If you are a Comcast subscriber in the Philadelphia area you are about to enter your third weekend without Fox Soccer Plus. The new channel, which began broadcasting on March 1, replaced Setanta USA, which had previously only been available in two or three select Comcast markets.

Without Fox Soccer Plus you’ve missed Portsmouth’s FA Cup victory over Birmingham. You’ve missed having the choice of watching Lyon stick it to Real Madrid live at 2:30 p.m. in the Champions League rather than having to wait for the delayed broadcast at 5pm on FSC. This weekend you will miss a classic London derby between West Ham and Chelsea as well as Manchester United against Fulham. Next Sunday you will miss Manchester United against Liverpool.

Of course, if you subscribe to Direct TV or Dish Network, you already have Fox Soccer Plus.

So what’s the deal with Comcast?

I have been in communication with Comcast via Chat, phone and email. When I “chatted” with “Gladys” a month or so ago, I was assured that Fox Soccer Plus would be available at no additional cost to those who already subscribe to Comcast’s Sports Entertainment Pack. Then, the week before the new channel was to begin broadcasting I spoke with a very helpful customer service representative.

He told me that he had received several calls about Fox Soccer Plus but had no information about when Comcast would offer the channel in the Philadelphia market. He said that workers in the call center were not usually informed about new channels before they were included in the lineup and recommended that I keep my eyes open for its sudden appearance. He was optimistic that Fox Soccer Plus would be added since Comcast already has every other Fox sport channel and actually took my number to call me if he heard anything further.

While I appreciated his optimism and help, I still hadn’t found the answer I was looking for. So I decided to email Rick Germano, the senior vice president for customer operations at Comcast.

While Mr. Germano didn’t get back to me, one Michelle Flood did. This is what she had to say:

I understand the importance of this channel to you and would like to thank you for writing us to express your interest in having this channel added to your line up. We appreciate your feedback and we will make sure to share this with the appropriate teams. Customer interest is important in the selection process for new content.

Which of course strikes me as saying a whole lot of nothing.

If you want your Fox Soccer Plus, why not send Comcast a message? Be polite but firm. After all, starting in April, the monthly fee for subscribing to Comcast’s Sport’s Entertainment Pack will go from $5 a month to $6.95.