Originally Posted by telegramsam (Post 35209228)

I can only guess they`re saving their money for bigger fish such as Premier league football. As for competeing with sky sports I think it`s to earlier to judge as sky have been arround alot longer than ESPN and have a already established base from which to work from. I believe ESPN will be a big rival LONG TERM but as they get bigger they will ask virgin for more money which in turn will I believe result in ESPN becoming a premier channel.

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic (Post 35209202)

for most ESPN HD subscribers on XL, it's Premier Leauge footie :)

Originally Posted by muppetman11 (Post 35209229)

I dont believe ESPN will want to get into bidding wars with Sky and will be happy with 2 packs of Preemier League football when the rights are next due.

Originally Posted by alwaysabear (Post 35209199)

There was a pretty big surprise in the week when it emerged that ESPN had not bid for any package in the Football league rights auction. Sky had no competition by all accounts and saved millions of pounds on what they paid before.
We all know what a massive organisation ESPN is, but I would have thought that if they really interested in getting more UK football rights they would have been in for them to fill out there live action from the UK.
It will be interesting to see now if they will do battle with Sky for Premier League rights when they come up for auction in a couple of Years I am now more sceptical than I was, IMO they will carve the rights up between them so they do not pay to much.

Originally Posted by muppetman11 (Post 35209229)

I dont believe ESPN will want to get into bidding wars with Sky and will be happy with 2 packs of Premier League football when the rights are next due.

Originally Posted by PeteLockwood (Post 35209254)

dont be so sure, espn has far more money behind it than sky sports...

Originally Posted by muppetman11 (Post 35209265)

Very true they do , however what would be the point of paying a fortune for a small subscriber base , don't forget for Sky Sports you pay 20.25 on Sky or 22.50 on VM were ESPN is 9.00 on Sky and included on VM in XL pack.

Originally Posted by richard1960 (Post 35209230)

Even as an occasional football watcher and not a fan of any club i would have to agree with you on that one,on a saturday evening when only dross is on BBC1 and ITV watching a live football match on ESPN is a better option by far and makes the TVXL sub more worthwhile.:)

---------- Post added at 16:05 ---------- Previous post was at 16:03 ----------



ESPN will not get into a bidding war with sky i have always said that the relationship between the two is far too cosy for that to ever happen.;)

---------- Post added at 16:18 ---------- Previous post was at 16:05 ----------



You are right to be sceptical i always have been this from an article.

Senior executives at ESPN emphasise that relations with News Corp and Sky are cordial, pointing out that Sky market ESPN to their subscribers in the UK and that the US network piggy-backs on the Sky platform. ESPN's biggest audience was 917,000, when Manchester United played Tottenham in October last year, but they will not reveal how many customers they have. Syfret estimates the number at 1.2 million, about the same as Setanta. Sky have more than 10 million customers, though not all of them subscribe to their sports channels.

AND

Wolff says ESPN is happy for Sky to be the senior partner in the UK. "There will be markets where we bid against each other; there are other territories where we will not. You could have a very good second position in a market if that's the best business model you can build at that time." He adds: "We have a complex, multifaceted relationship with Sky [but] complex relationships aren't new to us. We just have to manage that."

Do you really think ESPN are really going to bid against sky for premier league rights or just carve it up between them hmmmmm now let me think.:):D

Originally Posted by spiderplant (Post 35209337)

A date hasn't been announced yet. Nor has it been stated exactly what Sky content will be available on VOD.

Originally Posted by jtaylor06 (Post 35209353)

Knowing Sky, they will disallow a lot of content to make their Anytime+ offering look superior.
Hopefully I am wrong with the above statement.

Originally Posted by spiderplant (Post 35209337)

A date hasn't been announced yet. Nor has it been stated exactly what Sky content will be available on VOD.

Originally Posted by howardmicks (Post 35209359)

Sure i have read somewhere when it does arrive were only getting sd not hd,Personally il stick to recording i avoid sd as much as possible