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[Anthony]

No, I don't care about sport either, but ESPN is a major part of The Walt Disney Company in the States and it has recently been getting a very strong foothold in Europe too -- but only with specialist "ESPN America" and "ESPN Classic" channels.

Now they've won some Premiership games from defunct Setanta, Disney looks set to launch a proper mainstream ESPN channel over here.

ESPN matched Setanta's £159m for Premier League package
Disney's sports network planning to mark successful bid with new standalone channel on Sky to broadcast games

ESPN is believed to have matched the £159m Setanta paid for the right to screen 23 Premier League games each season from 2010 onwards.

The American sports network, which is owned by Disney, paid significantly less than the £130m Setanta bid for next season's two packages of 46 games, tabling a successful offer of about £90m.

However, Setanta had already made downpayments of about £40m and sources close to the league claim it is not out of pocket, despite the slow death of the previous rights holder. A spokesman for ESPN declined to comment on the price paid.

Setanta could now be placed in administration as early as this week, although talks about saving the company are still continuing.

ESPN is believed to be drawing up plans to launch a new channel on Sky's satellite platform to show its Premier League games from next season.

An announcement is expected later this week, but a wholesale deal has been struck between the Disney-owned sports network and BSkyB and industry sources say a standalone channel will be available on Sky's Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) before the new football season begins.

ESPN currently has two channels, ESPN Classic, a basic pay service which shows repeats of English sporting events including top-flight football, international rugby and cricket; and ESPN America, a premium subscription channel which screens US sport including American football, ice hockey, baseball and basketball.

The company will not seek to emulate Setanta's business model, which centred on selling subscriptions direct to customers, choosing instead to use Sky's expertise and infrastructure to market the channel showing live Premier League action to the satellite company's existing base of almost 10 million subscribers, about 6 million of whom pay for its sports package.

ESPN is also expected to strike similar deals with other UK pay-TV operators, including cable company Virgin Media and BT Vision, the phone company's broadband TV service.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/ju ... etanta-bid

They've got a website up already: http://www.espn.co.uk

This could also have relevance to DLRP with the long-long rumoured possibility of an ESPN Sports Zone amongst Disney Village's expansion. Although to be honest, I'm not sure if that was ever a true rumour or just people picking out interesting locations from Downtown Disney...?

[Captain Pan]

Was waiting to see where someone would post this...

Well Mickey mouse is going to be playing a bit more Soccer in the following shorts then... and could do well considering Mr Obama is a West Ham fan.

[Anthony]

The new channel will replace ESPN America, though this could return later as a separate channel.

ESPN will launch new channel to show Premier League games
- ESPN's new service for Premier League football will replace ESPN America in the UK and is also to be offered in HD

US sports broadcaster ESPN has today confirmed that it is to launch a new British channel in early August to show the 46 live Premier League matches it won last month following the collapse of Setanta.

The new channel, which will simply be called ESPN, will launch on 3 August ahead of the start of the new Premier League season on 15 August.

For residential customers, ESPN will be available on a premium subscription basis, for £9 a month to Sky Sports subscribers and for £12 a month to other Sky customers.

Disney-owned ESPN's new UK channel will replace ESPN America on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable TV electronic programme guides.

The new channel will appear on the Sky electronic programme guide at number 417 with a high definition service at number 443. This will be ESPN's first European HD channel.

A spokesman for ESPN said the broadcaster was also looking at acquiring other rights for the new UK channel.

"We are interested in rights when they become available and when they make business sense. If we were to acquire additional live rights for the UK market, it is likely they would be broadcast on this [ESPN] channel," he added.

It is understood ESPN is looking at acquiring other UK sports rights previously held by Setanta, including live Scottish Premier League matches.

ESPN Classic, which shows great sporting moments, will remain on the EPG at number 442.

A range of US and international sports coverage broadcast on ESPN America will continue to feature on the new channel. It is thought that ESPN America could return at a later date as a separate UK channel in another EPG slot.

BSkyB, which owns the rights to show the remaining 92 live Premier League matches next season, will sell the new ESPN channel to both its residential and commercial customers alongside its own Sky Sports services.

The Sky Sports in-house production team will produce ESPN's Premier League matches, while Sky's advertising sales house will sell the advertising inventory. ESPN will produce its own graphics, analysis and additional programming.

ESPN won the right to show 46 live Premier League matches for the 2009/10 season, and 23 matches a season for the following three years, following a hastily arranged auction after previous owner Setanta went into administration last month.

"We hope football and sports fans will enjoy ESPN's compelling mix of Barclays Premier League football, international sports and the best of the US sports in both SD [standard definition] and HD," said Lynne Frank, ESPN's managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

"We look forward to working with Sky to deliver great sports content to their subscribers and will continue our discussions with all other pay-TV providers so that we can bring ESPN to as many sports fans in the UK as possible."  

Mike Darcey, Sky's chief operating officer, added: "Our agreement with ESPN to retail its portfolio of sports channels ensures that we have certainty of distribution of all live Premier League matches to Sky homes, and further adds to the high-quality sports content our customers can enjoy, both in standard- and high-definition."

ESPN International now includes more than 45 television networks outside of the US in 200 countries and territories.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/ju ... anta-bskyb

Disney are very loved-up with Sky these days. I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

The downfall of Setanta has been very good for Iger's plan to focus on the three key brands (Disney, ABC, ESPN), though. ESPN will suddenly move from being barely heard of to incredibly well-known over here.

[-breeno-]

Never noticed this topic before, very odd considering i'm a big football fan

*NOTE*  If you have no interest in football whatsoever stop reading, you'll just get very very bored

It is understood ESPN is looking at acquiring other UK sports rights previously held by Setanta, including live Scottish Premier League matches.

That's what has interested my the most from this article.  While Setanta were poor with there amount of live Premier League game (EPSN won't be any different, Sky are the top dogs when it comes to PL coverage), their strong point was Scottish Premier League, European football (Ligue 1, Bundesliga etc) and other sports.  If i end up getting ESPN (which is at the moment unlikely) i hope they buy the rights for the European football too.  I would like to know stuff about possible Champions League opposition other than through Fifa or the words of Andy Grey.

[Willow]

ESPN will be free for people on the Virgin Media XL package, the same as Setanta was.

Also those customers with V+ and XL will also get ESPN HD for free.

Good business by Virgin Media/Disney/ESPN. Finally some free HD football!