Best of all, the streams used up very little memory and were extremely efficient in terms of my internet connection. Just to make things interesting, I set up another two computers to stream music during a replay to see if that would affect the signal. Nothing doing.
While I didn’t miss a live game, I also went back to check the on-demand quality. FoxSoccer.tv is currently building what will become a massive archive of this season’s matches, with every Champions League game and virtually every Premiership match available on demand. Also available are condensed Premiership matchcasts: I popped up Liverpool-Arsenal and was able to quickly scroll back and forth through that telecast using even a slow broadband connection.
That isn’t to say the experience was flawless: early on in my testing, some streams developed lags and stutters, and in one case, I had to restart my browser. Safari, which is a bit Flash-unfriendly, had the most hiccups. And, because Apple’s iPad device blocks Flash, I could not test on nor port the signal to that device. (Fox is working on an iPad version.)
Those issues seemed to be resolved quickly, however, and I had no issues at all on Tuesday.
The bottom line is: I loved it, and I’ll be using the service all season long.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League.
