Soccer fans in the United States of America probably already know that the UEFA Champions League resumes today. Well, the qualifying rounds featuring teams you or I would recognize, at least. (Arsenal vs. Celtic is the big game today.) It’s on Fox Soccer Channel and the various Fox Sports networks, too, so no more ESPN2 ticker getting in the way. But what you may not know is that FSC has also launched a whole bunch of tech/Internety ways to enjoy the tournament.
For one, you can buy streams to whatever match you want for $10 from the new site championsonfox.com. (You can buy a season pass for $100, too.) It works on Mac/Linux this season, given that it uses Adobe Flash 10 to stream the video. (Last season it was some Windows Media Player deal.) Good in case you’re, I don’t know, stuck in class or your boss lets you stream video while at the office. Now you have no reason to use Ustream or whatever.
FSC also developed a Java app for mobile phones called FoxSoccer.com Mobile Match Tracker. It’s as you’d expect: a handy mobile app for AT&T and Sprint phones provided they support Java (ahem, iPhone) with post-match (“near-live” as worded in the press release) highlights, photos, scores from around the tournament, etc.
And while this is great and all, I think I speak for everyone who watches FSC when I ask, Where’s the HD? ESPN will shows its handful of EPL games in HD for the rest of the season—Hull vs. Chelsea was in HD at the weekend—and going back to FSC afterward is sorta yuck.
Meanwhile, in other soccer-tech news, you can set your own price for this year’s version of Football Manager, if that’s your thing.