ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? http://www.epltalk.com/espn-adds-premier-league-to-soccer-line-up I apologize if this is a hoax since it is so unexpected, but the source seems fairly legitimate. Struggling to find further info atm, however.
Re: BREAKING NEWS: ESPN (USA) picks up Premier League for 09/10 Not quite sure what to make of this. While I will enjoy watching the games on my tv as opposed to my computer but if I have to suffer through Alexi Lalas or Tommy Smyth I would almost prefer to watch it on my computer. Granted there is always the mute button but if ESPN were smart they would just bring over old Setana people to comment on the games. We will see.
Re: nvm I'm trying to lock/delete this thread since I cannot find any other source for this. As for the commentator thing, I think ESPN would do their own studio full of clowns for pre/HT/post game coverage but would simply use UK-based commentators.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? If true, awesome. Only problem I can see is how they'll schedule things for college football.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? Beginning on August 15, 2009, each week ESPN will feature the 7:45am ET Saturday game and the 3pm ET Monday game. There is no college football at either of those times. ESPN should worry a lot more about La Liga as anything on Sunday will get blown away by the billion pound gorilla NFL.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? Would be nice if true, even though I know a lot here don't like ESPN. Basic cable is my only option at school, and TV is better than stream any day. I know Smyth and the rest of the crew are poor, but I turn down the volume on Chinese commentators anyways.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? The main thing for me would be HD. The picture quality on Setanta and Fox Soccer is bad imo, especially on a 50" tv
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? These games are the same times that ESPN picked up in the UK. Their UK broadcasts will be in HD. Therefore, I can only assume it will be ESPN's UK feed coming to the States, hence it would be in HD and have quality like Ray Stubbs rather than the trash we've been forced into listening to. I must wonder why ESPN didn't start to monopolize footie in the US by keeping hold of the Champions League rights. Imagine that plus EPL, La Liga and BundesligaThey also have Serie A in the UK so that may be following in the next year or two over here
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? Good point, perhaps they didnt expect to be outbid by Fox, or they thought about buying out setanta us, or they sacrificed the CL rights to make a huge bid for the EPL US rights when it goes up for bid? Who knows? But you have to think that with the EPL deal, the La Liga deal and Bundesliga, that this will lead to ESPN finally creating a soccer/football channel?
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? Probably a year away from something like that. This experiment will need to work and they'll have to secure full rights for the PL for that to work. Also, does anyone know long FSC has the CL for? I've been a long time supporter of FSC and the channel really got me into the game back when it was Fox Sports World, but I would much prefer ESPN to have as much as possible because I only have basic cable at school and ESPN360 is amazing if the right things are on it (such as Newcastle/WBA this weekend).
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? I love ESPN already. They've pretty much doubled the football available to watch in the UK and they've only been running a matter of days. Premiership SPL Serie A NEW Bundesliga Eredivisie NEW Portuguese Liga NEW Russian Premier League NEW MLS NEW As well as continuing the NCAA football. Super stuff.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? The levy has really, truly broken with regards to soccer and this country, good stuff.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? Right. The US Premiere League TV rights go up for auction at the end of the summer supposedly. These are the rights for the start of the 2010-2011 season. I think if ESPN gets those rights, then that would most likely green lights a soccer channel for the start of next season. I believe the FSC CL rights is for 3 years
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? I'm still probably more likely to go to the pub early in the morning for Chelsea's fixtures anyway, whether they're being aired on ESPN or not. The idea's still nice, though. Should there come a morning when I'm too tired or lazy to get out of my house, ESPN will suffice.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? This would be really really good.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? This would be good! I hope they use the UK announcers because it just has a better feel to it The walls are breaking down in USA for sure. I think one day people are going to realize that a running back slamming into the line for a 2 yard gain and then 60 seconds expiring before the next play can become rather boring.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? I disagree that people will decide American football is boring, but I do think more people will decide that other codes of football are enjoyable as well. America is a multi-sport nation. If a person watches one sport, chances are they watch another as well. We're beginning to see the evolution of a casual soccer fan in America, something that is drastically needed if this sport is to "get big" here.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? I think that's selling football a little short, but the TV breaks have really damaged the game. I actually think MLS is on the rise mroe than European soccer. While trying to get a fantasy league going with my friends over half the people I asked said they only follow MLS really and don't know much about the EPL. MLS really is getting bigger, and I think getting European rights will really help both grow.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? One of my other favorite sports has always been hockey. I used to play street and floor hockey with friends growing up. I supported the Boston Bruins, about 10 years ago I started to drift away from the sport. I would watch it here and there. But the last couple of years I have barely watched any games. This past season during the playoffs I tried to watch some Bruins games. My cousin is a die hard fan, kept trying getting me back into it. I tried to watch a game, I changed the channel after about 25 minutes, couldnt bare the commercial breaks. When all I pretty much watch for sports is football/soccer, trying to watch a sport like hockey with commercial breaks, it was torture. Anyone else feel this way?
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? This WOULD be great, but unfortuanetly, I havent heard anything outside of the first link. The link was posted here almost 24 hours ago, and at last check, I have heard nothing, and just looked at both ESPN.com and Soccernet.com, and so far have heard nothing. It would be great, I just dont understand why they would announce this so late, especially since I was under the thought that Setanta US was still up and still had all the rights to the games.....
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? I feel that way when baseball season first starts and it's after 9 months of soccer. Yeah, I wanna watch the Cubs play but holy crap is it boring until you get used to it. The thing about a footie match is you block off 2 hours of time and that's what you do practically the whole time. Every Saturday for college football I can easily watch 3 games (or more!) simultaneously and obviously the same for NFL ball. Good point. Apparently Setanta had dropped those games from their schedule so there must be something in this.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/08/morning-ticker-epl-to-espn-fc-dallas-wins-again-and-more.html ESPN has yet to confirm the deal, but EPL Talk has usually been spot-on when it comes to EPL broadcasting news. (UPDATE-Sources tell me no deal is finalized yet, but that talks are underway. In other words, you might want to hold off on the celebration until something official is announced.)
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? In other words, Ives doesn't want it to be a story till he has broken it.
Re: ESPN picks up Premier League in America? First game Chelsea/Hull? Here, here! rep given. Would be good for the development of the sport in this country if ESPN gets these rights. It would also be good to shut Jim Rome the f*ck up from all his badgering of soccer's development in the US.