English Premier League: ESPN buys TV rights for upcoming seasons
ESPN has announced they’ve purchased the television rights in the United Kingdom for the English Premier League. Setanta Sports had owned these rights but has had serious financial troubles and lost the rights. The other broadcaster that has rights in the United States is the Fox Soccer Channel. Here is the full story.
ESPN buys EPL TV rights – “ESPN has won the rights to broadcast 46 live Premier League matches in the United Kingdom for the 2009-10 season, and has also been awarded a contract for the 2010-13 seasons.
The sports broadcaster, parent company ofSoccernet, picked up both 23-match packages on offer in Monday’s auction. ESPN’s 46 live games will be split between Saturday evenings and Monday nights in the coming season. For the three seasons from 2010-11 to 2012-13 ESPN has the rights to a single package of 23 matches previously awarded to Setanta.
The Premier League ended its association with Setanta on Friday after it failed to meet a final deadline over a £30m payment which had been due this month. Setanta was also stripped of its Scottish Premier League contract on Monday.
“We are clearly delighted that our bid for exclusive media rights to the Barclays Premier League matches in the UK has been successful,” said Lynne Frank, ESPN Managing Director in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This is a huge step for our business, and we look forward to working with the Premier League, football clubs and distributors to bring UK sports fans all the excitement they expect in Premier League football.”
“Premier League football is one of the world’s most sought after sports properties, and we are very excited to be expanding our business in the UK with England’s top football product,” said Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International. “This move demonstrates our commitment to British sports fans and our ongoing commitment to delivering football to fans around the world across a variety of media.”
Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “The Premier League is extremely pleased to have added ESPN as a UK rights holder. They have a formidable worldwide reputation and experience in sports and I am sure we will enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with them.”
ESPN plans to make its Barclays Premier League coverage widely available across multiple pay-TV platforms. As a first step to this distribution strategy, ESPN has reached an agreement for its coverage to be retailed by Sky to residential and commercial customers. ” – ESPN SoccerNet - http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=656557&sec=england&cc=5901
I’m confused. Nowhere in the Soccernet article does it mention anything about having the rights in the USA. It only says that ESPN bought the rights to show the games in the UK. It doesn’t mention the USA at all …
But what does this mean for the US market? Nobody seems to have the answer. It seems that from what I’ve read the US market for EPL is soley owned by Rupport Murdoch (Sky and Fox Channel, including FSC), and he leased some games to Setanta US. If this is the case does FSC own all rights to US viewing of EPL? If Sentanta falls does Setanta US fall? Will I go from having 3 live games on Satruday and Sunday (via FSC and the two Setanta channels) to only one and an option to pay $35 a weekend for two matches? One of which surely be my club MUFC.
Unless ESPN carries EPL matches in the US on its current channels (come on we are talking about time slots which don’t interfere with other live sports on the channel) I fear it will fail due to the economy and the price scheme.
As a United fan we benefited from only paying $15 extra a month for Sentanta and were able to see all matches live via the US options. Before Setanta US, I’d pay $35 or $45 a weekend to see United (as they were primarily always one of the pay-per-view matches.
This needs to be sorted out and US fans need a venue to speak out (like soccernet.com or FSC’s website), but the only options ironically don’t have articles with comment buttons.
The TV rights for the UK only but they could reach an agreement with FSC to contract out the TV rights like Setanta has in the past. Also, there could be some agreement to use the games on ESPN360.com for anybody. It’s not known yet how they will utilize these rights.
wiil local espn next season broadcasting EPL or setilte espn wiil broadcatst. i wanna know wihch espn wiil be. i wish be local espn .
thnaks alot
This only means tv rights in the UK. I am glad this website does it research or has someone actually read the article they are talking about before they write something about it. The rights for the US will be decided shortly.
What I have heard is that espn will be getting the rights in the United States and that they will lease some games out to setanta like they did for champions league. I think espn is going to make a real big push to get the EPL now that FSC won the rights for champions league. The only thing I hope is that FSC will lease some games out or put games on some of their other channels so that more then one game will be on at a time.
espn might be a lil better than setanta considering there only gonna play the best matches
Im still slightly confused. Im a huge chelsea fan who lives in the states and am confused on wheather theyll be showing the games only on espn in the uk, or also in the us.
The rights are just for the UK and the United States rights are still with Fox Soccer Channel.
Setanta North America and FSC share the broadcasting rights in the USA. Setanta I believe holds the the majority of the EPL rights with FSC picking up the scraps.
Per EPL Talk, ESPN2 will be showing the 7:45am Saturday morning game, and the Monday 3pm game on ESPN2 for the upcoming season.
ESPN does NOT have TV rights in the United States for this upcoming season. If you check their official website and tv listings they do not list the EPL during those times or that they will carry the matches. Setanta still owns those rights but since they are basically going bankrupt its possible ESPN is trying to secure the rights. But as of now they are not broadcasting matches in the USA and this is according to their website and tv listings.
ESPN is broadcasting games in the USA. Mainly on ESPN 2. First game United vs. Wigan Saturday August 22nd.