Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic
for most ESPN HD subscribers on XL, it's Premier Leauge footie  |
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 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppetman11
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.
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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 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by alwaysabear
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.
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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.
