ESPN Gameday Package...

#1
Co. Aytch

Co. Aytch

Southern Leaguer
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
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#1
I am out of Tennessee now for the first time during football season, and I want to make sure to catch as much as possible. It seems nowadays you can just about see everything you are willing to pay for. Was wondering about the ESPN Gameday and what you thought of it, the one's who have bought it before in previous years...How is the announcing?? Commercials??
Sounds like you get a pretty good bang for the buck but would like to hear some Vol testimonials!
thanks
 
#2
#2
I had it last year and it was really good. Some games are not in HD but oh well, I remember having only 3 channels. I am ordering my Gameday package today as well. Get it, its worth the money
 
#3
#3
I have had it the last three seasons. It is worth it if your out of the area. The announcing is average and sometimes the camera work is a little lacking but at least your getting to see the games.
 
#4
#4
I had it a few years ago. We are in the Charlotte market. My wife is a Penn State grad and we get mostly ACC games so we thought it would be a good deal. Although we got most games on regular channels we were surprised that we didn't get every game. We ended up getting only three or four games in the package that we couldn't find elsewhere. It has been a few years so maybe there are more games available now.The schedules are not released ahead of the season so it is hard to tell what games you will get.
 
#5
#5
VOLnVEGAS said:
I am out of Tennessee now for the first time during football season, and I want to make sure to catch as much as possible. It seems nowadays you can just about see everything you are willing to pay for. Was wondering about the ESPN Gameday and what you thought of it, the one's who have bought it before in previous years...How is the announcing?? Commercials??
Sounds like you get a pretty good bang for the buck but would like to hear some Vol testimonials!
thanks
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I'm down in Florida and i just did a PPV everytime the VOLS were not on Broadcast TV. If Brighthouse didn't show it, ESPN does. I did however miss a few kickoffs because of networking trouble between ESPN and Brighthouse. If you raise enough hell, they take it off your bill for missing a few minutes of the game. GO VOLS.
 
#6
#6
I've been happy with Gameplan. They are basically just televised regional broadcasts (for the most part anyhow) so if you liked the three Daves, then the announcing is fine. On a few occasions the games were broadcast through the "Vol Network" so the production level was a bit lower than JP/Raycom.

For $115 (earlybird price, before Sept 5.) it's a pretty good deal, especially if you want to watch more than just UT games.
 
#7
#7
The broadcast that you watch is going to be the same game that the folks in in TN watch, except to my knowledge it won't be in HD even if it is in HD in TN. This may depend on who your cable/satellite provider is, though. I have Verizon FiOS and none of the games are in HD.

ESPN just pipes in the broadcast from whoever is producing it, for example, JP in the past or the Vol Network for pay-per-view games. The camera work is of course not so great for the Vol Network games, but again, it is no different than what you would see if you bought the pay-per-view in TN.

Until TN gets good again, we probably won't have enough nationally televised games to make buying individual games worth it. If you live out of the SEC network area (there a few weird markets, so make sure you're not in one), then I would consider it a good purchase.
 
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#8
#8
TennTradition said:
The broadcast that you watch is going to be the same game that the folks in in TN watch, except to my knowledge it won't be in HD even if it is in HD in TN. This may depend on who your cable/satellite provider is, though. I have Verizon FiOS and none of the games are in HD.

ESPN just pipes in the broadcast from whoever is producing it, for example, JP in the past or the Vol Network for pay-per-view games. The camera work is of course not so great for the Vol Network games, but again, it is no different than what you would see if you bought the pay-per-view in TN.

Until TN gets good again, we probably won't have enough televised games to make buying individual games worth it. If you live out of the SEC network area (there a few weird markets, so make sure you're not in one), then I would consider it good purchase.
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Good post, all you need to know right here. Its a must if you live out of area. I've had it for the last several years and its great.
 
#9
#9
I have had Gameplan the last few years, and I was able to see all the JP/Lincoln Financial/Pay-per-View games (like the Western Kentucky & Ohio game this year). The last three years it has been worth it (you also get to see the regional ABC game that are not broadcast locally). It's worth the dime if you watch lots of football on Saturday.

If you are solely interested in TN games, you'd probably be better off buying game by game. With the new SEC Network TV package, I have Directv, and the WKU game is showing that it will be broadcast on several of the sports channels (channels 634, 642, 696). What I do not yet know if they will be blacked out come Saturday. Directv may very well say nope, you must buy Gameplan.

Hope this helps.
 
#11
#11
Yeah thanks for all the help. I am in Las Vegas and think the Gameplan is going to be worth it. Plus, I like watching college football in general. Just didn't know about the SEC games now since ESPN bought all the games. I guess that it is a real good thing for the conference and its fans.

I found this link about ESPN's coverage
2009 NCAA Division I-A NCAA Football Scores and Schedules for Week 1 - ESPN
 
#12
#12
NC VOL said:
I have had Gameplan the last few years, and I was able to see all the JP/Lincoln Financial/Pay-per-View games (like the Western Kentucky & Ohio game this year). The last three years it has been worth it (you also get to see the regional ABC game that are not broadcast locally). It's worth the dime if you watch lots of football on Saturday.

If you are solely interested in TN games, you'd probably be better off buying game by game. With the new SEC Network TV package, I have Directv, and the WKU game is showing that it will be broadcast on several of the sports channels (channels 634, 642, 696). What I do not yet know if they will be blacked out come Saturday. Directv may very well say nope, you must buy Gameplan.

Hope this helps.
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What are those channels that it is showing on? I imagine DirectTV channel numbers vary based on where you are...? Are they SEC network affiliates? I would imagine they are. I don't think that you will have to worry about them being blacked out if your normal cable package offers SEC network affiliate stations.
 
