ESPN is a sports television channel in the United Kingdom
and Republic of Ireland
owned by American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. The channel launched on 3 August 2009.
Programming is available in
standard
definition and
high
definition formats.
The
channel marks ESPN's first foray into live coverage of domestic
sports events in the UK, which has previously been dominated by
terrestrial networks such as the BBC and
ITV, as well as pay services Sky Sports and Setanta
Sports, the latter having ceased trading in Great Britain
.
Carriage
United Kingdom
A carriage and retail agreement for both residential and commercial
customers was struck with
British Sky Broadcasting, who sell
the channel through their
Sky
Digital platform. Sky Digital customers pay £9 a month if they
already subscribe to
Sky Sports or £12 a
month if they do not. British Sky Broadcasting's Sky Media also
acts as ad sales house for the channel.
ESPN is also available on
Virgin Media
in standard and high definition as a part of the XL pack. M or L
pack customers can subscribe to ESPN,
ESPN
America and ESPN HD for £8 a month if they already subscribe to
any combination of the Sky Sports channels or £10 a month if they
do not.
Top Up TV carried ESPN from 4 August 2009
for £9.99 per month. A connection fee of £20 applies to non Top Up
TV subscribers, ex-Setanta
digital terrestrial
television customers or those without a viewing card.
BT Vision carried ESPN from 4 August 2009
as part of BT Vision's Value Packs (Bronze, Silver and Gold).
On both BT Vision and Top Up TV, ESPN only broadcasts from 14:00 -
04:00 on weekdays, 12:00 - 06:00 on Saturday and 12:00 – 04:00 on
Sunday.
Tiscali TV carried ESPN from 14
August 2009 for £9.99 a month along with ESPN America.
ESPN is also available on
Smallworld
Media for free when taken with 6 TV Mixes. Other customers can
subscribe to ESPN for £9 per month if they subscribe to Sky Sports
or £12 per month if they do not.
Republic of Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, Sky Digital subscribers pay €12 if they
subscribe to Sky Sports or €16 if they don't.
On 14 August 2009, a deal with cable company
UPC Ireland (more popularly known by its trading
name, Chorus NTL) and ESPN was reached. On that date ESPN and ESPN
HD launched on UPC. On UPC, ESPN costs €15 on its own or €10 to
subscribers of either Sky Sports or
Setanta Sports 1.
ESPN America ceased to be part of the Setanta
Sports package on that date and became bundled with ESPN
instead.
Content
Basketball
On 30 July 2009, ESPN announced a deal to air
EuroBasket. On 30 September 2009, ESPN announced
that they had secured a multi-year deal to show live
National Basketball
Association games. The channel show up to three live matches a
week during the NBA season in standard and high definition,
including one game at Sunday primetime. It will also carry
NBA All-Star Games and action from the
season
playoffs and
final. ESPN will also broadcast studio shows
NBA Fastbreak and
NBA Action.
Live pre-season coverage began on ESPN on 6 October 2009 when the
Utah Jazz took on the
Chicago Bulls as part of
NBA Europe Live Tour. Coverage
continued on 8 October 2009 for Utah Jazz against Euroleague
Basketball's
Real Madrid
Baloncesto. The new NBA season officially gets under way on 27
October 2009.
Boxing
ESPN screened their first live boxing event on 19 September 2009,
broadcasting
Friday Night
Fights from America with
Guillermo Rigondeaux topping the
bill.
Football
Premier League
The company announced on 22 June 2009 that it had secured the UK
broadcast rights to the
Premier
League for four seasons, airing 46 games in the
2009-10 season and 23 games a year
for the following three seasons, following a missed payment by
Setanta Sports which voided their contracts. In the Republic of
Ireland, ESPN air the same 46 matches during the 2009-10
season.
Premier League coverage is produced by Sky Sports in-house
production team, with former BBC presenter
Ray Stubbs hosting alongside
Rebecca Lowe, with
Jon
Champion and
Chris Waddle
commentating. Chris Waddle replaced
Joe
Royle on commentary in September 2009.
Kevin Keegan is the lead analyst, while
Guus Hiddink,
Shaka Hislop,
Frank
Leboeuf,
Danny
Murphy,
Peter Reid,
Matt Holland and
Ian
Wright were also signed to provide analysis.
