ESPN is making a huge gamble by starting up a new European Soccer Channel, in just a few short months, so it comes as no surprise that they are putting a lot of money into an early advertising campaign. The "Leader" has taken out ads in print, on radio, on the tele and even billboards, based on the angle of "It's Great To Be Here", and has spent well over a few million pounds/dollars on said strategy. Via The Guardian....

The broadcaster has avoided using sports stars in its ad campaign, instead opting to focus on a "fan-centric" strategy.

The TV ad, which has been shot at locations including Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane and West Ham's Upton Park grounds in London, will use images of the football experience from a fan's point of view. It will run from 12 August, three days before the start of the Premier League season.

ESPN's campaign, developed by the ad agency Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, is scheduled to run across its channels including ESPN Classic and ESPN America, as well as being made available across its five core web properties, which include CricInfo, Soccernet, Scrum and Racing Live.

The campaign will also run on channels including Sky Sports and Sky Sports News as well as on Sky Movies, Discovery and FX.

ESPN's target market is 18- to 34-year-old men. In addition, W&K is developing dozens of promotional idents that will run around ESPN's football coverage led by the former BBC presenter Ray Stubbs. The idents, created by production company BDA, feature snapshots of the lives of fans of each of the 20 Premier League clubs.

Again, this is a huge risk, and all the advertising in the World won't matter, if people thinking that you're ruining their viewing experience. I think ESPN should have probably spent some of that money on focus groups, so they don't miss what's important to the fans. But maybe they did that too.

ESPN plugs Premier League coverage in ads for UK sports channel (Guardian)

Yesterday, I mentioned that ESPN was going to have a rough go of it with the fans of EPL in England, and today the network announced official plans to launch their new UK channel....

ESPN plan to launch a new channel in the UK on 3rd August called ‘ESPN,’ which will televise 46 Barclays Premier League matches this coming season, it was announced today by Lynne Frank, Managing Director, ESPN for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Frank also announced the channel will be made available in both standard definition (SD) and high-definition (HD), making the UK based premium sports channel the company’s first HD channel in Europe.

The new channel will offer live Barclays Premier League football, international sports and a wide-range of premium U.S. sports previously provided on ESPN America, which will be integrated in the UK into the new channel.

As part of the new arrangement, Sky will retail ESPN to both its residential and commercial customers. Sky will make ESPN available on a premium subscription basis to all Sky homes. This means that all live Barclays Premier League matches will be available in HD to Sky homes. ESPN will appear in the Sky Guide at channel number 417 in SD and channel 443 in HD.

For those of you across the pond, turn to channel 417/443 for all of your ESPN Soccer action. They probably could have come up with a better name for it than "ESPN", but there you have it.

Saw this interesting tidbit in the NY Times today, and thought I'd share. As you know, ESPN is taking over one of the many EPL international packages, and are considering devoting an entire channel to the Soccer league. Well, EPL fans are some of the most, if not the most dedicated viewers in the world, and analysts are predicting a tough go of it for the "Leader"....

But ESPN will have to make its mark quickly, analysts say, because it will have fewer games after the coming season.

“If they haven’t established the coverage with the Premier League next season, then they are going to have a lot of ground to cover,” said Tim Westcott, an analyst at Screen Digest, a research company in London.

As Mr. Wolff [managing director of ESPN International] noted, ESPN has considerable experience with international sports. It used to own 33 percent of Eurosport, a pan-European channel controlled by the French broadcaster TF1, but sold that in 2002. It showed World Cup soccer matches in Brazil in 2006 and broadcasts top cricket events in India. It produces SportsCenter, a sports news show, in 14 versions for audiences around the world.

ESPN also owns Web sites with global appeal, like Cricinfo, which is about cricket; Scrum, which covers rugby; and Racing Live, about Formula 1 auto racing.

Still, few sports fans are as demanding, or as tribal in their passions, as followers of Premier League soccer. American involvement in the game has been a sore subject at clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool, where fans objected to takeovers by American owners.

With everything related to ESPN’s coverage of the Premier League, from camera angles to analyst comments, likely to be scrutinized for signs of a hidden agenda of Disneyfication, Mr. Chadwick had some advice for ESPN: “There is a strong sense of counterculture in English football. They can’t be too glitzy, they can’t be too showbiz, they can’t be too American.”

