Gol TV: The Real Winners of Madrid’s Spending Spree

Let’s rewind La Liga back to March 18th. Espanyol is in last place, Real Betis is above the drop zone, and Atletico Madrid in sixth place is still hunting for the Champions League spot they’ll ultimately earn off of Villareal, who are in fourth place. Valencia is so short on cash that they can’t pay their players. Real Madrid, the second best team in the league, has just lost 4-0 to Liverpool at Anfield and are looking like a team in desperate need of a makeover.

It was in this climate that Gol TV, without much fanfare or handwringing, extended their deal with La Liga to carry Spanish games in the US and Canada through 2012. After three months, a Champions League win, and back-to-back transfer records, that move looks like one that will pay dividends to the channel as Spain becomes the hot destination for the world’s best players.

Unfortunately for many U.S. subscribers, Gol TV is probably not on your cable package. Where Fox Soccer Channel is carried in 30 million homes, Gol TV only reaches 11 million. To complicate matters more, their original broadcast partner, Dish Network, no longer carries the channel. Back in 2005, the only way to watch La Liga on satellite was to go with Dish; now, you’ll have to switch to DirecTV to get that same coverage.

Gol TV will obviously be looking to up the number of subscribers that it carries. Currently, of the “Big 3″ cable companies, only Comcast carries the channel (where they’ve relegated it to a more expensive “sports tier”). Time Warner and Cox, both of whom carry Fox Soccer Channel, don’t carry it at all; other cable providers carry it, but relegate it to a Spanish speaking tier instead of a sports tier.

After pushing for inclusion on Time Warner and Cox, that’s probably the first thing Gol TV will want to eliminate. The channel has always been bilingual; where I’m listening to Ray Hudson, there’s a Spanish commentary feed being produced at the same time (although it’s doubtful that Ray’s Spanish counterpart’s witticisms are anywhere near as over the top). The sport isn’t exclusively Spanish, though, and making fans pay for two upgrades (one for the sports tier for Fox Soccer Channel and again for a Spanish tier for one channel that they’ll watch in English) will kill interest.

The network may want to invest in upgrading their commentary staff. Phil Schoen and Ray Hudson are great; the other broadcast teams don’t seem to have the same ability to create a story out of the events on the field. Commentary is a tricky thing to get right, and Gol TV still does a better job than Fox Soccer or certain ESPN crews (J.P. Dellacamera, anyone?). There’s still a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the other broadcast teams, though, and that could really add to the matches.

If the commentary crews aren’t great, the game selection is. Unlike Fox Soccer, who get only specific games and rotate their teams, Gol TV concentrates on the top six teams in the league and shows their matches almost exclusively. There are positives and negatives to this approach, of course; if you’re an Espanyol fan, you may have a hard time catching your team. The positive is that you’ll rarely miss a Barcelona or Real Madrid game. Due to the “timeshare” with Setanta, Fox Soccer will often miss major games in favor of a Wigan-Stoke clash that only a real masochist for the sport wants to see. I watched both of the Real Madrid-Barcelona matches on Gol TV; I have Fox Soccer, and I still had to stream make other arrangements for both Liverpool-Manchester United fixtures.

For those of you who are already Gol TV subscribers, start looking forward to the upcoming season and brushing up on your Spanish. La Liga is going to be as interesting as ever this year, and you’re in the rare position to watch it all unfold.