ESPN, which televised tonight's Superbowl on 3 channels over DirecTV, denied Expats the chance to listen to the ESPN telecast in English.
After having every Sunday game since September in English and after DTV collected a couple of hundred dollars from "Sunday Ticket" subscribers -- the Big Game was shown with Spanish-audio only on all three channels shown in Ecuador.
English had been available on all playoff games shown on ESPN over DirecTV, as well, although Fox had some Sunday playoffs in Spanish only. And last year, the ESPN feed of the "Super Tazon" shown in Ecuador had the English option working.
Contacted during the first quarter of the Superbowl, a DirecTV rep in Quito told me that while TNT was doing an English-language telecast of the game, ESPN was not offering an English-language feed. The TNT feed was not available to DTV viewers.
Even Expats who understand a good bit of Spanish find that watching sports events while simultaneously translating mentally diminishes the whole experience.
cccmedia, reporting at halftime from Quito
ESPN Super-Slap at Expat Sports Fans: Superbowl Audio in Spanish-Only
cccmedia wrote:Even Expats who understand a good bit of Spanish find that watching sports events while simultaneously translating mentally diminishes the whole experience.
cccmedia, reporting at halftime from Quito
However, the experience was NOT diminished when the ESPN announcer made the climactic call in the final seconds of this super-climactic game:
"Interceptado! Interceptado! Interceptado!"
To give credit where due, the VIDEO provided by ESPN, DirecTV and the originating U.S.-based network was outstanding.
Congratulations to Shady Brady and the Patriots for capturing the Lombardi Trophy, and finally -- once and forever, in Glendale, Arizona-- putting an end to the "deflategate" controversy.
Am I right, Arizona Bob....
cccmedia in Quito
cccmedia wrote:Congratulations to Shady Brady and the Patriots for capturing the Lombardi Trophy...
Top 10 Moments of Superbowl 49 As Seen From Quito
10. Gronkowski and Hoomanawanui professional-wrestling the Seahawks in the end-zone after Seahawks #51 Irwin instigated a near-brawl....Irwin was ejected and his team penalized.
9. Jermaine Kearse's 33-yard miraculous, juggling, off-the-back catch at the five yard-line with one minute to go in the 4th, setting up the potential game-winning touchdown...until the Seahawks made one of the worst play-calls in SB history in not tapping their "Beast Mode" running back for a final yard.
8. Julian Edelman's diving and clawing for yardage on second-half catch after catch, for 109 yards and a touchdown -- the actual game-winner. Talk about leaving it all on the field; Edelman's mother had to help him off a post-game podium as he grimaced at the thought of limping to his next interview. Seahawks defenders roughed him up repeatedly on his way to nine receptions.
7. Rob Ninkovich's curling, unabated-to-the-quarterback sack of Russell Wilson.
6. Model Charlotte McKinney's eye-popping "au natural" stroll through a farmer's market in a commercial for a "natural" beef hamburger.* (Remember when Janet Jackson's inadvertent, mere show of a nipple patch caused a Superbowl scandal 11 years ago: the "wardrobe malfunction.")
5. Katy Perry entering at halftime on a huge mechanical lion, then dancing with "sharks" and her colorful friends on a tropical island set.
4. Superbowl MVP Tom Brady masterfully leading the Patriots from behind, twice throwing touchdown passes to cap long fourth-quarter drives -- Tom Terrific throwing four TD's in all, to four different receivers.
3. Katy Perry floating above the Arizona stadium on her "star"-ship in the halftime fireworks finale.
2. The "All You Need Is Ecuador" commercial shown in major U.S. markets, the first-ever national tourism spot by a foreign country shown during a Superbowl telecast.*
And the number-one highlight moment in the 2015 Superbowl telecast:
1. The "Interceptado!" play on the goal line by rookie Malcolm Butler to seal the New England victory.
*Seen from Quito via Internet: #2 and #6.
cccmedia wrote:[
Congratulations to Shady Brady and the Patriots for capturing the Lombardi Trophy, and finally -- once and forever, in Glendale, Arizona-- putting an end to the "deflategate" controversy.
Am I right, Arizona Bob....
Being in Arizona adds nothing to my insight, alas. I watched on TV, same as people everywhere else in the country, since I lack the funds for a $1500 ticket (to say nothing of the willingness to pay that much, even if I had it).
That won't stop me from opining, however: The Patriots' win makes it virtually certain that the NFL will need to quietly bury this issue. It would be embarrassing enough to have to call a Super Bowl contender cheats, but the Super Bowl winner? No way.
Eventually they'll release a report saying, "Upon further review, this was all just an honest mistake/big misunderstanding/inadvertent misinterpretation of the rules/whatever." And maybe it's even true. Who knows?
I watched the live stream that NBC provided of the game. The only hitch is you needed a proxy service or VPN to watch. It wasn´t that great to watch however since there was frequent pauses. Maybe if I had more bandwidth it would have been better:
http://stream.nbcsports.com/liveextra/
For the Expat sports fan in Ecuador with money to burn, I suspect that the following is the best way to be prepared for an NFL game for which no English-language audio is provided:
Get the best possible Internet connection -- which might be offered only via a land-based phone line at a high monthly cost -- and have it connected to your high-quality TV set. Meanwhile, order an all-games Internet package the NFL makes available to overseas viewers. The games the NFL provides in this way are always in English.
The entire regular season of games can be ordered as a package, as can be the NFL post-season, including the Superbowl. Typically, there are no game blackouts in EC.
The other major Gringo sports leagues also provide such a service, although subscriber rules and pricing may vary.
A few more notes about the NFL's Gamepass service:
During the regular season, individual weeks of all games at perhaps $15 a week can be ordered. If your home connection is weak and video is thus pausing or "buffering," you can watch at a good Internet café. Just be prepared for the "codos de crios*."
If purchasing the individual-week "oferta" with a weak home connection, you can watch live, or at your convenience -- "on demand" -- for up to eight days.
Another advantage of the NFL's service is that games not normally televised via DirecTV in Ecuador can be accessed. These can include Thursday night games, late-season Saturday night games...and possibly even the occasional game that gets postponed to a Monday (due to a major snowstorm, for instance).
cccmedia in Quito
codos de crios = kids' elbows (from Ecuadorian youngsters bouncing around the Internet café due to an overabundance of energy, or perhaps boredom from waiting for Mom to finish her emailing)
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