FoxSoccer.tv Needs To Expand Its Payment Options

There is this old adage, if its too good to be true it probably is. EPL fans in the U.S. this week have learned that all to well. Two weeks ago, FoxSoccer.tv was relaunched and for the first time in the history of the U.S. every Premier and Champions League match would be available legally on television or the Internet. A fitting end to this Summer of soccer in this nation.

Getting every single game is a far cry from 1996, when the only EPL action you could get were highlights on the Prime Network. Even in 2003, my first year of following the league on a weekly basis, you could only get five matches a week live and two were on pay per view. I couldnt fathom a day where you could watch every single Premiership match on Saturday mornings. Now we are in that era, and now you can argue that EPL is on par with the NFL and its Sunday Ticket or baseball and its MLB.TV. That is, if you can get it.

This world is still skeptical, and Im still one of skeptics. I dont like having my credit card number on the Internet. So I got a prepaid VISA debit card, figuring its VISA, it would be accepted everywhere. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The small print on the card said, no international purchases allowed. There in lies the problem with FoxSoccer.tv, its an international purchase.

When the website changed, so did the payment receipt, to Netbanx based out of Cambridge in the UK. Thats right, an American company, marketing a product for Americans, not allowing certain Americans to buy the service, how ridiculous is that. Before you say, its only debit cards, another EPL blog, The Third Half, had the same problem but only worse. Writer Johnathan Starling had the same problem only with a credit card. Also, if your credit card company does allow international purchases, there might be red ! tape. M y bank, Wells Fargo, puts a three percent fee on all international purchases. To make it worse FoxSoccer still does not have a customer service department. With all these facts, it makes you think, what was FOX thinking when they relaunched the site.

Im sure, Starling and I arent the only ones experiencing this problem, (if you are experiencing the same problem, please comment below). Then there is FOXs handling of this. Jamie Trecker, the man managing the FSC twitter account, started by giving Startings solutions that didnt work. But it is his tweets that have me scratching my head, no acknowledgement on the problems and actively promoting the service like everybody can get it. Jamie, wake up, some fans cant get your service. Starling says it best on his blog, regardless of how high or low the percentage of people that would be, just reeks of complete and utter bull.

What also makes me laugh here is, last season in the last three months, FOX offered games online. But, you could pay for it by using Paypal. A lot of us have used Paypal to buy goods and online services, it works well and everybody can buy. If it worked last year, why couldnt you have done it this year? Not only that, soccer fans are very loyal, why would a company shut out a part of this base?

Also what really gets to me, FOX is shutting out an untapped market of new EPL fans. People who dont have digital Cable or satellite, that demographic before ESPN got involved probably havent seen a game. We have seen the ratings the first weekend of the season, the Monday afternoon match between Manchester United and Newcastle got ratings on par with TBS Sunday afternoon baseball. People want to see this great league, the last thing you want is to restrict access. So on that note, Fox get your act together and let everybody in.

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