".. it's not like it makes much difference. Only takes minutes to sign up for an alternative ..." Fraid for some, including me, it isn't so simple. In France the listed broadcaster is beIN Sports. But beIN Sports has it seems decided not to show the game(s), so no alternative but to go down the VPN route. Still trying to sort that out ...
You can come and watch it at my house. I've got it sorted and ready. A VPN with Free doesn't work. Now TV sees through that. PM me if you want some help but by my solution you won't have it ready for the semis.
That list above posted above may not be exhaustive, there may be others. If you read the Charlton release carefully, you see this:
"Due to EFL broadcast rules, CharltonTV can only stream of the game in countries where the EFL does not have a broadcast deal or in countries where the broadcaster that does have a deal with the EFL elects not to broadcast".
That was the situation that I highlighted to Gavin Carter via CAST ahead of tonight's meet. he would only have got the doc I wrote up on Monday evening so it didn't give him much time, but I think it very likely that this exception is his work, as that nonsense has been happening for several seasons.
This is particularly good news for people in France such as @jimmymelrose, as BeIN are not showing it there even though they are the partner.
Also good news for @Huskaris. Both Italy and Belgium are on the access list above. if you are not a CTV subscriber you can buy a one-off pass for the away game on Saturday.
Bit late for that now. Getting it set up has cost me a total if 47 quid but at least I can watch all the play offs. Turned off tonight at 0-1 though. That was very harsh on Bristol city.
".. it's not like it makes much difference. Only takes minutes to sign up for an alternative ..." Fraid for some, including me, it isn't so simple. In France the listed broadcaster is beIN Sports. But beIN Sports has it seems decided not to show the game(s), so no alternative but to go down the VPN route. Still trying to sort that out ...
You can come and watch it at my house. I've got it sorted and ready. A VPN with Free doesn't work. Now TV sees through that. PM me if you want some help but by my solution you won't have it ready for the semis.
But if @NickKnack is in France he can now buy a Charlton TV match pass on Saturday and get the real thing while you are stuck with Sky. And if by some chance the EFL fail to deliver on their promise not to geo-block it, he can just use his VPN set to Lux or Belgium.
Supporters in the following nations can gain access to Sunday’s CharltonTV live stream:
American Samoa
Andorra
Belarus
Belgium
Brunei
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Christmas Islands
Cocos Islands
Cook Islands
Cyprus
DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
East Timor
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Gambia
Gibraltar
Guam
Italy
Kiribati Islands
Laos
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Malta
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
Norfolk Islands
North Korea
North Mariana Islands
Palau
Papa New Guinea
Pitcairn Islands
Poland
Republic of South Sudan
Samoa
Socotra
Soloman Islands
South Tyrol
Spain
Tahiti
Taiwan
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvala
Vanuata
Vietnam
Wallis & Futuna
Western Samoa
Coincidentally and not at all related to this list (honest, mr EFL), NordVPN are a sponsor of the club and explicitly Charlton TV, and happen to offer excellent service for me whenever I need a VPN.
Once you have subscribed, they also have a series of helpful installation guides (eg for Amazon FireSticks as per this one): https://nordvpn.com/download/firestick/
As a tip, remember that the service generally works best when you use a VPN server located close to your physical location…
This was also mentioned on the CAST meeting earlier 🤣
One final thing, I'm guessing that if Charlton TV is showing them, and as stated above that means the EFL has no distribution agreements in those countries, that I definitely won't be able to find a bar showing it and will have to watch on my own device basically?
Forgive my ignorance on all this but my brother in France has bought a months NOW TV pass to watch all the play off games. He’s done this before but are the play offs different? Can he do so in France seeing as the EFL have an agreement with Bein?
AFAIK - and i took a look at NowTV a few days back when i was getting worried - to get Now TV if he was in France he'd have had to set a VPN to UK, before opening the Now TV website; then he would have ow needed a UK address and (I think) a debit card tied to that address. I could have done all that had it been necessary but some other Int. Addicks in France couldn't because they no longer have a UK address and bank account.
Thanks. I know he used my Mum's debit card but no idea what address he used.
