I’m still working on getting pictures from the New Years celebration. Here is a lesson learned: If you want pictures from an event, take them yourself, otherwise all bets are off. Anyhow, so what has been happening this year so far? For one, the Australian open was quite an interesting tennis tournament with Federer and Nadal, both going down unexpectedly in the semifinals, and opening the tennis stage to some new actors. I have to say I can’t quite get used to the new blue looking surface of the courts; it has been green for so many years that my brain has a hard time adjusting to the new color. Without cable television, watching the Australian open proved to be quite a challenge. I was expecting to be able to purchase on online pass to watch the matches over the internet, however, it turns out that since ESPN bought the exclusive rights for the US market, the watch online feature of the Australian Open was not available to Americans. At least, I figured I could purchase an online pass from ESPN to watch the matches online through their site, but once again I was wrong. ESPN made tennis available through their network site called ESPN360, however, access to the site had to be paid for not by the consumer, but by the internet service provider. In my case, Time Warner Cable, did not pay ESPN for this service, and thus there was no way for me to access the site.
You can imagine, I was pretty upset at that point, since I was perfectly willing to pay for watching tennis, but had no way to do so other than paying for cable television service which I refuse to do since I don’t like paying for garbage – so much for living in a free country. I have to say, ESPN, you suck! I’m sure ESPN’s decision to adopt this ridiculous business strategy which violates some of the basic rules of internet business such as universal access and end-user choice, has alienated a lot of potential customers – hopefully this will teach them a lesson. In any case, while the above was annoying to say the least it won’t deter those that are determined, and while specifics won’t be mentioned here, how about a couple hints: peer-to-peer tv streaming or ip address masking. Ok, I’m done venting for now; hopefully the upcoming grand slam tournaments will be more accessible to viewers.
You can imagine, I was pretty upset at that point, since I was perfectly willing to pay for watching tennis, but had no way to do so other than paying for cable television service which I refuse to do since I don’t like paying for garbage – so much for living in a free country. I have to say, ESPN, you suck! I’m sure ESPN’s decision to adopt this ridiculous business strategy which violates some of the basic rules of internet business such as universal access and end-user choice, has alienated a lot of potential customers – hopefully this will teach them a lesson. In any case, while the above was annoying to say the least it won’t deter those that are determined, and while specifics won’t be mentioned here, how about a couple hints: peer-to-peer tv streaming or ip address masking. Ok, I’m done venting for now; hopefully the upcoming grand slam tournaments will be more accessible to viewers.
