Internet throws to NFL fans overseas

On Feb. 5, at about 7 a.m. local time, I’ll be watching the Super Bowl. For those of us living in foreign lands where football means a round ball, the NFL doesn’t get primetime coverage.

Despite growing up as an NFL fan, when I say “football” now to anyone except my mother, I’m talking about soccer. When I watch football on any given weekend, it’s the glorious exploits of my beloved Arsenal Football Club I’m enjoying, not those of the New York Giants.

During almost 11 years in China, I have slowly seen those vestiges of the U.S. unavailable here in Beijing disappear. The Internet changed the way we live overseas. Letters became e-mails. Amazon.com became the Berlin Airlift to the book-deprived, with CDs and DVDs following soon after.

But regular National Football League coverage was one of just two remaining treats that eluded me. That changed on Sept. 13, 2006. On that day, I discovered Ben & Jerry’s ice cream at my supermarket, for about $9 per pint. That morning, I watched an NFL game, live via the Internet, in my home.

NFL Enterprises embraced the Internet for the 2006-07 season. Previously the NFL did not allow webcasting of its games, except for text and graphic-based commentary such as GameCast. But this year, international fans could buy a GamePass from Yahoo to view games live and streamed, at either $249.99 for the season, or $24.99 per week. Apple’s iTunes Music Store sold season passes for fans to watch their favorite teams, uploading each game after its completion.

I took a different route. I downloaded TVUplayer , which seems to be a mass re-broadcast from a Slingbox Media device in San Jose, California. There was the NFL, complete with American sportscasters and commercials (“This is our country…”). I ignored that it was 8:30 a.m. and made popcorn.

I don’t understand how TVUplayer is legal, but if they ever become a paid service, they can have my money. ESPN and ABC disappeared midway through the season, so I lost the Sunday and Monday night games that I used to watch on Monday and Tuesday mornings, respectively, but Sunday night remained sleepless as I watched the day games.

If living overseas teaches us anything, it’s that in the Internet world, content distribution and licensing methods are grossly obsolete. I would have paid to watch the NFL live years ago — but they wouldn’t take my money. Cinema and DVD release dates seem equally ludicrous when you live in a market where they’re meaningless. Piracy makes a lot more sense when you realize that the guy down the street can offer you “Casino Royale” on DVD today, but Hollywood thinks you should wait eight months.

Next season promises to be even better for football fans here. On Aug. 8 — exactly one year prior to the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing — China will host to its first-ever NFL exhibition game, with the New England Patriots playing the Seattle Seahawks. But when the regular season begins about three weeks later, it will be first down and 10 on the Internet.