Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Scrambled signal

Italy and Brazil today face each other at the Emirates Stadium in England. It's a prestigious friendly encounter between the two nations that have won most World Cups. At 8:30 I sat down on the sofa to watch the match - only to find out that the signal had been scrambled by RAI. Damn! Apparently, they are only entitled to broadcast the match on Italian territory. To watch the match in Belgium, I needed to have paid hundreds of euro for a yearly subscription with the Belgian sports channel, for the great privilege of watching the Jupiler Belgian league matches, and the Bundesliga...

I used to be passionate about football. That's when I was allowed to watch it being played. Now that this is becoming ever less possible, the interest is waning. I already prefer browsing the internet or blogging for a good part of the time when there is actually some football on TV. Soon I won't bother checking if their precious matches are free to air or scrambled. Let them enjoy counting their millions on their own.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Tonio,
Sorry I found this post late but you might want to catch up with internet screening of matches. For most matches I go to www.myp2p.eu or www.rojadirecta.com. They tend to give you links to games ... all you need to do is download special programs (such as TVU) and you will find that before you know it you are watching Juve and Brazil in the comfort of your own home and free... without having to dish out those hundreds of euros to numericable or coditel!

Tonio Privitelli said...

Thanks for the tip, Jacques. I'll certainly keep it in mind the next time.