One final thing, I'm guessing that if Charlton TV is showing them, and as stated above that means the EFL has no distribution agreements in those countries, that I definitely won't be able to find a bar showing it and will have to watch on my own device basically?
10-15 years ago, at least in Milan, you may well have found out about a bar run by Brits or Irish who were able to show Sky under dubious arrangements. There were several in the centre of Prague, but the change is that in those days Sky used customer cards to acitivate digiboxes but I believe thats far less prevalent now, and at the same time local providers show FAPL games, so the owners take the less risky option.
The other thing is that they are usually multi-screen and you won’t get significant sound, you stare at a mute screen, while people nearby are shouting at the latest Serie A game. Nothing like the bear-pit in Newcastle where I watched the England -Scotland Euro 96 Gazza special. Fuck me that was almost better than being at Wembley.
Summary, IMO you wont be missing much if you dont find a bar. However one other tip I read recently is that generally a surprisingly good source of local knowledge and tips is Reddit.
Supporters in the following nations can gain access to Sunday’s CharltonTV live stream:
American Samoa
Andorra
Belarus
Belgium
Brunei
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Christmas Islands
Cocos Islands
Cook Islands
Cyprus
DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
East Timor
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Gambia
Gibraltar
Guam
Italy
Kiribati Islands
Laos
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Malta
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
Norfolk Islands
North Korea
North Mariana Islands
Palau
Papa New Guinea
Pitcairn Islands
Poland
Republic of South Sudan
Samoa
Socotra
Soloman Islands
South Tyrol
Spain
Tahiti
Taiwan
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvala
Vanuata
Vietnam
Wallis & Futuna
Western Samoa
Coincidentally and not at all related to this list (honest, mr EFL), NordVPN are a sponsor of the club and explicitly Charlton TV, and happen to offer excellent service for me whenever I need a VPN.
Once you have subscribed, they also have a series of helpful installation guides (eg for Amazon FireSticks as per this one): https://nordvpn.com/download/firestick/
As a tip, remember that the service generally works best when you use a VPN server located close to your physical location…
Assuming this is not some kind of joke of the "I'm popping over to Italy" type, could you explain this, as I've never heard it before. What other considerations might also come into play? e.g I have noticed that if I connect to a smaller country like Luxembourg the VPN connects straight away whereas for the UK it has several different servers in various cities but often needs several attempts to connect. So i have developed the idea that its because of volume of traffic to the given server. Would that be right?
It’s right but is only one factor which impacts it. The others are the distance from where you are (as generally the longer the distance, the slower the internet speed) and the underlying internet speed at the location you VPN into
Supporters in the following nations can gain access to Sunday’s CharltonTV live stream:
American Samoa
Andorra
Belarus
Belgium
Brunei
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Christmas Islands
Cocos Islands
Cook Islands
Cyprus
DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
East Timor
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Gambia
Gibraltar
Guam
Italy
Kiribati Islands
Laos
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Malta
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
Norfolk Islands
North Korea
North Mariana Islands
Palau
Papa New Guinea
Pitcairn Islands
Poland
Republic of South Sudan
Samoa
Socotra
Soloman Islands
South Tyrol
Spain
Tahiti
Taiwan
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvala
Vanuata
Vietnam
Wallis & Futuna
Western Samoa
Coincidentally and not at all related to this list (honest, mr EFL), NordVPN are a sponsor of the club and explicitly Charlton TV, and happen to offer excellent service for me whenever I need a VPN.
Once you have subscribed, they also have a series of helpful installation guides (eg for Amazon FireSticks as per this one): https://nordvpn.com/download/firestick/
As a tip, remember that the service generally works best when you use a VPN server located close to your physical location…
Assuming this is not some kind of joke of the "I'm popping over to Italy" type, could you explain this, as I've never heard it before. What other considerations might also come into play? e.g I have noticed that if I connect to a smaller country like Luxembourg the VPN connects straight away whereas for the UK it has several different servers in various cities but often needs several attempts to connect. So i have developed the idea that its because of volume of traffic to the given server. Would that be right?
