Job Discussion Forums

[may be going]

hi all. as i'll be moving to japan in march i'd like to know about the tv services. which stations show sport - presumably i'll need cable of some kind - and in particular, which stations show he most premier league matches/highlights?

i don't want the most expensive package out there but what is the free to air tv like compared with cable and what kind of cable deals are available out there?

cheers

[saloc]

If you get Sky perfect you can usually watch about 3 or four live Premier League games per weekend. You also get a highlights show every Tuesday night and a preview show on Friday night / Saturday morning. The cost for Sky Perfect varies a little depending on what package you choose, but I pay about 5,000 yen a month. For that I get all the Premier League games that they show, BBC, CNN, MTV, at least one movie channel and quite a lot of other channels.

[kitano]

The skyperfect setup costs about 30 000ish new but when I bought it they spread it over 3 years so it was about 800 a month onto my bill and now I own it so I don't pay anything. You only pay for the channels you get. 5000 is for lots of channels and is a good deal but I was wasting so much time watching tv I cancelled it all and I only get the eng pr package for 1500 a month so it is really cheap. One problem is that the uefa cup, champions league, world cup etc are different contracts so sometimes skyperfect shows them and sometimes they don't depending on if they won the bid for the japan rights. World cups etc are mostly on regular tv though.

[JimDunlop2]

As far as I can tell, the best way to enjoy football (whether we're talking soccer or American football) is to just head on down to your local sports pub/cafe and get them to either record the games for you or just arrange to have them air it live for you. I know at least 3 places where I live that will very happily do that for you.

That way you can also enjoy it over some beers and with friends too.

Best of luck.

JD

[SoccerBars]

Some Japanese football-friendly bars are listed on my site at http://www.soccerbars.com. Please let me know if you come across some others worthy of note.

[Sadken]

I've got between *beep* all and no hope whatsoever of keeping up to date with my team (Leyton Orient) have I?

Incidentally, I was discussing this thread with a mate of mine last night who is a Boro fan and he wondered (and now so do I) if the shows are the same as the ones in the UK. Will I still be able to see Jeff Stelling, Rodney Marsh et al on Soccer Saturday. I have to say this would make me extremely pleased if it were possible.

[saloc]

No, unfortunately they are not exactly the same shows. You get the English commentary, but you don't get any pundits or half-time discussions. And I think you'll need to forget about watching Leyton Orient!

[DoctorPayne]

I am glad someone brought this up, because I'm a huge EPL fan and I am very happy to hear that I should be able to catch the weekly Man utd matches on the tele. As far as the coverage goes, I have a feeling it will be like the covereage we get here in Canada: all the brilliant British ("what a sublimely worked set-piece") commentary and ad free until half, which will just be highlights and a lot of commercials. Am I right here? Anyway, Sadken, if you want to follow Leyton Orient you'll probably have to do what I do to follow the Cardiff City Bluebirds; check the BBC football website. It's better than nothing.

Cheerio!

[Sadken]

I think I will have to sign up to Orient World. It's a service provided to all clubs nowadays that provides commentary of each game and video highlights as well. Works out to about �35 a year, I think.

[DoctorPayne]

Yeah, I think Cardiff City has something like that on their website as well. Good luck!