[andy_m]

Firstly it's important to realise how close ESPN and Sky are to each other. Indeed, Sky actually produced ESPN's Premier League coverage when they first picked up the rights from Setanta. When you consider that there are seven packages on offer, ESPN have openly said they'd like two of them, and the most Sky will be allowed is five, it's not much of a jump to imagine that they would do well to cooperate throughout the bidding process.

Secondly, Al Jazeera cannot simply be discounted. They have demonstrated a strong commitment to live football elsewhere in the world and, it has to be said from my experience of their Champions League coverage, that they're actually pretty good at it. What will be interesting, however, if they are able to stop ESPN getting the 2 packages that they want, and Sky getting the 5 that they'll need if they want to continue to be considered as the home of English top flight football, is how they end up delivering what they get. I cannot see Al Jazeera getting people to subscribe to yet another sports package in the current climate unless they have a significant number of matches, and I can't see them getting that if Sky and ESPN have their way. So, assuming they found a way to follow the ESPN model of slowly gaining a foothold, they'll also need to find a way of providing their new channels for free to customers who are already paying for other Sports packages.