It’s right but is only one factor which impacts it. The others are the distance from where you are (as generally the longer the distance, the slower the internet speed) and the underlying internet speed at the location you VPN into
Thanks, good to know, but is there any sure way to assess your last criterion? e.g for Sunday I might suppose that Luxembourg has a good infra because Amazon and all kinds of other tax dodging multi-nats are there. But an old Belgian former boss of mine described Luxembourg as "the arsehole of Europe" so there's that. If I do a speed test after connecting, is that a reliable way to assess this?
".. it's not like it makes much difference. Only takes minutes to sign up for an alternative ..." Fraid for some, including me, it isn't so simple. In France the listed broadcaster is beIN Sports. But beIN Sports has it seems decided not to show the game(s), so no alternative but to go down the VPN route. Still trying to sort that out ...
You can come and watch it at my house. I've got it sorted and ready. A VPN with Free doesn't work. Now TV sees through that. PM me if you want some help but by my solution you won't have it ready for the semis.
But if @NickKnack is in France he can now buy a Charlton TV match pass on Saturday and get the real thing while you are stuck with Sky. And if by some chance the EFL fail to deliver on their promise not to geo-block it, he can just use his VPN set to Lux or Belgium.
Can he? It doesn't look like that's the case to me at all. It says on the OS that it's possible to watch in a country that has the rights but chooses not to show the match but France is still not in the list of countries eligible for Charlton TV. I've just checked Bein Sports out of curiousity and they are showing German, Spanish and Portuguese league football and Handball because of course the average French person doesn't give a shit about our third division.
Forgive my ignorance on all this but my brother in France has bought a months NOW TV pass to watch all the play off games. He’s done this before but are the play offs different? Can he do so in France seeing as the EFL have an agreement with Bein?
AFAIK - and i took a look at NowTV a few days back when i was getting worried - to get Now TV if he was in France he'd have had to set a VPN to UK, before opening the Now TV website; then he would have ow needed a UK address and (I think) a debit card tied to that address. I could have done all that had it been necessary but some other Int. Addicks in France couldn't because they no longer have a UK address and bank account.
Thanks. I know he used my Mum's debit card but no idea what address he used.
After all this to-ing and fro-ing, I still have no idea if I will be able to watch the Wycombe away semi-final game on Charlton TV. Does anyone have a definitive answer?
I've sent Gavin Carter a battery of questions about this in advance of Thursday's @castrust Q&A. I'm hoping that he will at least bring with him an answer about the play-offs to tell us there. The other questions are more long term so I agreed with @Weegie Addick that there's no need to try and field them in that forum.
For the international viewers I have asked him if he can try to make the EFL clowns check whether foreign "partners" are actually showing the game before geo-blocking logins from a given country. But that's a tough ask in such a short time, even if the issue is comically stupid.
But at the moment while we know that Terry and Greg will be there doing audio, we have no idea if the video feed will even be running.
My tip: if it is running and you have Charlton TV, head over to Luxembourg
I just got 260 mbps through Luxembourg using a NordVPN server so you should be fine, given I’m much further away from Luxembourg than Prague.
Coincidentally, I had to laugh opening my inbox this morning to see a marketing email for NordVPN from the club. Why on earth would they be sending that?
Supporters in the following nations can gain access to Sunday’s CharltonTV live stream:
American Samoa
Andorra
Belarus
Belgium
Brunei
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Christmas Islands
Cocos Islands
Cook Islands
Cyprus
DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
East Timor
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Gambia
Gibraltar
Guam
Italy
Kiribati Islands
Laos
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Malta
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
Norfolk Islands
North Korea
North Mariana Islands
Palau
Papa New Guinea
Pitcairn Islands
Poland
Republic of South Sudan
Samoa
Socotra
Soloman Islands
South Tyrol
Spain
Tahiti
Taiwan
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvala
Vanuata
Vietnam
Wallis & Futuna
Western Samoa
Coincidentally and not at all related to this list (honest, mr EFL), NordVPN are a sponsor of the club and explicitly Charlton TV, and happen to offer excellent service for me whenever I need a VPN.
