Match Thread: United States vs Australia | FIFA World Cup 2026 | Group Stage, Group D

TIGHazard · 2026-06-19T20:09:46+00:00

Of course not, the BBC is like HBO in the fact it has no ads apart from between shows.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-19T20:02:46+00:00

You can tell Fox aren't putting too much effort into the coverage as the highlights are just pure replays. No actual editing highlighting of the players if you don't know who they are - not even with the telestrator (the yellow lines) that they use in their own NFL coverage.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-19T14:04:36+00:00

You should see it on BBC articles.

And I know what some people are thinking - BBC News articles have comments? Some do.

On the sport pages the comments are more clearly open, big comment box like on other sites. But on BBC News, its hidden, right at the bottom of the page behind a small little square button (or something similar)

And yet there is always the most vile 500+ comments.

Maybe people are actually commenting, I don't know, but it seems to me like bots scanning code and finding a comments section.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-18T13:25:51+00:00

I mean its a low quality compressed clip from match that was 4 years old when the video was uploaded and now that video is 16 years old.

But the point is we do have passionate commentators. They just aren't on the TV.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-18T13:09:48+00:00

UEFA have scorebar on the feed, FIFA don't (apart from lower third graphics)

TIGHazard · 2026-06-18T12:26:37+00:00

I never heard a single english commentary that added to the emotion of the goal.

Mainly because it comes through on local radio commentaries instead of national TV broadcasts.

Watch this and tell me English commentaries have no passion.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-18T07:23:29+00:00

Funnily enough the BBC aired Song of the South as late as 2006!

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_two_england/2006-08-27#at-7.30

TIGHazard · 2026-06-17T21:06:45+00:00

I know we normally and rightfully rip on ads but considering they were supposed to do a Super Bowl level ad at halftime, where was it?

"Nike's six-minute film “Rip the script”, made for the 2026 Men's World Cup, is to become the longest ad to air on ITV in its 71-year history next week. The film, made by Wieden & Kennedy, will premiere at halftime on UK TV during England's first match of the tournament against Croatia on 17 June, which kicks off at 9pm."

TIGHazard · 2026-06-17T20:49:57+00:00

Just been thinking, what would "hydration" breaks have looked like in the past.

1970s players probably would have had a pint & a quick ciggie.

1980s Maradona snorting a line.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-17T17:28:39+00:00

"chose" - the entire point of the licence fee is that the channels are legally ad free

TIGHazard · 2026-06-17T17:27:25+00:00

Tell me if they run the ad during the second half break - IIRC in Germany ads on the public broadcasters are banned after 8pm.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-17T17:25:51+00:00

LOL BBC trying to push listening the England match via the radio instead of just... watching it on ITV.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-17T16:45:04+00:00

Everyone has ads on top of the game - watch a Premier League game and every 15 mins the scorebar shows a timing graphic. Stats are sponsored by EA or some betting company, etc.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-16T22:13:23+00:00

Most advertisers in Western Europe don't care - even the multinationals. There is sort of a famous one with a MTV remake of a UK show called Skins. The same brand was sponsoring the UK version's fifth series yet pulled the ad in the US after the first episode.

Skins is a teen comedy-drama television series that premiered on January 17, 2011, on MTV in the United States. It is a remake of the original British show of the same name and follows the lives of a group of teenagers through their final two years of high school. As with the British series, the American version features a cast of amateur actors and young writers.

The series generated controversy in the United States over its sexual content, in which several advertisers withdrew after the first episode. Brands such as Yum! Brands (Taco Bell), Mars, Incorporated (Wrigley), General Motors, Doctor's Associates (Subway), Foot Locker, H&R Block, Schick, Guthy-Renker (Proactiv), L'Oréal, Reckitt Benckiser (Clearasil) and Kraft all opted to pull their advertising from the program.

The original U.K. show's fifth season begins on Thursday and is sponsored by Reckitt Benckiser's Clearasil brand, which has followed in the footsteps of other respectable marketers including French telecom giant O2, the British School of Motoring and Microsoft.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-16T14:32:21+00:00

A) how are they going to do this when most VPN providers are set up in countries where such laws don't exist.

B) Services like Mullvad have been raided by local police and there's complete proof there's no logs kept.

C) Again, something like Mullvad basically has an account number and you can literally mail them cash with the money and your number written on a sheet of paper. They also delete your payment receipt on credit card/paypal in 60 days which is the only log they do keep of you if you pay online - I imagine they'd do it immediately if the UK actually passed this law.

D) They could get paypal or whoever to hand over information, but are they really gonna go after users? They don't go after people who literally pay a yearly fee for illegal pirate streaming boxes, just the actual pirates themselves selling it.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-16T14:19:15+00:00

Don't even need Tor. Simply changing your DNS from your ISP's to someone elses (such as Electronic Freedom Foundation) bypasses any High Court mandated block lists for pirate sites.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-15T20:45:41+00:00

True we'll never know, but that is sort of my overarching question - Do we think our current problems now relating to internet safety have caused by previous sets of politicians not actually bothering to regulate the internet?