I can't imagine the amount of pressure ESPN feels right now, but if any network can handle the short turnaround time, it's them. Some sports completely speak for themselves, and Soccer is certainly one of them. Hopefully they can pull it off, get the right announcers in place, and not completely alienate the international Soccer fan.

ESPN’s British Soccer Deal Highlights Global Push (NY Times)

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.

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."

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.

ESPN win Premier League rights (Premier League)

So the big story across the pond, is the fact that Irish cable channel Setanta Sports is in danger of going bankrupt. The rumor was that ESPN/Disney was interested in buying the channel, but according to Reuters, that's not the case. As of yet....

ESPN, the Walt Disney-owned sports network, has no current plans to buy the stricken Irish broadcaster Setanta, it said on Thursday, after days of speculation that it could make a bid.

The board of Setanta has spent the week in emergency refinancing talks to try to prevent the group from falling into administration. It has suspended signing up new customers and has said it is fighting to secure the business.

ESPN had been seen as a potential buyer.

"We currently have no plans to buy Setanta," a spokesman said, in response to the speculation. "There are a lot of stories out there that link ESPN with a possible purchase. We wanted to set the record straight."

The biggest rub in all of this, is the fact that ESPN was outbid by Setanta Sports for International EPL rights. If ESPN doesn't buy Setanta, and the channel doesn't get refinancing, the channel's rights could go back on the market. It's a tough spot for ESPN to be in, but at least there's a chance for them to secure the rights they got outbid on a few months ago.

Disney's ESPN: no current plan to buy Setanta (Reuters)

Had a good talk with the folks at the "Leader" yesterday, and I wanted to write this post so you and I could better understand what the plan and outlook is for ESPN Soccer in the future. The other day, BSkyB snagged up four of the six "international" packages, which each consist of 23 games for a network to air. That left two packages, with a total of forty six games.

Well according to the English Premier League, BSkyB grabbed yet another set of games today and the final one went to Setanta, leaving ESPN empty handed. Via EPL Talk....

The Premier League has announced that out of the six TV packages available for bidding in the UK for the 2010-2013 seasons, Sky Sports won five of those packages with Setanta getting the sixth and final one. That means that ESPN’s attempt to bid on the rights ended in failure — in the UK, at least.

This is a huge win for Sky Sports who have increased their number of packages from four (for the 2007-2010 seasons) to five. Setanta Sports will be showing less games because they’ll be moving from two packages (2007-2010 seasons) to one. But the biggest loser is ESPN who despite a lot of the chatter about the Disney-owned company making an aggressive raid on rights to the UK EPL TV market ended up empty handed.

Now that is certainly a downer for ESPN, who is looking to beef up their European presence, but not all is lost. Like I mentioned above, those packages were just for "international rights", and do not include the United States packages. Fox Sports, Setanta and ESPN, should be the major players for that three-year deal, but there's yet another caveat.

Based on the BCS bidding, everyone knows ESPN has the money to outbid Fox Sports, but the economy and game times could make the "Leader" weary in making a huge bid. Due to the time difference from England to the U.S., the majority of EPL games are played early on the weekends. As you know, that's quite possibly the worst timeslot for Sports, and might not even be worth the purchase of the rights.

It's a tough spot to be in for ESPN, who obviously wants to get in the Soccer game, but does the reward ultimately outweigh the risk? We'll find out soon, as the bidding for U.S. right should get underway shortly.

ESPN Loses Premier League UK TV Rights Battle (EPL Talk)

I really thought that ESPN had a shot at stealing away the English Premier League, but that wasn't the case late Tuesday night. The satellite company, BSkyB, outbid ESPN and Setanta, and in the process picked up four of the six EPL live match packages. Via Reuters....

Britain's dominant pay-TV group BSkyB (BSY.L) won the right to show four of the six packages of English Premier League live soccer matches for the three years starting in 2010, the league said late on Tuesday.

BSkyB, which has lured over 9 million subscribers with its sport and movie offering, currently has the right to show four of the six packages. Privately owned Setanta shows the remainder.

Under that agreement, which ends in August 2010, BSkyB pays 1.3 billion pounds ($1.85 billion) to show the matches over the three years. Setanta paid 392 million pounds for two packages.