Once you have subscribed, they also have a series of helpful installation guides (eg for Amazon FireSticks as per this one): https://nordvpn.com/download/firestick/
As a tip, remember that the service generally works best when you use a VPN server located close to your physical location…
Assuming this is not some kind of joke of the "I'm popping over to Italy" type, could you explain this, as I've never heard it before. What other considerations might also come into play? e.g I have noticed that if I connect to a smaller country like Luxembourg the VPN connects straight away whereas for the UK it has several different servers in various cities but often needs several attempts to connect. So i have developed the idea that its because of volume of traffic to the given server. Would that be right?
It’s right but is only one factor which impacts it. The others are the distance from where you are (as generally the longer the distance, the slower the internet speed) and the underlying internet speed at the location you VPN into
Thanks, good to know, but is there any sure way to assess your last criterion? e.g for Sunday I might suppose that Luxembourg has a good infra because Amazon and all kinds of other tax dodging multi-nats are there. But an old Belgian former boss of mine described Luxembourg as "the arsehole of Europe" so there's that. If I do a speed test after connecting, is that a reliable way to assess this?
".. it's not like it makes much difference. Only takes minutes to sign up for an alternative ..." Fraid for some, including me, it isn't so simple. In France the listed broadcaster is beIN Sports. But beIN Sports has it seems decided not to show the game(s), so no alternative but to go down the VPN route. Still trying to sort that out ...
You can come and watch it at my house. I've got it sorted and ready. A VPN with Free doesn't work. Now TV sees through that. PM me if you want some help but by my solution you won't have it ready for the semis.
But if @NickKnack is in France he can now buy a Charlton TV match pass on Saturday and get the real thing while you are stuck with Sky. And if by some chance the EFL fail to deliver on their promise not to geo-block it, he can just use his VPN set to Lux or Belgium.
Can he? It doesn't look like that's the case to me at all. It says on the OS that it's possible to watch in a country that has the rights but chooses not to show the match but France is still not in the list of countries eligible for Charlton TV. I've just checked Bein Sports out of curiousity and they are showing German, Spanish and Portuguese league football and Handball because of course the average French person doesn't give a shit about our third division.
Ok, I'll go through this once again (apologies to those who already registered what's changed.
For some time there has been the exasperating problem that quite often, overseas rights holders don't actually show the game, yet we still found the EFL geo-blocking CTV viewers in those countries. You yourself gave the invaluable example of it happening in France ( a big market, unlike Czechia). On Monday, with CAST help I knocked up a diatribe addressed to GC against many aspects of the current CTV/rights set-up, but emphasised that the urgent thing was this one. CAST made sure GC saw it. Before the call on Thursday CAST followed up and were told that the Club (probably, they believe, Tom Rubeshow rather than GC personally) had approached the EFL about this. On Thursday afternoon Charlton updated their web page on Charlton TV broadcast availability. I can assure you this is brand new on that page:
"Due to EFL broadcast rules, CharltonTV can only stream of the game in countries where the EFL does not have a broadcast deal or in countries where the broadcaster that does have a deal with the EFL elects not to broadcast".
Assuming Bein don't change their schedule at the last minute, the EFL have now committed not to geo-block viewers in France. Of course we cannot guarantee in practice that they do it, its the first time they made such a commitment, but since we specifically referred to France as an example, I'd think that'll be one they pay attention to. Incidentlly they are such a shambles that on this page they say this:
Sky Bet League One & League Two
For the 2024/25 Season, overseas supporters can watch ALL league games live on iFollow - even those selected for broadcast by the EFL overseas broadcast partners or Sky Sports!
If that were true there was never a problem in the first place but we know it has not been true.
So for those in France I recommend
"allez les addicks"
For @Algarveaddick (alright, Perry, mate?) and others in Portugal, you may be geo-blocked as there is a local partner listed (Sport TV). In which case use your VPN to view from Spain. At the moment this is the situation I am in, and the Czech partner has the game in its schedule too, so I will be going straight to Luxembourg.
