Good luck watching the Euro 2008 semifinals on TV

UPDATE 4:34 P.M.: ESPN is slightly more clued in on what happened during the game. Spokesman Mac Nwulu said that during every big sporting event -- the Olympics, the Euro Cup, etc. -- worldwide feeds are coordinated through one point: an International Broadcast Center (we mention it below). In this case it was the IBC in Vienna. A lightning strike killed the feed from the game, and then when the tournament's governing body, the Union of European Football Associations, went to the backup feed, inclement weather killed that one too. Nwulu said sports producers told him that this was "the first time this has happened to this extent in recent memory."

ESPN was able to show fans watching the game, though not show the game itself, because that footage was from a “complementary” feed in Basel, which wasn't affected by the outage like Vienna was.

Also, to answer the question submitted by Roger Egon in the comments below: Neither ESPN nor any of the other international broadcasters were allowed to show any footage of the game that wasn't from UEFA, as dictated by the broadcasting contract.

-----

So you planned to spend a good chunk of time today slacking off at work watching Germany play Turkey in the Euro 2008 semifinals, thankful that modern technology allows you to watch a game in Basel, Switzerland in real time.

But then a few minutes into the second half, your TV went black. ESPN, which is carrying the coverage in the U.S., stopped showing the game and panned over a fan center, and then went back to the anchors who were trying to explain why they weren't showing the game, which was locked in a 1-1 stalemate at the time. All the while you were shaking your fist at the screen, wondering why modern technology hasn't yet found a way to make live sports coverage foolproof.

So what happened? Is this some devious plan to make Americans realize just how much they love soccer when they can't see it? Or was something really, really juicy happening on the field?

First, be comforted that you weren't alone. Coverage was out in Buenos Aires, Montreal, France and Germany (can you imagine the locals flipping out?) as well, according to The Guardian. The signal came back on, then went out again, then returned to catch the stunning last few minutes (we won't spoil it for you, but scoring picked up).

And then, be reassured (or maybe you should be worried?) that the Union of European Football Associations (aka UEFA) didn't really know what was going on either. A volunteer who answered the phone at the Euro 2008 press center said there was a big storm going on in Vienna, the location of the International Broadcast Center, which apparently takes the raw feed and uploads it to a satellite. He speculated that the rain and strong winds were interfering with the satellite signal.

He knew more than the UEFA spokesman, who was able to confirm there is a big storm in Vienna, but said he'd have to call us back when he knows more. Stay tuned... (We know, you've been trying to!)

-- Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers marketing and the L.A. tech scene.

Photo: Turkey plays Germany in the Euro 2008 semifinals. Credit: Dominic Favre / EPA

Comments

[Erwin]

It was not that bad in germany as german television found a work arround after the first signal loss: They took over the signal from the swiss television which as the only tv station worldwide did not need to get the signal from Vienna but was allowed to broadcast their own signal.

[otak parsigian]

What the writer of this piece should have tried to explain to us baffled fans is why it was POSSIBLE for ESPN to pan over and broadcast images outside the stadium in the fan zone. Why were those images making it through the storm in Vienna? Odd and frustrating as all hell. I hope ESPN's re-broadcast fills all the holes. This was a disastrous broadcast.

Tonight the television signal in the International Broadcast Centre for the game Germany-Turkey has been interrupted several times in the second half due to technical reasons which are currently being investigated, in particular to evaluate the impact of the violent electrical storm over Vienna at that time.
The second half is being re-fed to the broadcasters. UEFA will communicate more information when the investigations are completed.

[Roger Egon]

This was a major disapointment for millions of fans including me. What no back up transmission plan ? duh....This is the second major embarassment for Austrian TV, I read that they put the Nazi lyrics on the German National anthem subtitles before a game. THis was uefa's frist time handling the TV rights themselves. I would expect that a number of worldwide networks will be unwilling to pay the fees for the game after this.

[Eric]

Roger, as I was told it had to do with transmission rights. Apparently ESPN and other international networks hat all bought rights that allowed for transmission via Vienna only. I am not sure how the German ZDF sidetracked that. Maybe they just wrote a big cheque just-in-time.

[Martin Puppe]

@Eric
ZDF got the feed from Swiss television as they were the only ones with their own feed.

btw: Erwin already said this in the first comment.

[Jim]

While there WERE problems worldwide, almost everything I've read says that other countries saw a LOT more than we did watching ESPN. Here in the US we had 3 blackouts: 1) a long portion of the second half while it remained 1-1, 2) another portion that included BOTH goals to make it 2-2, and 3) everything after Lahm scored to make it 3-2. The UK reports only mention 2 blackouts, and only missing Klose's goal.

[otak parsigian]

In reply to the poster who talked about Austria showing the "nazi lyrics" to the German national anthem. There were never lyrics written by or for the Nazis. All the lyrics were written in 1841 by August Hoffman. The first line, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt" (Germany, Germany above everything, above everything in the world), is an appeal from the 1840s to the various German sovereigns to give the creation of a united Germany a higher priority than the independence of their small states and it is not a claim for German supremacy on an international level as interpreted in the First World War and later by the Nazis.

[Erwin]

Martin: Actually they did not got a feed from the swiss television but just rebroadcasted their program (including station logo) as they received it from the satellite (so apparently the ZDF has either a satellite receiver with illegal keys for decoding the program or a SF smart card). I guess they did not asked the SF for permission beforehand but they thanked them multiple times afterward.

[Erwin]

Jim: I believe all countries (except the swiss) had three blackouts. At least in german we had, but on the second one ZDF rebroadcasted the signal from swiss television SF after a short while and on the third blackout they switched almost immediately. Rebroadcasting SF would probably not be an option for ESPN as they will likely not able to receive it in the US.

[Mark Crosby]

Hey, I've just got to congratulate the BBC and how it covered it. Did any other network think about rebroadcasting the radio commentary? I suppose the BBC didn't have any rights issues when it came to rebroadcasting their own coverage! :-)

We lost lots of vision - three blackouts, but the BBC noticed straight away, put up an apology and we were with BBC Five Live radio within 2 minutes. The other two occasions when we lost vision, they flicked to the radio feed within seconds.