Mark Chapman,
Kelly
Cates and Darrell Currie will also form a part of the line up.
IMG Sports Media make the studio
shows and ancillary programming. The first Premier League match to
be shown on ESPN was
Everton against
Arsenal.
Scottish Premier League
On 16 July 2009, it was announced that ESPN had secured the
broadcast rights to 30 live
Scottish Premier League games per
season across the UK and Ireland, for five seasons, starting with
the 2009-10 season. Sky Sports also show 30 lives games per season
during this period, including each of the
Old
Firm games. The SPL retains the right to opt out of the final
two seasons of the deal. Ray Stubbs hosts, with
Derek Rae and
Craig
Burley commentating.
UEFA Europa League
On 1 September 2009, ESPN secured a three-year TV rights deal to
broadcast matches from the
UEFA
Europa League, previously held by Setanta Sports. At a minimum,
ESPN will broadcast one match from each kick-off slot.
ESPN share the rights to the Europa League with
Five and
ITV. As part
of the deal, ESPN serve as host broadcaster for any live home
matches featuring British clubs that it is transmitting and have
the rights to air matches over the internet and via mobile wireless
technologies.
During the the
2009-10 season, ESPN show
action from home sides
Celtic,
Everton and
Fulham,
as well as 45 other European clubs, including holders
Shakhtar Donetsk.
Foreign club football
On 28 July 2009, ESPN announced that they had secured television
rights to show up to two live games per week from the
Eredivisie,
Portuguese
Liga, up to two live games per week from the
Russian Premier League and the
remainder of the
Major League
Soccer season, including five playoff games and the
MLS Cup 2009.
ESPN signed a multi-year deal for up to five live games per week
from the
German Bundesliga,
a selection of which is in high definition, as well as weekly
preview and highlight programmes. ESPN showed the
2009 Supercoppa Italiana which took
place on 8 August 2009.
On 5 August 2009, ESPN announced that they had secured the rights
for up to three live
Serie A matches per
week for the
2009-10 season
as well as the
Coppa Italia.
International football
2010 World Cup
qualification matches from
Denmark,
Germany and
Russia have been shown.
ESPN gained the rights to the international friendly between
Russia and
Argentina on 12 August 2009
and the
UEFA European
Under-21 Football Championship qualification match between
England
under-21s and
FYR Macedonia
under-21s on 4 September 2009.
On 5 October 2009, ESPN secured a multi-year deal to show 150
classic
FIFA World Cup matches from
1930 to
2006. The matches will be shown on ESPN
and ESPN Classic.
Pre-season football
ESPN showed
Real Madrid's 2009 tour
of North America, including live matches against
Toronto FC on 7 August and
DC United on 9 August,
Benfica versus
AC
Milan on 8 August and
Tottenham Hotspur versus
Olympiakos on 9 August.
Mixed Martial Arts
On 30 July 2009, ESPN announced that they had secured the rights to
Ultimate Fighting
Championship events from
UFC 101 onwards
as well
The Ultimate
Fighter: Heavyweights, UFC All Access, UFC Countdown, UFC Fight
Nights and
UFC Unleashed.
Alongside ESPN, Five will air a one hour highlights show called
UFC: Main Event and
Five USA will air the
second showing of The The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.
Other sports
On 30 July 2009, ESPN announced that they will cover the up to
three live matches a week plus highlights from the
Australian Football League
including the four-week finals series culminating with the Grand
Final. As part of the same announcement, it was revealed that ESPN
will show
Deutsche
Tourenwagen Masters motorsport and
Top 14
rugby live.
ESPN will also show some of the US sports available on ESPN
America, including
Major League
Baseball, the
National Hockey
League and
National Collegiate
Athletic Association. ESPN aired the
2009 National Rugby League first
Preliminary Final live on 25 September 2009, the second Preliminary
Final on 26 September 2009 and the Grand Final live on 4 October
2009.
Future Rights
ESPN are understood to have tabled a bid for television rights to
the
FA Cup and 43
Guinness Premiership games. The company
also maintains an interest in the currently unattached television
rights for the
Indian Premier
League.
See also
References
External links
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