Many thanks for all the advice re the game in France, the detailed explanation, and the offer (jimmymelrose). I now have Plans A, B, C & D. Plan A is it is available to access on CATV in France; Plan B is to use VPN (bought and installed) to 'be' in say Luxembourg and access CATV; Plan C is to use VPN and get a one-day sub for NowTV (did a trial run and was able to watch the Bristol City v Sheff Utd game; it wasn't easy, didn't work at first, so set up the dedicated UK IP address option and that convinced NowTV I was in the UK); Plan D is to screen share with a fellow Addick! Last time around I watched the semis in a bar in Old Lyon. Like others, I'm happy to pay to get coverage by a normal route!
Forgive my ignorance on all this but my brother in France has bought a months NOW TV pass to watch all the play off games. He’s done this before but are the play offs different? Can he do so in France seeing as the EFL have an agreement with Bein?
AFAIK - and i took a look at NowTV a few days back when i was getting worried - to get Now TV if he was in France he'd have had to set a VPN to UK, before opening the Now TV website; then he would have needed a UK address and (I think) a debit card tied to that address. I could have done all that had it been necessary but some other Int. Addicks in France couldn't because they no longer have a UK address and bank account.
I think you need to be careful if relying on VPN. Not all sites, platforms or applications are as easily fooled as Charlton TV!
".. it's not like it makes much difference. Only takes minutes to sign up for an alternative ..." Fraid for some, including me, it isn't so simple. In France the listed broadcaster is beIN Sports. But beIN Sports has it seems decided not to show the game(s), so no alternative but to go down the VPN route. Still trying to sort that out ...
You can come and watch it at my house. I've got it sorted and ready. A VPN with Free doesn't work. Now TV sees through that. PM me if you want some help but by my solution you won't have it ready for the semis.
But if @NickKnack is in France he can now buy a Charlton TV match pass on Saturday and get the real thing while you are stuck with Sky. And if by some chance the EFL fail to deliver on their promise not to geo-block it, he can just use his VPN set to Lux or Belgium.
Can he? It doesn't look like that's the case to me at all. It says on the OS that it's possible to watch in a country that has the rights but chooses not to show the match but France is still not in the list of countries eligible for Charlton TV. I've just checked Bein Sports out of curiousity and they are showing German, Spanish and Portuguese league football and Handball because of course the average French person doesn't give a shit about our third division.
Ok, I'll go through this once again (apologies to those who already registered what's changed.
For some time there has been the exasperating problem that quite often, overseas rights holders don't actually show the game, yet we still found the EFL geo-blocking CTV viewers in those countries. You yourself gave the invaluable example of it happening in France ( a big market, unlike Czechia). On Monday, with CAST help I knocked up a diatribe addressed to GC against many aspects of the current CTV/rights set-up, but emphasised that the urgent thing was this one. CAST made sure GC saw it. Before the call on Thursday CAST followed up and were told that the Club (probably, they believe, Tom Rubeshow rather than GC personally) had approached the EFL about this. On Thursday afternoon Charlton updated their web page on Charlton TV broadcast availability. I can assure you this is brand new on that page:
"Due to EFL broadcast rules, CharltonTV can only stream of the game in countries where the EFL does not have a broadcast deal or in countries where the broadcaster that does have a deal with the EFL elects not to broadcast".
Assuming Bein don't change their schedule at the last minute, the EFL have now committed not to geo-block viewers in France. Of course we cannot guarantee in practice that they do it, its the first time they made such a commitment, but since we specifically referred to France as an example, I'd think that'll be one they pay attention to. Incidentlly they are such a shambles that on this page they say this:
Sky Bet League One & League Two
For the 2024/25 Season, overseas supporters can watch ALL league games live on iFollow - even those selected for broadcast by the EFL overseas broadcast partners or Sky Sports!
If that were true there was never a problem in the first place but we know it has not been true.
So for those in France I recommend
"allez les addicks"
For @Algarveaddick (alright, Perry, mate?) and others in Portugal, you may be geo-blocked as there is a local partner listed (Sport TV). In which case use your VPN to view from Spain. At the moment this is the situation I am in, and the Czech partner has the game in its schedule too, so I will be going straight to Luxembourg.
