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You always have to trust Wikipedia, right? The other day when I was looking up for something on the Premier League, the very bottom of the page it listed that ESPN2 would broadcast select matches for the 2009-10. ESPN, in the wake of Setanta Sports collapse, acquired broadcast rights in the U.K., but there was no word about American rights. I checked the ESPN television online guide and scrolled through my digital cable guide. No confirmation.
Then quietly Friday night the Associated Press confirmed that, yes, ESPN2 would air 48 live Premier League matches this season. It was very unlike ESPN, you'd think acquiring such a massive television chip like the Premier League would be trumpeted from on high in Bristol. Instead, it slipped pretty much on the radar with little, if any, fanfare for Saturday morning's Premier League opener between Chelsea and Hull City.
Yet come Saturday morning at 7:45 a.m., there was Stamford Bridge coming across my flatscreen in dazzling high definition. The Premier League, at least for viewers in the U.S., had never looked for good. (Chelsea's 2-1 win over Hull on a stoppage time goal from Didier Drogba, that's another story.)
ESPN2 will mainly take over the "early" kickoff of each weekend's Premier League slate, which previously aired on Setanta, as well as some 10 a.m. matches. ESPN will also snatched up the Monday afternoon (in the U.S.) package from Setanta and will show 12 of these matches, though the actual agreement to air the matches was worked out through a deal with Fox Sports International.
It'll be interesting to see how much ESPN will promote it's Premier League coup across its various multimedia platforms and if it gets better ratings than the usual outdoors-centric programming that usually ran in that timeslot Saturday mornings. It's funny, too, that ESPN lost the UEFA Champions League rights to Fox Soccer Channel, but managed to acquire the world's marquee sports league. So long as ESPN doesn't monkey around with the Premier League broadcast this should be a boon to soccer fans in America, since ESPN2 is much more readily available than FSC.
And speaking of Fox Soccer. The ball is in their court now and the network is expected to roll out it's HD channel early in 2010 and may be forced to step up its game, or at least production levels.
