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9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game"

181 points · 217 comments · KellyCriterion

  1. chistev · · focus · HN ↗
    And it seems the "hydration break" has been adopted by La Liga.
    1. bdavbdav · · focus · HN ↗
      Yep. US World Cup ruined it for the rest of us :(
      1. rbarrosoPT · · focus · HN ↗
        Each year, I watch less and less football. In Portugal you have to subscribe 2 or 3 streaming platforms if want to follow the Portuguese League, the Champions League, and eventually other country leagues (like Premier League and La Liga).

        Now, we see huge panels (double the height) for ads in stadiums which become very intrusive when watching on TV (20–30% of the screen ends up being used for ads). Added the hydratation->ADs breaks, and increased World Cup tickets insanely.

        Football used to be for everyone, now they're are killing it for almost everyone.

        1. zimpenfish · · focus · HN ↗
          > In Portugal you have to subscribe 2 or 3 streaming platforms

          Same in the UK (Sky for EPL+EFL Cup, HBO for EPL+UCL, Amazon Prime for Christmas EPL + occasional cup games) + a TV licence (for the occasional cup game / tournaments.)

          If you don't pay for anything, you can watch about 10? cup games a season on ITV. Or go to a pub, obviously (but then you'll be forced to buy drinks.)

          You can usually listen to a bunch of games per week via BBC Radio (I think it requires a TV licence if you use streaming but you can still get 5Live on AM radio AFAIK) and TalkSport (also on AM radio.)

          1. basisword · · focus · HN ↗
            ITV also requires the TV license so those also aren't free.
            1. zimpenfish · · focus · HN ↗
              Huh, I thought it was just the BBC. But then again I haven't had terrestrial TV for nearly 2 decades. TIL.
              1. basisword · · focus · HN ↗
                TV license is 'required' for all live TV (all channels) + iPlayer. Also if you're watching live sports through e.g. NowTV's website you still need one. It's much wider reaching than just the BBC channels.
        2. VulgarExigency · · focus · HN ↗
          My solution for this is to just subscribe to an entirely legitimate IPTV service which costs about as much for a year as one month of Sport TV costs.
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