i guess...but i guess 25 bux has different meaning among people...i'm a university student scrounging for money where i can, and worknig at min wage...so 25 is a LOT...don't even get me started on the costs for tournaments and feathers these days LOL...RACKETS too...but 25 is like a weeks worth of food right there LOL....
Yes I was kind of thinking more in the lines of comparing it to how much it would cost me to tavel to the tournament, and get a ticket to see the matches /Twobeer
So we're up to two countries that we know still had access on the weekend: Canada and Sweden. At least 3 countries did not: Germany, U.S. and Korea, although one computer in Germany, presumably belonging to a non-subscriber, could apparently see the homepage. And none of these 3 countries had a prayer of finding coverage on local television. What I don't understand, in addition to the absence of coverage being at odds with the limitations previously identified by the company, is why the entire site, on-demand content included, would go down 2 days in advance of the live content even commencing. Finally, why is it so different from what we could see during the Japan Open, a tournament that viewers in both Germany and Korea were told would not be available? I didn't get a blank screen on the Japan Open finals day. Incidentally, I'm still getting the same The service is not availible in your region. message even though the Macau Open finished over 12h ago and the calendar day (in Sweden time) of said tournament finished nearly 4h ago.
it did say that there was certain limitations in broadcasting it to certain countries because of broadcast rights...but other than that, it seems utter nonsense to not broadcast to certain countries...but perhaps the real intent is that those countries have channels like espn or astro sports, to broadcast, OR go to actual live event in their country like US open, German open etc...but that's just my opinion XD
I don´t think the regional limitation is only for a short time, like the time of a live coverage of a super series event, I rather think that it is a limitation in general from now on. But in my opinion, it is not understandable. In german TV is max. 30min badminton coverage a year, so it couldn´t be a problem with TV rights, I think.
True.. But maybe some organizers wants lots of money for the "right" to send it over internet to a big country like Germany? or they simply have not negotiated contracts yet for all countries... Its a rather new service. it may also be some bugs??.. I got some error messages yesturday about being inb hte wrong region, then triead a bit later and it worked.. /Twobeer
Maybe, but they should organize those things before they launch their service in affected countries... not very professional
I agree that it is puzzling. The first step is to wait for a reply from IEC. If the limitation is to continue, obviously those customers who have been duped into buying a package that the company has decided it isn't entitled to offer will be demanding their money back. For those who won't be entitled to benefit and will simply be forced to decide not to buy, it will only amount to shattered hope. I agree that the case in Germany or the U.S. is the most puzzling since they don't have any TV coverage. At least in Korea, there is a known reason for it. SBS is finally showing taped coverage of the Japan Open this week. This will be the first international tournament shown on Korean TV since the Swiss Open. Obviously SBS wouldn't get any targets for their advertising this week if IEC had been able to send a live feed 3 weeks ago and the money that SBS must have paid to buy the rights ultimately must be helping the sport. What is more irritating is the deadweight loss that I'm sure is happening. That is, that I believe that SBS bought the rights to re-broadcast but then decided not to waste their airtime on tournaments in which no Koreans made the semi-finals. That is a lose-lose situation because their having bought the rights means that they wasted their money, IEC can't legally re-sell to internet subscribers, and viewers like me can't see the stuff on TV or the Internet. Theoretically, Korea should be a special case in this respect, however. It couldn't happen in China because Chinese players always reach the finals. Malaysia has real badminton fans who will watch whether it's Malaysian players playing or not. In other countries, the networks wouldn't bother to buy rights to broadcast badminton, meaning that IEC should be free to peddle their wob packages there. None of this explains lack of service in Germany or the U.S.
Even though there are no broadcast rights being sold to US, Germany, does not neccessarily lead to that a internet Service like wob will get the media rights to show it on internet in those given countries for free If they charge by number of "potential" subscribers and not "actual" subscribers, it may be a tough negotiation price-wise.. /Twobeer
Who are "they"? From reading IEC's website, IEC, the owners and operators of wob, have already bought the rights for these tournaments from the BWF. It says here that: IEC has been appointed by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) as the exclusive television coordinators for the newly launched Super Series. In additional IEC also represents the European and North American broadcast media rights for all major BWF events, including the World Championships, Thomas & Uber Cups and Sudirman Cup. If they have the rights, then the issue is one of them selling the rights to a TV network or them trying to find buyers to make some direct sales, as with wob.tv. I guess they may be considering opportunity cost. In other words, if they sell to a bunch of subscribers and TV networks think their potential viewers will watch wob.tv instead of watching the events on TV, then the already difficult job of selling rights to badminton coverage to networks might be made more difficult. In other words, I still see your point.
If you could watch wob.tv, then you should watch the mens single final of the asian badminton championships 2007. The commentator does a great job, introducing Taufik Hidayat
Today, wob.tv has given me a free month additionally to my 3 month ticket, because I had big problems with their service two times. I think that´s a fair move
does it work now? They gave me also a 3 months free ticket but I get a blank everytime I click on play/buy.. Although 2 days ago I used to get passed this to the point where I have to pay. Back then, i just couldn't pay because of a location issue (well I had several other problems before, but that's the furthest I could get). Now, though I did not change my settings, i get this blank in the webplayer.:crying:. Has anybody encountered the same problem?
Yes, now it works well. But I don´t get 3 month free. I paid for 3 month and get after that the fourth month for free.
well I can't even pay for 3 months since the player is still down. Everyday when I come back from school I hope things have improved and I will be able to subscribe, but today things went backwards... I must really love badminton to be so patient!
