatter. Roughly the same as room temperature (in Switzerland).

Gotta agree, Blatter is big on squeezing ever euro out of this he can,

but not on making sure that all people who wish to watch can have

a good experience doing it. This guy is so old and out of touch,

he needs to be put out to pasture ASAP.

Fifa, which is not allowing English commentary in Thailand due to the high broadcast piracy problem among neighbouring countries".

Righty o

punish English speaking expats in Thailand, because they can't make enough profit

off of Myanmar, Lao, Cambodia and Viet Nam...

As it the pirates will NOT pirate it if it is not in English, of course the did it language issue or not.

FIFA gain not one penny more for this action, but deprived anglophones of a better game experience

and those are the ones who COULD have most easily paid.

Paul the Octopus has more on the ball than Sepp Blatter....

I miss all the Thai Ho Ho's and Uhooo's when I'm forced to listen to English commentary!

me too!!!

plus being a Scot Ive enjoyed not being subjected to the usual bias english commentators droning on about england this england that and 1966 when england usually arent even playing... thai tv coverage has been a treat!!

Why put the blame on FIFA or Sepp Blatter? You guys read again Jimi007's posting "..Thai company (RS) that bought the right from FIFA only paid for the rights to the video and didn't want to pay the fee for the english commentary, which makes more sense to me. Once again Thailand is for Thai, not farang. Why should a Thai company pay more for the english commentary?". This is very logical! What is the percentage of farangs compare to locals in Thailand? Less than 1%? And if piracy is the main issue, why FIFA didn't ban the video altogether? Think! Think! How to make the optimum profit in business? Why pay extra if 99% of viewrs are locals?

turn down volume, listen via live internet radio. problem solved.

I tried that. There was 1.5 minute delay from the picture, at least at my house... Most cable companies have Astro Sports. At least in Phuket, they all do. 350 Baht a month.

Another Puket con Ive have astro English/C for 225bt a month. Get cable if you can and tell TRUE where to stick there company as I did 12 month's ago. Tonight I shall be watching the final in english.