World Cup whims

Wow its been a while! Almost a month since my last post but here I am again. Working night shifts can mess up your daily routine. So its almost June, the summer is here and in just about 2 weeks one of the greatest sports festivals in the world begins and the whole world will be eagerly watching... If they can afford it.

Now I'm not sure how it works everywhere else on the planet but the Israeli broadcasters have decided to turn the Soccer World Cup into a money making fest at the expense of the consumer.

Yes every month we pay for premier sports channels in order to receive the licenses to broadcast the great sporting events. Well technically that's what we should be paying for, what we are paying for is the ability to pay for the event when it actually arrives.

Formula 1 is the most watched sport on the planet, every second weekend 1.5 billion people tune in to watch the creme de la creme of motor racing. Israeli broadcasters put the Formula 1 on whenever it doesn't interrupt their broadcasting of the Israeli skiing championships or the U.S. wood chopping league.

We have to pay weekly to watch the Premier League and now the biggest disgrace of all, we will have to pay an outrageous 400+ shekels to watch the World Cup.

My question is this: What are the cable and satellite tv companies doing with the money we pay them every month to buy these licenses?

I can understand them charging people who don't buy the sports channels year round. But I do and I sure as hell don't pay to be able to switch to channel 57 and say "Oh wow, look its channel 57 and they are showing the July tissue paper tearing championships!"

I think it is an absolute disgrace and nothing more than a money making scheme which I have decided to boycott. I have decided I will not give the Israeli broadcasters once cent of my money. I have signed up online to receive the World Cup for a quarter of the price and I will be canceling my subscription to the sports channels.

Obviously I am paying for wasted space considering the sports coverage on our television is appalling, the licenses I pay for, I have to pay for again and at the end of the day, I am being bullied into to putting extra money down when I and nobody else wants to.

So lets send a message to Hot! and Yes. Find an alternative, watch the soccer in a bar, or online or not at all. Lets teach them that the consumer IS always right and if we are going to pay for a service, we damn well expect them to provide it.

I am perfectly happy to watch my world cup favorites battle it out on my PC. I am personally rooting for the United States, Portugal and Spain as runners up to the best of the best Brazil. Its pretty much the first world cup I will be able to watch in its entirety and I can't wait for the first to blow and the world's greatest sporting festival to begin.