Monday 5 October 2009

Ukraine v England not on TV

People in England will not be able to watch England on TV for the first time, when England play in Ukraine on Saturday.

There are only two ways to watch the game:
1. By paying £4.99 to watch it on the Internet.
2. By watching it at an Odeon cinema.

The game was originally bought from Kentaro – an international agency appointed by the Ukrainian Football Federation –
by Setanta, which has since collapsed.

Now, Perform – a digital sport specialist – has been appointed to stream the match online.

There is some anger among England fans, and one can only imagine it would have been much worse if the game was not a “dead rubber”, as England have already qualified for the 2010 World Cup.

Peter Silverstone, managing director of Kentaro, told BBC Sport: "You will watch as you would any other streaming on the internet, like YouTube or the BBC iPlayer - there will be a pop-up player that will show the match in a very good quality stream."

The £4.99 price is only available until Wednesday midnight. It then goes up to £9.99, and then £11.99 on Saturday.

Silverstone claimed the project is commercially viable and that it had “strategic long-term value” and wasn’t a one-off.

England fans, however, will be hoping it is.

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