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SBS and ESPN tread same path

SBS and ESPN have the rights to show UEFA Champions League football in Australia and for the first Group Phase games they decided to show the same matches live on both days.

On Wednesday both channels decided to show the match from Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Bordeaux and on Thursday they both showed the goalless draw between Manchester United and Villareal.

To make it worse on Wednesday they both showed the re-run of the match between Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon soon after the live match had finished.

It was better on Thursday when one channel showed the Juventus match and the other showed the Real Madrid match.

I think SBS should show whatever match they wish to show as a free to air broadcaster but ESPN must consider showing something different. Everyone who has ESPN at least has SBS and therefore they can afford to switch channels to the other one.

In this day and era ESPN must also do what FoxSports does in the Asian Champions League. When there are two matches being played at the same time involving Australian sides they give the viewers Viewer's choice and it works really well.

Here we have eight quality matches being played at the same time and yet we are forced to watch a goalless draw on two channels when they were other interesting matches like the Lyon/Fiorentina match for example.

I wonder how long it will take for these broadcasters to know that football fans need a choice especially when FoxSports does that every weekend where we have a choice of five matches most Sunday mornings in the English Premier League.

I hope that for the next round ESPN will not bore us by showing the match SBS will be showing as well.

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