ESPN Wins Premier League Rights
Monday, June 22, 2009
On the heels of Setanta Sports going bankrupt, and subsequently losing their EPL rights, ESPN has swooped in and acquired the forty-six matches to be aired this Summer. The deal is rumored to be in the range of 90 million pounds (a little over $140 million in the States)....
ESPN has been awarded the two packages of rights containing a total of 46 matches that were available for the 2009/10 season as well as a package of 23 matches per season from 2010/11 to 2012/13.Unless you're reading this site in Europe, this deal doesn't affect you at all. The 46 matches will be aired on ESPN overseas, as the American and European packages are sold separately. Still though, it's a huge get for the "Leader", and another step towards global domination, er....more coverage out of the U.S.
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.
Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International, said: "Premier League football is one of the world's most sought after sports properties. We are very excited to be working with the Premier League and expanding our businesses in the UK.
"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."
ESPN win Premier League rights (Premier League)
4 Comments:
And two of those matches on The Deuce will more than likely be Barcalona-Rea Madrid matches.
Here, FOX will depend on Setanta North America to stay alive as they have been paying half of the rights fee for EPL coverage.
But would the Murdochs personally intercede if FOX had to bid alone for the next TV contract cycle, so that they would be prepared to match a potential ESPN/Gol TV/pay-per-view bid? I'd never put it past him, since EPL coverage has been critical to so many NewsCorp-owned sports channels (including FSC here and Sky in the UK/Ireland).
So wait... these matches won't air in the US right? They can't with College Football right around the corner.
The bigger story for US viewers is that today they also struck a deal with GolTV to broadcast some La Liga games on ESPNDeportes and even ESPN2. Check out EPLtalk.com for details.