Cheers R, I am fine old bean. I am of course able to get around the problem - if it came to the worst, every pub has firesticks and can show every sporting event in the world - but it is annoying that Sport TV are lying to the EFL if they are claiming to be showing it, 'cos they ain't. A fact easily checked by the EFL using the link I sent them.
I just got 260 mbps through Luxembourg using a NordVPN server so you should be fine, given I’m much further away from Luxembourg than Prague.
Coincidentally, I had to laugh opening my inbox this morning to see a marketing email for NordVPN from the club. Why on earth would they be sending that?
Supporters in the following nations can gain access to Sunday’s CharltonTV live stream:
American Samoa
Andorra
Belarus
Belgium
Brunei
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Christmas Islands
Cocos Islands
Cook Islands
Cyprus
DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
East Timor
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Gambia
Gibraltar
Guam
Italy
Kiribati Islands
Laos
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Malta
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
Norfolk Islands
North Korea
North Mariana Islands
Palau
Papa New Guinea
Pitcairn Islands
Poland
Republic of South Sudan
Samoa
Socotra
Soloman Islands
South Tyrol
Spain
Tahiti
Taiwan
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvala
Vanuata
Vietnam
Wallis & Futuna
Western Samoa
Coincidentally and not at all related to this list (honest, mr EFL), NordVPN are a sponsor of the club and explicitly Charlton TV, and happen to offer excellent service for me whenever I need a VPN.
Once you have subscribed, they also have a series of helpful installation guides (eg for Amazon FireSticks as per this one): https://nordvpn.com/download/firestick/
As a tip, remember that the service generally works best when you use a VPN server located close to your physical location…
Assuming this is not some kind of joke of the "I'm popping over to Italy" type, could you explain this, as I've never heard it before. What other considerations might also come into play? e.g I have noticed that if I connect to a smaller country like Luxembourg the VPN connects straight away whereas for the UK it has several different servers in various cities but often needs several attempts to connect. So i have developed the idea that its because of volume of traffic to the given server. Would that be right?
It’s right but is only one factor which impacts it. The others are the distance from where you are (as generally the longer the distance, the slower the internet speed) and the underlying internet speed at the location you VPN into
Thanks, good to know, but is there any sure way to assess your last criterion? e.g for Sunday I might suppose that Luxembourg has a good infra because Amazon and all kinds of other tax dodging multi-nats are there. But an old Belgian former boss of mine described Luxembourg as "the arsehole of Europe" so there's that. If I do a speed test after connecting, is that a reliable way to assess this?
Anyone managed to buy the one match pass on Charlton TV? Still only seeing options for monthly and yearly subscriptions.
Yes, I switched to Spain on my VPN and still see no such offer.
The Club website page which said this will be available is still up, and saying that it should be (have been) available this morning.
Mail the Club in the morning. I'll do the same, and try to use addresses that aren't in the public domain to get to the right people. This shit needs to be sorted out.
Anyone managed to buy the one match pass on Charlton TV? Still only seeing options for monthly and yearly subscriptions.
That's all I can see, so I have registered with Wycombe TV as a back up theirs have been on sale all day for around £12. Luxembourg free membership hopefully ours will be up tomorrow.
Forgive my ignorance on all this but my brother in France has bought a months NOW TV pass to watch all the play off games. He’s done this before but are the play offs different? Can he do so in France seeing as the EFL have an agreement with Bein?
AFAIK - and i took a look at NowTV a few days back when i was getting worried - to get Now TV if he was in France he'd have had to set a VPN to UK, before opening the Now TV website; then he would have needed a UK address and (I think) a debit card tied to that address. I could have done all that had it been necessary but some other Int. Addicks in France couldn't because they no longer have a UK address and bank account.
I think you need to be careful if relying on VPN. Not all sites, platforms or applications are as easily fooled as Charlton TV!
