Great News For Nfl Football Fans In Thailand

[jphripjah]

You'd probably need a fast connection to make this work, but it's a great that they are finally doing this. They will also archive the games for 24 hours, so you don't have to watch them live in the middle of the night/early morning, you can watch them at your convenience the next day. The website even has a free "demo" feature so that you can check out the quality of your video stream before shelling out the money.

SEATTLE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The National Football League said on Thursday it will stream a full season of live games over the Internet to gridiron fans outside of North America.

In partnership with Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research), NFL Game Pass (www.nfl.com/nflgamepass) will allow fans from abroad to watch nearly every NFL game starting Sunday for $24.99 per week or $249.99 for the entire 17-week season.

The new service marks the league's first effort to deliver a full slate of live games online, following similar Web offerings from Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.

"We believe that the Internet has matured to a certain point that it really is an efficient distribution mechanism," said Brian Rolapp, the NFL's vice president of media strategy.

The NFL continues to seek ways to increase the game's popularity internationally, but Rolapp said the intention of Game Pass is to allow an existing fan base living around the world to follow their favorite local teams.

"This is not priced for mass consumer adoption. This is very targeted for an avid NFL fan," he said.

Yahoo has experience streaming video highlights from the 2006 World Cup for FIFA and National Hockey League playoff games to out-of-market fans in the United States.

Certain NFL games will be blacked out in certain markets under the League Pass if they overlap with a scheduled television broadcast of a game in that region.

Yahoo said the agreement with the NFL was exclusive, but would not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Edited September 9, 2006 by jphripjah

[Narachon]

Good News!

But $24.99 per week is still pretty steep, even for a avid 'out - of -Market ' international NFL fan, I think...

[OldAsiaHand]

Our best 'high speed' connections here are so poor (and the speed so variable) that I can't imagine that they would reliabily support real time video at a resolution sufficient to make watching the games much fun.

For example, while I pay for a 1 mb connection, I typically get actual download speeds through True that range from 5-10 kps to, at best, 30-35 kbs. Am I wrong here, or would that result in really piss-poor video with continual lags and skips?

[lomatopo]

We already get four games live here each week (six this week), which is as much or more than I normally watch when in the U.S.A., so this service might have limited appeal here.

What I would like, but not pay for other than to suffer through some ads, is a 60 - 90 minute highlight show, from that week's games, maybe with a brief preview of the next week's match-ups, that I could download (500 ~ 750 MB), and watch say on Wednesdays. Such a show might already exist (HBO's Inside the NFL), and if so, may be available on the Internet somewhere? (Inside the NFL is not shown here on the local HBO product.)

Edited September 10, 2006 by lomatopo

[CTM]

Our best 'high speed' connections here are so poor (and the speed so variable) that I can't imagine that they would reliabily support real time video at a resolution sufficient to make watching the games much fun.

For example, while I pay for a 1 mb connection, I typically get actual download speeds through True that range from 5-10 kps to, at best, 30-35 kbs. Am I wrong here, or would that result in really piss-poor video with continual lags and skips?

I have to agree with OldAsiaHand, the connections are just too poor in Thailand to make this an enjoyable experience. I try and watch lots of streaming video. Seldom can I watch more than a few minutes before the buffer runs out and I am waiting a few more minutes the next bit. Trying to watch a whole game this way would be frustrating.

Plus the price is steep.

lomatopo, one word for you. Bittorrent. Remind me in a PM next week and I can send you some links to games.

[DeathbyDurian]

You can watch NFL games and lots of other Cable TV for free online already. I just finished watching the Sunday Night Colts/Giants game from my computer at work.

www.viidoo.com has a free program that lets you watch a live feed of SanFrancisco cable. You get HBO, Comedy Central, CNN, Local Fox/ABC/NBC/CBS etc.

The only problem is that it is LIVE and provides unfortunate timing if you wanted to watch the newest episode of say 'the simpsons' as 8pm there is 10am here.

I have a pretty fast connection, and overall I am quite impressed by it. Check it out!

[OldAsiaHand]

Just took a look at the link. For the record, they say the player won't work with Linux or Mac. So for further commentary it's over to your ordinary fellows who run the outmoded Windows OS, I guess......

[CTM]

Sign up at

forums.tenyardtorrents.com.

They have links to bittorents of games including NFL, CFL, NCAA, NFL Films, NFL Europe.

So far this week have

SD vs Oak

Bears vs Packers

NYJ vs Titans

Dallas vs Jacksonville

Min vs Was

Ind vs NYG

Bengals vs Chiefs

Seahawks vs Lions

NO vs Cleveland

Bills vs Pats

Mia vs Pit

[Backpack_thailand]

The NFL has been broadcast over here for years on Supersport and Supersport Gold. 4 games a week, all English (US) commentary plus ESPN has the Monday night game.

Why would you pay 24.99 to watch on the web when a UBC system is 1500 Baht a month...???