In a statement, the league said there would be a second round of bidding for the remaining two packages in "due course." It did not disclose any financial terms.

There's obviously still a chance that the American network could snag the final two packages, but with Setanta still looming, it's probably not likely. You Soccer fans now only have the 2010 World Cup to look forward to on the "Leader".

BSkyB wins 4 of 6 Premier League rights packages (Reuters)

It's the day that we've all been looking forward too. That's right folks, it's time to play let's make a deal, and today I have the rights to the most popular Soccer league in the world! There are three contestants, ESPN, Setanta and BSkyB, and the going rate looks to be just over the $2 Billion mark. Via the Times Online....

The principal challenger is ESPN, with companies such as ITV unable to afford to bid, and Virgin Media, which wants to shift its focus to broadband connections for homes. ESPN is owned by Walt Disney, the US media company, and has studied a bid for 18 months, but has managed to remain coy about its final intentions.

ESPN's problem is that it has a relatively modest presence in the UK, and its executives know that it will have to invest considerable sums to generate profits. Broadcasting Premier League games is central to the success of a pay-television sports broadcaster, but it will then need to recruit subscribers, and there is usually a need to invest in other sports to ensure that customers have something to watch all year round.

Although ESPN is little known in the UK, it is the principal specialist sports broadcaster in the United States, and takes football seriously in that market. It hired Andy Gray to present all the Euro 2008 matches, which it aired in the US on its ESPN 2 channel, and the broadcaster has US rights to show the 2010 World Cup from South Africa.

I still think it's going to be tough for ESPN to outbid Sky, but the "Leader" has been getting what they want lately. The decision could come later today, and I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Broadcasters square up for Premier League fight (Times Online)

It's been awhile since we've had any news on ESPN's acquisition of the English Premier League, but Reuters is reporting that Disney is still interested in the Soccer league. And that....well that's really it at the moment....

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) ESPN TV network is interested in acquiring further sporting rights if it fits with its business, including for the English Premier League, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

However, the spokesman declined to comment further on its immediate plans, following a report by the Bloomberg news agency that said ESPN planned to bid for some of the live rights.

Bloomberg said the most watched U.S. sports channel was considering bids for one or two of the six packages on offer, citing a person familiar with the plans, who declined to be identified because the bidding process had not started yet.

The FA Premier League sent out invitations last month to tender for the rights for 2010 to 2013.

"We are interested in all rights, including the Premier League, as long as they fit our business," the ESPN spokesman said. "But we don't have any comment on the Premier League despite press speculation about it."

Well that's telling us a whole lot of nothing, isn't it? I'm almost positive that the EPL will be in ESPN's hands soon. I guess it's just a matter of when.

ESPN says interested in English soccer rights (Reuters)

The next league up for auction in ESPN's profolio of possible acquisitions, is the English Premier League. It was once considered a bit of a long shot for ESPN to get the rights to the Soccer league, but with the economy driving down the price of bids, the EPL is almost hoping for a large offer from ESPN to take over the rights. Via the UK Telegraph....

Other sectors of the economy may be creaking in the gale blowing from the financial markets, but ask a club executive what the implications are for football and the answer invariably begins: "It would be naïve for anyone to claim they are immune from the effects of the recession, but…"

On Monday the Premier League distributed the Invitations To Tender for their next round of domestic television rights to run from 2010-2013, formally starting a process that many observers believe is the most important negotiation in the competition's 16-year history.

The dark horse in the field, and the primary reason for Premier League confidence that current revenues will be matched, are ESPN. A major player in US sports rights, the Disney-owned company have been circling European football rights for some time, and in September Disney president Dick Iger indicated they would bid for live Premier League.

It remains to be seen how serious their interest is. They could choose to target Setanta, a move that would test the faith of the Irish-owned firm's City backers. Alternatively they could mount a full tilt at Sky, though given the close relationship between ESPN and NewsCorp, Sky's parent company – they are partners in Asia in ESPN Star Sport – that may be less likely.

It's not likely that two channels, who are largely based around the EPL, are going to go without a fight. But as ESPN proved in the BCS bidding.....if you throw enough cash at something, there might not be a way for your opponents to compete. We'll see how things pan out in 2009.

Premier League welcome ESPN interest in TV rights (UK Telegraph)