After the collapse of the slightly unpopular Setanta comes the American sporting powerhouse Walt Disney owned, ESPN.
ESPN was started in 1979 and shows all top sports in the US, it shows the world cups, golf and College sports.
ESPN already have an awesome channel aptly named – ESPN classics 442 on sky is a real look back at classic and retro games from all sports, they air some of the best games from the six nations, football from across the world and old classic cricket matches, trust me if you are ever bored and require some good old tv time, check out ESPN classics.
I thought it might be good to do a sales pitch for why ESPN would be a good choice for the real sports fan –
Domestic football includes both Premier League and the SPL -
English Premier League – 46 live games
First Premier league game is Everton Vs Arsenal on Saturday 15th of August kick off is 17.30.
Scottish Premier League – 30 live games
First SPL game is on Monday 17th of August Dundee United v Hearts, kick off is 19.45.
Introducing the MLS -
MLS – includes play off’s games, ESPN’s first live MLS game is England’s most capped outfield player David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy who play New England. ESPN will also show the majority of LA Galaxy’s remaining games
Top European Leagues -
German Bundesliga – The Bundesliga has up to 5 live matches per week, includes last season’s champions Wolfsburg. First live game is Wolfsburg Vs Stuttgart on 7th of August.
Dutch Eredivisie – The Dutch Eredivisie will show two live games per week, expect to see Ajax fight back to their best and claim their title back from AZ Alkmaar?
Russian Premier League – Russian Premier League will have two live games this week, can unknown Rubin Kazan retain their title?
Portuguese Liga – watch Europe’s feeder league live upto twice per week, can FC Porto win their fifth title in a row?
ESPN will also show the Italian season opener the Italian super cup which is being played at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing China, see Inter the Serie A winners against Coppa Italia winner Lazio (a fancy charity shield)
Other sports include -
Major League Baseball (MLB),
National Hockey League (NHL)
NCAA College Football
NCAA College Basketball
The new channels ESPN and ESPN HD are live from August the 3rd and are available on channels 417 and 433.
The main man from BBC Ray Stubbs is fronting the English Premier League and will be £9
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You can’t imagine another Setanta moment with ESPN, and from the way they have attacked the football market you can imagine a number of other big sporting events make the leap.
No official word on UFC yet, but there is an announced tomorrow (Friday 31st of July). If ESPN do actually win the rights, they will show the upcoming UFC 101 event which takes place 8th of August,
Danny Denhard