I searched to see if this had been answered or not…
Given that ESPN has taken over the Setanta package of Premier League games for the next four years, does anyone know if they are going to show the games live in the US, and if so, will they use one of their existing channels or is it going to be a pay per view, or a new premium channel?
Hell, does anyone even know if the package included the US rights?
ESPN has the TV broadcast rights to a bunch of international cricket matches, but you won’t see a single one of them in the US. DirecTV got the US rights. A shame for those of us that don’t have that service, but at least they’re not charging the national-debt-dwarfing fees that Dish Network charged when they held the rights.
(BTW, the question over who has the rights to US radio broadcasts of international cricket matches is still up in the air. I actually Pitted that situation about six months ago. SiriusXM radio had the rights to the World 20/20, and of course the BBC still holds worldwide rights to radio broadcasts of home Tests and ODIs, but apart from that nobody still knows what’s going on.
I’m sad to report that my request to the ICC to buy the US radio broadcast rights for $1 was turned down.)
ETA: Er, anyway, the point of all that was to say that the fact that an ESPN international affiliate owns EPL broadcast rights in one country doesn’t mean they’ll own them in the US. AFAIK Fox Sports Network still has those rights.
But Fox Sports didn’t have them all - the Setanta games were shown over here on Setanta. I was just too mean to pay for it, and made do with FSN.
Hmmm. Good question, then.
I haven’t heard anything from ESPN on what they’re going to do with Setanta even in the UK, let alone in the US. Lately ESPN has had a habit of buying the rights to sports before deciding exactly what they’re going to do with them (refer, again, to cricket…ESPN 360 loudly proclaims that they have LIVE CRICKET!!!..and the last match they showed was over a year ago).
The UK and US rights to the games are different. The US rights don’t come up for bid until next year (I think). Until then FSC and Sentanta (the North American arm didn’t go bust, only the UK arm did) still hold the US rights. However, if you’re interested in La Liga, ESPN just entered into an agreement with Gol TV to show a bunch of the games.
Confirming what ** MichaelQReilly** said, here’s the statement that Setanta released last week:
So, the US rights for the 2009-10 English Premier League season will still be split between Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports USA. Which is good news for me, since I subscribe to both of them.
Setanta USA also broadcasts a few games from the Coca-Cola Championship, and the French Ligue, the Russian Premier League, some of the Champions League games, and some of the UEFA Cup (soon to be the Europa League)… not to mention Gaelic sports and rugby. It offers a much richer range of broadcasting than FSC does, so I’m quite relieved that they’ll still be afloat in the US, at least for the time being.
Well, if ESPN does get involved, they certainly will find a way to f*ck it up beyond any point of recognition or repair.
Pants.
Oh well, I will have to make do with FSC, I guess. Maybe I will price out Setanta. Hmmmm… $15 a month. Maybe. But probably not.
As for La Liga, unless Barca are playing, or you can promise me Real will lose, I doubt I’ll be watching. Good to know they are going to be showing games, though.
I live not far ESPN headquarters and I know quite a few people who work there. The talk is that ESPN is going to go for the EPL rights next year - and combined with the various other rights that they already hold - start their own soccer network (or maybe turn Classic or News into a soccer channel). I’m not sure that it’s a fait acomplit though, FSC has shown that it doesn’t intend to go quietly by bidding the Champion’s League rights away from ESPN. Seeing as Murdock owns FSC, its not like they don’t have the money to go toe to toe with ESPN.
All I ask to whoever winds up with the games, can we please get an HD feed?