ESPN Classic (U.S.) will NEVER become “ESPN3″. And I do mean NEVER. Not in the next 10 years, 50 years, or 100 years.

Why not?

COX, Time Warner, and Comcast all insisted on a “no conversion” clause in the current carriage agreement they did with ESPN, Inc./Walt Disney Company.

The “no conversion” clause prohibits ESPN Classic (U.S.) from carrying live programming beyond a handful of hours (i.e. less than 9) each week.

The guy throws out a bunch of other stuff which is pretty interesting even if his delivery was a bit snarky. Hopefully, Chris will ask someone from ESPN when he does another interview if it is true that ESPN signed deals with the different cable operators like Cox and Comcast who have cable sports stations they own and operate that ESPN are limited in the amount of live sports coverage they can show on ESPN Classic.

I have to say if you watch ESPN Deportes the production values of SportsCenter and presentation overall is much better than FSC. Imagine if ESPN did get the rights to broadcast Premiership Games in Europe and the States what kind of features, highlight packages, and heightened production values we would get as viewers? It would be cool if they had embedded reporters in Spain, Germany, and Italy along with of course England who do pieces for SportsCenter that is devoted to soccer.

Anyway, it will be fun to see how the TV Rights issues of the different leagues shake out in the next couple of years. Especially how much more ESPN will get into the soccer broadcasting game with English language rights here in the States as its pretty obvious that they are more than dipping their toe into broadcasting domestic league soccer from Europe……………….

The increased visibility of the league should translate into higher ratings. However, hockey tried this about ten years ago with games on Fox and ESPN, and it didn't work. Yes, they shot themselves in the foot with the strike in 1994 and then taking an entire season off(can't remember the year). Hopefully, the EPL and ESPN will do a better job of marketing the games so that the viewership grows.

I disagree on the thought that it's bad news for FSC. In fact I submit that it will increase the popularity of the game and more people will tune in to what EPL offering thiere is on FSC. NFL football is covered by CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, and the NFL network in the US. The NBA is shown on ESPN/ABC and TNT. NCAA football is on ABC/ESPN, CBS, and NBC, with a`host of other cable outlets. I could go on, but having ESPN carry the English came is great promotion for FSC and it's product. In the future the big game of the week maybe sold to ESPN and you may see FSC take a lessor game, ie: Man U. v. Chelsea on ESPN but Villa v. Everton on FSC and a relagation battle. It's a exciting development!

It's such a great move for ESPN to do this and would only need to sub license the games on Saturdays during the college football season. Have you seen what they show on a Sunday morning after countdown? Bowling? Pool? With a big Sunday schedule they could fill out their Sunday programming quite well with some tape delayed games.

BTW, I'm hearing rumors of a signed cross marketing deal between Disney (ESPN/ABCs parent company) and Adidas to promote Adidas kits, etc in the US. It's a complement to MLS' deal with ESPN (MLS is exclusive Adidas). This means more mainstream availability of Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool's kits.