ESPN Have Premier League Rights Next Season!

[alexxxxx]

ESPN have won 46 games next season and 23 the week the season after! =D

They bought the rights at a cheaper price so the subscription should be cheaper than Setanta's.

[Jack.Lfc]

Who says they'll have a subscription :p

[-Heart]

ESPN have won 46 games next season and 23 the week the season after! =D

They bought the rights at a cheaper price so the subscription should be cheaper than Setanta's.

Oh what a load of ****. How *Removed* annoying.


Edited by Catzsy [Forum Super Moderator]: Please do not avoid the filter. Thanks

[alexxxxx]

I think ESPN will be a purely football channel though, I recon they'll pick up half of the SPL and the whole of the Europa League. Maybe Bundesliga and Ligue 1 (Serie A too?). These rights will cost alot less. The rest of the time they should mix it up with a UK version of sports centre (Sky Sports News but about 1000000X better) and then that's it. UFC can be garbled up by Channel 4 or Sky Sports imo. There's nothing else decent on Setanta (apart from IPL). Hmmmm.

[Rock]

Will you have to subscribe to this like Setanta?

[AlexOC]

If its a subscription, im on Virgin Medias XL package and i get Setanta free, now Setanta only has womens blind mexican league tennis now.

I want a free subscription to this aswell.

[Wolves]

This will probably come included with your VM and SKY subscriptions, either that or you will have to pay a tiny fee.

Are you sure that this doesn't mean that the rights have been awarded to ESPN to be shown in America? cause those were the vibes I was getting.

Would be cool to see ESPN take off over here though, but nothing will be SkySports or SkySports news, should be worthy challanger thouhg.

[Jack.Lfc]

Setanta will always have a place in my heart. i love there camera men.

[Wolves]

ESPN has also reached a distribution deal with BSkyB, which will screen the Premier League games it was awarded today from next season and beyond.

The US company said it had reached an agreement with Sky, but would also make the games "widely available across multiple pay-TV platforms".

ESPN added that the Sky deal was a "first step" in its distribution strategy, which suggest that further deals with cable operator Virgin Media, and other digital TV operators including Freeview are likely to be struck.

ESPN also said that as part of the Sky arrangement, BSkyB would make games available to "commercial customers", which implies that the pay-TV giant will sell games to pubs on ESPN's behalf. Sky had a similar arrangement with Setanta.

source; http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...-league-rights

Disney-owned ESPN has won the two packages of games shown on Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings. Both will be sold to customers through BSkyB.

ESPN said in a statement it had "reached an agreement for its coverage to be retailed by Sky to residential and commercial customers", who will pay extra to view the games. ESPN also hopes to make coverage available on other platforms.

Virgin Media confirmed it was in talks with ESPN about a possible deal, while a spokesman for BT said it too was in discussions with ESPN regarding matches for the coming season.
It is the first time that ESPN will broadcast live Premier League football in the UK.

source; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8113702.stm

Looks like it'll be similar to Setanta, you will get it free with good Sky/VM subscriptions, but may need to pay an additional subscription fee (like you had to with Setanta). And it seems as though ESPN will be shown in the UK, woop.

[Jack.Lfc]

They should be free to start off with get popular, then start charging. otherwise they will be hated like setanta.