You're right to sound this warning; but when I first had a look at NowTV 's webpage last week, it told me I was a foreigner and to piss off, but when I quit my browser and switched on my VPN to UK it let me in and tried to flog me stuff😉. Some VPNs are better than others of course; I expect Nord will be fine, as they've been around ages and right now are spending like hell on marketing; but I use Surfshark and in the last couple of years they are fine with BBC iPlayer which is one of the toughest to crack.
I've emailed Tom Rubashow about the match pass. I understand he was the one who kicked the EFL's arses on Monday about non-broadcasts so hopefully he's the right one to fix this.
EDIT: and he has replied within about 30 seconds.👏
"I’ve highlighted to the team who are looking into it."
Comments
A VPN with Free doesn't work. Now TV sees through that.
PM me if you want some help but by my solution you won't have it ready for the semis.
One final thing, I'm guessing that if Charlton TV is showing them, and as stated above that means the EFL has no distribution agreements in those countries, that I definitely won't be able to find a bar showing it and will have to watch on my own device basically?
Summary, IMO you wont be missing much if you dont find a bar. However one other tip I read recently is that generally a surprisingly good source of local knowledge and tips is Reddit.
I've just checked Bein Sports out of curiousity and they are showing German, Spanish and Portuguese league football and Handball because of course the average French person doesn't give a shit about our third division.
Coincidentally, I had to laugh opening my inbox this morning to see a marketing email for NordVPN from the club. Why on earth would they be sending that?
PragueAddick said:
For some time there has been the exasperating problem that quite often, overseas rights holders don't actually show the game, yet we still found the EFL geo-blocking CTV viewers in those countries. You yourself gave the invaluable example of it happening in France ( a big market, unlike Czechia). On Monday, with CAST help I knocked up a diatribe addressed to GC against many aspects of the current CTV/rights set-up, but emphasised that the urgent thing was this one. CAST made sure GC saw it. Before the call on Thursday CAST followed up and were told that the Club (probably, they believe, Tom Rubeshow rather than GC personally) had approached the EFL about this. On Thursday afternoon Charlton updated their web page on Charlton TV broadcast availability. I can assure you this is brand new on that page:
"Due to EFL broadcast rules, CharltonTV can only stream of the game in countries where the EFL does not have a broadcast deal or in countries where the broadcaster that does have a deal with the EFL elects not to broadcast".
Assuming Bein don't change their schedule at the last minute, the EFL have now committed not to geo-block viewers in France. Of course we cannot guarantee in practice that they do it, its the first time they made such a commitment, but since we specifically referred to France as an example, I'd think that'll be one they pay attention to. Incidentlly they are such a shambles that on this page they say this:
Sky Bet League One & League Two
For the 2024/25 Season, overseas supporters can watch ALL league games live on iFollow - even those selected for broadcast by the EFL overseas broadcast partners or Sky Sports!
If that were true there was never a problem in the first place but we know it has not been true.
So for those in France I recommend
"allez les addicks"
For @Algarveaddick (alright, Perry, mate?) and others in Portugal, you may be geo-blocked as there is a local partner listed (Sport TV). In which case use your VPN to view from Spain. At the moment this is the situation I am in, and the Czech partner has the game in its schedule too, so I will be going straight to Luxembourg.
I now have Plans A, B, C & D. Plan A is it is available to access on CATV in France; Plan B is to use VPN (bought and installed) to 'be' in say Luxembourg and access CATV; Plan C is to use VPN and get a one-day sub for NowTV (did a trial run and was able to watch the Bristol City v Sheff Utd game; it wasn't easy, didn't work at first, so set up the dedicated UK IP address option and that convinced NowTV I was in the UK); Plan D is to screen share with a fellow Addick!
Last time around I watched the semis in a bar in Old Lyon. Like others, I'm happy to pay to get coverage by a normal route!
It's not the reality, it's the principal...
It's not listed on BeIn Sports Schedule (Orient v Stockport was shown).
The Club website page which said this will be available is still up, and saying that it should be (have been) available this morning.
Mail the Club in the morning. I'll do the same, and try to use addresses that aren't in the public domain to get to the right people. This shit needs to be sorted out.
EDIT: and he has replied within about 30 seconds.👏
"I’ve highlighted to the team who are looking into it."