Can we get Stu Scott to be the main anchor so we don't have to watch him here?

Well, as German reader and NASN viewer, I'm also a bit suprised. But the purchase of NASN opened new doors for the european viewers.

After the purchase, Europe was able to see the big games in NCAA Football and Basketball. Before the purchase, we just got the games broadcasted by CBS or Raycom.

Furthermore, we're getting shows like College Football Live, Baseball Tonight, and - in continental europe - also all ESPN Shows concerning NFL.

What the hell does "as-live" mean?

Good question....must just be a typo.

I hope you feel better, AA!

@ jason:

As-Live means that NASN shows the full game/show. The only difference is, that NASN don't show the commercial breaks.

For example: NASN shows two more sunday afternoon NFL games on Monday. They show the whole original broadcast (with halftime show, gamebreaks, etc.), but no commercial breaks between possession changes,etc.

@sunny2k1 - As Live = same day delay broadcast without any edits. So they would should an entire game of football and not have shorter ad breaks or cut the half time break out for example.

ESPN Australia tends to have "time constraints" when showing nightly replays, (games are shown live at 10-11am, then replayed at 7pm), usually when airing baseball games. Often you will see the first three innings, have an extra long ad break before resuming at the top of the eighth.

ESPNScrum.com sounds interesting, but is dangerously close to ESPNScrutebag.com.

ESPN America > WGN America

Aside from the Cubs, White Sox & Bulls, WGN America is a vast wasteland of ALF & America's Funniest Videos reruns.

"I have no idea why a channel that's based in Europe is named as such"

The name is because it is a channel that only shows North American sports. Although Canada does seem to have gone missing in this new name, you would think they could at least append an 's'. So as well as describing the channel's content it also allows them to launch ESPN branded domestic sports channels.

In the UK they have repeatedly spoken of being interested in the Premier League soccer, although this already costs Sky and Setanta around $1bn per season so is going to take a massive investment if they did want to become a serious competitor over here.

Anyway, around a year ago ESPN invited a small group of subscribers to vote on a few options for new names of which this was one. The only other I can remember was "ESPN All-Star". I guess that was due to a star has always been part of NASN logo and all-star games being something associated with American sports.

What I do remember is that none of the options were particularly inspiring.

In response to sunny2k1 saying that ESPN's takeover "opened new doors", all the programming mentioned was originally available on NASN. It was only dropped after the two companies could not agree a new contract. (Of course, it would be very cynical to accuse ESPN of trying to overcharge what was an unprofitable niche channel.)

Apart from the return of ESPN programming, they have dropped the CFL, lost the rights to the NASCAR Cup, and added nothing. They also show edited down versions of ATH and PTI which contain no clips or highlights in countries, including the UK, where they do not own NFL rights as they were not willing to continue the existing contract with the league.

Finally to Mike Brown, despite what "as-live" might mean in other countries, on NASN it is exactly as sunny2k1 described. As the main european broadcaster for MLB, NHL, NCAA sports, and in some countries also the NFL, there are inevitably a lot of clashes so they show a lot of delayed games.

'As-live' refers to the first run of a game or event that they could not show live, often a day or more later, and usually with most of the commercial breaks removed. The latter being for timing and that they have very few advertisers anyway. Only the actual programme content is what you would have seen had it been live, and so even despite editing breaks for timing they may still overrun the scheduled slots.

Don't EVER rip Alf again. EVER.

How can anybody take ESPN seriously when Jonathan Coachman, the former "General Manager" of WWE's "Raw" program is now an anchor there?

Is he going to book Erin Andrews and Rachel Nichols in a bra and panties match? Or maybe he can have Stu Scott and Scott Van Pelt battle in a "First Blood Match."

@Anon 12:35:

The night of the Sheffield-Carmona scuffle, ESPNews co-anchor Ani-sh Sh-roff actually asked him "How long did you last during the Royal Rumble?" after the highlight was over.

I, for one, would watch an Andrews vs. Nichols bra and panties match.


VIVA LA OCHO!!!!!!!

@michael:

Well, in the german version, they just dropped the CFL. NASN had/ has no rights for the Sprint Cup. The Sprint Cup was available on Premiere in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In France, AB Moteurs shows the Sprint Cup.

For the US readers:

There are actually two different. NASN UK, which also airs in Italy and parts of Scandinavia, has a different schedule than the Continent. NASN Europe, the continental version of NASN, has NFL rights for live games, tv shows and NFL Films.

I guess it's called ESPN America because if ESPN manage to get Premier League rights, they'll launch a regular ESPN channel that will show UK sports. If not, they could try and take over Setanta and rename that ESPN.