#13
#13
I feel your pain. Living in Alaska, I'm one of the most displaced Vol fans out there. I was able to see a lot of the games on live internet feeds last year, and ordered a few on Gameplan on the game by game basis. Worked out pretty well. I may just pony up the coin and order the entire season on Gameplan this year.
 
#14
#14
Wow, I thought I was bad trying to find the vols in Las Vegas! Alaska! You are way up there!
 
#15
#15
TennTradition said:
What are those channels that it is showing on? I imagine DirectTV channel numbers vary based on where you are...? Are they SEC network affiliates? I would imagine they are. I don't think that you will have to worry about them being blacked out if your normal cable package offers SEC network affiliate stations.
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Local channels are the only things that change on Directv, so the channels I listed should be the same regardless of where you live. From what I remember, one is Madison Sq Garden network, one is a San Diego based Comcast Sports channel.

I'm sure we'll all know more after Saturday. Many channels have added the SEC Network games since the list of channels was originally published.
 
#16
#16
hey im a soldier serving in iraq and im tryin to find a way to stream the games over the internet and i tried espn360 and they dont stream outside of the U.S. anyone got any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Go Vols!!!!
 
#18
#18
usarmyvol11 said:
hey im a soldier serving in iraq and im tryin to find a way to stream the games over the internet and i tried espn360 and they dont stream outside of the U.S. anyone got any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Go Vols!!!!
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If the games nationally broadcast, then there is a chance that you can find them on channelsurfing.net. However, I think that they limit international streaming in some cases. You could try them out and see beforehand.

While ESPN360 does not allow you to stream outside the US, they do have ESPN360 Eurpoe (https://europe.espn360.com/espn360/console). I don't know if they restrict access to only European countries or not, but you could try that and see what happens. They offer a different format than the US version in that you can purchase access (unlike the US where your ISP must subscribe). They have a college sports package you can purchase.

Another option is to find someone with a slingbox who is willing to let you watch the games from their slingbox's IP. Being someone who is serving our country...surely there is someone out there who could help you out :whistling:.....
 
#19
#19
CMPVolFan said:
How do you get it? exactly what is it? i've never heard of it but i live out of tennessee
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ESPN Gameplan? It is essentially a pay-per-view package that you can purchase from most cable providers. You pay about 120 dollars for the year and you have access to about 10 or 15 games each Saturday. The Vols will be on it pretty much every week, unless they are on another nationally televised channel (such as ESPN, ESPN2, CBS, etc.).
 
#20
#20
How do they set up the GAMEDAY channels? Are there multiple channels if two games play at the same time? Do they have commercials?
 
#21
#21
VOLnVEGAS said:
How do they set up the GAMEDAY channels? Are there multiple channels if two games play at the same time? Do they have commercials?
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I think that ESPN Gameplan is about 6 channels or so (maybe 8). They don't necessarily show games back-to-back on every channel...so you only end up getting 10 or so games over the course of a Saturday. Your cable provider will have these channels blocked off, and they will say unavailable, until Saturday. Then, on Saturday, when a game isn't playing on that channel, you can hear ESPN Radio talk about the games that are going on.

I can't remember for sure what happens during the commercials, but I think that you see a mixture of ESPN commercials as well as ESPN Radio during the commercial break for the station that is actually broadcasting the game (you don't see their commercials, so ESPN fills it with theirs).
 
#22
#22
While ESPN360 does not allow you to stream outside the US, they do have ESPN360 Eurpoe (https://europe.espn360.com/espn360/console). I don't know if they restrict access to only European countries or not, but you could try that and see what happens. They offer a different format than the US version in that you can purchase access (unlike the US where your ISP must subscribe). They have a college sports package you can purchase.
Click to expand...

Good find on the espn europe, I'm just got stationed in Germany so I've been flipping out on how to watch the games. 9.99 euro is not to bad for one game. Thanks again.

Dan
 
#23
#23
dan32547 said:
Good find on the espn europe, I'm just got stationed in Germany so I've been flipping out on how to watch the games. 9.99 euro is not to bad for one game. Thanks again.

Dan
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Dan out of curiousity is there any American football on TV in Europe??
Can you just about catch every Tennessee game on espn Europe?
 
#25
#25
TennTradition said:
I think that ESPN Gameplan is about 6 channels or so (maybe 8). They don't necessarily show games back-to-back on every channel...so you only end up getting 10 or so games over the course of a Saturday. Your cable provider will have these channels blocked off, and they will say unavailable, until Saturday. Then, on Saturday, when a game isn't playing on that channel, you can hear ESPN Radio talk about the games that are going on.

I can't remember for sure what happens during the commercials, but I think that you see a mixture of ESPN commercials as well as ESPN Radio during the commercial break for the station that is actually broadcasting the game (you don't see their commercials, so ESPN fills it with theirs).
Click to expand...

I've subscribed to Game Plan for about 7 years or so since I live out of state. Generally speaking the games are top programs vs 2nd tier schools since those aren't going to get national coverage. Tennessee vs. WK is a good example. The games are usually ABC or JP Sports broadcasts but you do get others like the Vol Network pay per view games.

Occasionally you get some nice games that you would otherwise miss due to regional coverage priority. Up here the networks would carry the Pac 10 game...even if there is a better SEC or Big 10 game on at the same time.

The one problem is that it's not in HD so the video quality is often lacking. Depending on who broadcasting the game you either get commercials or ESPN radio with scores updated on the screen.

I think its one of the sports values out there.
 
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