ESPN drops ‘America’ for soccer

Rose Major



As expected, ESPN will relaunch its UK channel on August 3 to accommodate Premier League football coverage, rights the broadcaster won in the wake of the demise of Setanta Sports. ESPN America will now just be known as ESPN.

The channel will air ESPN’s rights to 46 matches, as well as other international sports programming and the US sports previously aired on ESPN America.

ESPN will be available both in standard and high definition on Sky Digital and discussions continue with the UK’s other pay-TV platforms over carriage.

Rights to the 46 matches for the next season were hastily agreed on by the Premier League and Walt Disney-owned ESPN after Setanta Sports folded last month. ESPN has also agreed to take on rights to 23 matches a year for the following three years, rights also originally held by Setanta.