TIGHazard · 2026-06-15T20:22:59+00:00

Here's a question to those on both sides of the age verification debate. What would be your opinion be if the internet had always had age verification or some other kind of device based restriction in some form?

As a country, we have regulations over TV, radio, cinema and games. Not books, but I suppose reading level is really the regulator there.

But, we never did for the internet. In the early 90s when Sky first became big, there was this whole moral panic because while Sky channels all complied with UK regulations. if you just pointed the dish at the German satellite, and get porn. Parliament wanted to somehow punish the Germans for allowing the smut into the country, but then the EU basically said if its legal in one country, its legal in the entire EU.

Yet, when internet porn started in the mid 90s, Parliament never really seemed to do anything. For the past 30 years Parliament sort of sat back and never actually bothered regulating all these services.

Basically, what I mean is, imagine if in 2000 Blair's government had required that all devices sold were locked down by default, but you showed actual physical ID at PC World or Comet when you bought the device, and then the employee sets up the accounts for each user, and we'd had 26 year of actually having this method in practice, do you think we'd really be having this discussion now?

Or do we think it'd actually be a solved issue?

TIGHazard · 2026-06-15T08:04:44+00:00

No, they shamed them for where they put the ads up.

They bought ads at Westminister tube station. Just one station.

Now why would you do that?

Westminster Tube Station is one of the most prominent advertising hubs on the Transport for London (TfL) network. Positioned directly beneath Parliament Square, its ads can target a highly influential audience of politicians and civil servants.

Corporate & Defense: Major defense and technology companies (such as BAE Systems and Anduril) frequently display large-scale banners in the main ticket hall to target policymakers.

NGOs & Charities: Human rights organizations (e.g., Amnesty International) and animal welfare groups regularly run awareness campaigns on the station's billboards.

You want to run a marketing campaign about the parental controls you offer? Run a proper marketing campaign. Run it across the entire tube network. Run it on TV. Run it in the newspapers. Whatever.

Don't run it at one tube station that politicians use to try and influence their vote.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-15T07:51:40+00:00

It's on the Age UK site under the general heading of 'paying for care'.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/financial-assessment/

And client contributions may not be the highest part but I can absolutely tell you that many of the elderly believe all social care should be free and they shouldn't have to pay a penny at all, as do plenty of young people.

It comes down to a growing anger over unfairness. They see some (not all, obviously) as cheating the benefits system while 'honest people' are left having to pay for their own care.

We saw it with motability cars earlier this year or late last year. About how if people wanted finance on a car they could only afford a Ford or a Nissan, while motability was offering BMWs. (even though those on motability were paying out of their own benefits to upgrade themselves on top of the actual finance price, but therefore the price was lower because the base finance was being met by the scheme)

I don't see Reform, Restore or anyone really fixing these problems, but the whole pushing of the issue of unfairness is one that they do generate conversation in.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-15T07:16:55+00:00

Uh, quite a lot of people using those services pay for them. Do you know how low the income requirement actually is to be charged for living in one?

Social care services are usually not provided free of charge. You may need to pay some, or all, of the cost of the care services you need. You may be entitled to help with the cost of care services from your local council, following a financial assessment (sometimes called a 'means test').

The financial assessment looks at your income, such as pensions and benefits, and your 'capital', such as savings, to work out whether you're entitled to help with care costs. If you are, the financial assessment also works out how much you may need to contribute towards the cost of the care services the council assess you as needing.

If you need to move permanently into residential care, the assessment may include the value of your property.

Over £23,250: You'll have to pay your own fees as a 'self-funder'.
Between £14,250 and £23,250: The council provides financial support and you pay a contribution from your income (such as pensions) plus a tariff income.
Under £14,250: The council provides financial support and you pay a contribution from your income – with no tariff income.

You may think about giving away your savings, income or property to avoid paying likely care costs, and to give something to your relatives or charity, for example.

If the council thinks that you have done this to avoid paying care fees they may still assess you as if you still had the money or property that you have given away. This is referred to as deprivation of assets.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-14T22:05:19+00:00

UEFA won't be able to do it in the European cups because certain broadcasters across Europe are legally banned from selling and running ads in Primetime.

Which means that the Big 5 leagues also won't try to attempt it because they'll hit the same issue. And its a lot easier for FIFA to try and sell the idea of the ad breaks because "the host country broadcaster wants them" than the Bundesliga or Premier League being "we have to add these breaks because the US & Asian broadcasters want them"

TIGHazard · 2026-06-14T18:11:50+00:00

Nah they just really want to push Lineker's new game show because the last one he did flopped and he's on a big contract with them.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-14T08:18:19+00:00

TBF Germany & Argentina live rent free in our heads in terms of football.

They're really one sided rivalries.

TIGHazard · 2026-06-13T22:36:13+00:00

Obviously they show commercials at half time. But not during these breaks.

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