Quote:
Originally Posted by Richc1977
Yes it's all very confusing.
This seasons FA cup is on ESPN but the following season it's on BT Sport.
I guess if BT had not bought ESPN, ESPN would have had to put this seasons FA Cup rights to tender and BT risk losing them to Sky or paying more.
I imagine BT agreed to buy ESPN to avoid this and for ESPN it allowed them to exit the market with minimal exit costs. If ESPN had just closed down this year they would have had to deal with expensive exit clauses for contracts with suppliers, production teams and staff etc.. instead they can now just TUPE the staff to BT. For the French league and some others I imagine ESPN's contract agreed to show a minimum number of matches on the channel so I imagine that's what they will do and any on top of that quota would be free to show on BT sport.
I might be wrong but having worked in contracting and dealt with TUPE etc.. I'd imagine it's something like this. Hence apparent cheap price ESPN was sold for.
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Is ESPN here to stay or will it disappear next year when it doesn't have any fa cup rights? or is it contractually obliged to stay as part of bt sports offering.