I WILL watch the World Cup

One of the things that Didier and I were thrilled about was the prospect of watching the FIFA World Cup 2010 while here in Barbados.  We were certain that with so many football fans and ex-pats on the island, there would be lots of excitement surrounding the games.  So imagine my surprise when yesterday, while watching some of the pre-game commentary, my feed cut out with the message "Program not available in your area" displayed in the bottom right corner.  I just knew this had to be a mistake, so I shut down and restarted the satellite.  The message was still displayed after a few such attempts to "jump" it into my programming!  I didn't call Didier or panic; I just called DirectTV where the line rang busy.  After three attempts I tried the on-line route.  Sent two messages, very politely worded about my excitement about watching the Cup matches, blah blah blah...

And it was blah blah blah, alright!  That afternoon when I called a friend here on the island, she gave me the what's what and it was not sounding good at all!  Two months prior, she and her husband had called DirectTV to confirm that the games would be shown on DirectTV and that they had the right package to view it.  She was told they would be and that she did indeed have the right package.  When I'd called her earlier to tell her my predicament she thought perhaps I didn't have the correct package and that I had been "cut off" because I was essentially stealing the Cup.  But a few hours later, hers too had been shut down and the reason she was given by DirectTV had her head spinning Bajan Exorcist style:  THEY HAD NOT OBTAINED THE RIGHTS TO SHOW THE WORLD CUP AND HAD THEREFORE REMOVED ALL PROGRAMMING RELATED FOR THE MONTH! 

Say what?  In a panic, she called a friend who worked for the CBC, the rival to DirectTV who assured her this was correct.   CBC had the rights and unfortunately DirectTV was prohibited from showing any content related.  Nice.  Thank you, DirectTV for letting us in on this.  It seems that they were fearful of people jumping ship to CBC for the month and refused to provide accurate information.  But you know we wily ones, we can always find a way...and that way was a $12 BDS rabbit ears antenna that allowed us to view only one channel.  Channel 8.  And Channel 8, my friends, is where the 2010 FIFA World Cup games would be shown in Barbados.  I look forward to watching with my family and friends.

The Penn-Virots, 1.  DirectTV, 0.


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