ESPN has reached an agreement with Fox Sports International to sub-license more Premier League games beginning with the 2010-2011 season, a source confirmed to EPL Talk on Tuesday.
The number of games ESPN will show during the 2010-2011 season will be 83, which is almost double the number of Premier League games shown (48) by ESPN during the current 2009-2010 season.
Currently, ESPN has sub-licensed the rights from FSI to show the Saturday 7:45am ET and Monday 3pm ET kickoffs.
As of press time, the additional time slot ESPN has acquired for the 2010 season was unknown, but EPL Talk believes it’s most likely the 8:30am ET Sunday time slot because it won’t conflict with other live programming that ESPN provides. The other possibility is that ESPN may take the Saturday 10am ET time slot since several games are available at that time, but the issue ESPN will have is where to place the EPL game since ESPN has its College Gameday program during that time slot.
When asked to comment on the story on Tuesday afternoon, an ESPN spokesperson said “We have nothing to announce at this time.”
The 2010-11 Premier League season begins on August 14, 2010.
In related ESPN news, ESPN360.com will be rebranded as ESPN3 in April.
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{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
college gameday is on ESPN not ESPN2. usually Big10 football games start at noon on ESPN2 so i don’t see a conflict
I think the conflict they are talking about is the possibilities of viewers being pulled from Gameday to the EPL. This is awesome news. I hope its the early Sunday match because this will stop me from waking up at an ungodly hour and making the hour trek to the nearest pub to watch my club.
Over the moon gaffer. ESPN has surprised me…but what a surprise. More footy in HD (I have Comcast)…I actually hope its the Saturday 10:00 match, but will take whatever they take…..
The 10 am ET EPL matches are not produced in HD, though, correct? Is that scheduled to change?
Word is that beginning next year, all Premiership matches will be produced in HD.
One question though gaffer. What does this mean for Fox Soccer Plus????
More options is what it means. If ESPN does in fact have the early UK kickoff, FS+ may show another match from Serie A or perhaps (imagine!) SPL. That would require them attaining those rights, but the more programming time they have to fill, the better the chances.
To have an option between three live 15.00 matches again will be brilliant! I look forward to hearing more details as they emerge.
This is great news. Hopefully will mean more live games rather then delayed broadcasts. It could be the 10am Saturday kick off or the early Sunday Morning which Setatanta used to show.
Theres plenty of live games to go around.
Good news. I hope it is another 10AM Saturday game. Since we are probably losing the Setanta Xtra game it will be good to have 3 10AM games live.
Gaffer, any info on the online rights? Still no sign of a change in foxsoccer.tv’s policy of midnight showings only; us soon to be ex-Setanta-i subscribers are looking to be left in the dark come Feb 28.
Told ya…
http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2010/01/05/on-science-fiction-soccer-fans-and-setanta-sports/
Great news Gaffer.
Hopefully this trend will continue until 2025 when my cable-provider finally offers FSC-HD.
Gaffer – echo ,jmf’s questions re online rights , if FSC online only show games after midnight same day and more games goto ESPN 360 (which I can’t get) – then the demise of Setanta “i” (which was pretty damn good all things concidered – especially picture quality post upgrade to silverlight) ,is really going to hurt….
Anyone out there have Dish Network? Curious if their HD launch of FSC that is/was supposed to take place today has happened and how it looks, etc.
I will definantly share the excitement of this news, if and only if the matches for the 2010-2011 Season end up on ESPN360, and live. With the Setanta-i demise, it would be nice to have another online source, since FSI is still being tight-lipped regarding Fox Soccer Plus.
Hi – I emailed Dish about FSC in HD FSC + ( and BBC America in HD) only yesterday
“Specific information regarding your request for BBC America, Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer Channels in HD is not currently available. We would like to add these channels sooner to make viewers like you happy. However we do not have any specific information regarding your inquiry. Please understand that it is our intent to add a variety of programming and services to please current and future subscribers. We will gladly forward your request to our Programming Department for further consideration.”
So the answer is they have no idea whats going on
Hi, boltonian living in florida also Dishnetwork subscriber, if you get any news re; HD FSC orFSCplus BBC America, would you please forward to me thanks
John – FSC in HD on 149 on my Dish per this afternoon… no news on FSC+ as many seem to say – nor BBC America either.
Could be worse – we could be on the iceberg known as England.
Up the Mighty Seaside Warriors
nothing as of yet 11:36am est
Wow – great news all around – Slowly but surely the tide is turning in regards to top flight football exposure in this country. This coming on the heals that the Champions League Final is being moved to the Fox National Network from FX.
Hopefully with this news and the add’l revenue it brings to help cover the Premier League costs Direct TV and FSI can figure out a way to include FSC+ in the Sports Pack without a-la-carte pricing.
Since several people brought up FSC+:
I emailed Veronica Alvarez, FSC’s Director of Marketing and Communication, about the possibility of rugby showing up on FSC+. I got a personal (not canned) reply yesterday, but when it came down to the nitty-gritty she said:
“Keep checking our website as we will continue to post information about Fox Soccer Plus as we near its March 1 launch date, http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/plus.”
I took that to be a definite “maybe”. On a broader scale I think it verifies to some extent what many have thought, that FSC is still crossing t’s and dotting i’s on FSC+. Final formatting may go right down to the wire.
After March 1 we’re back to debating whether any of it matters, if no one is going to carry it.
I hope that, if cable companies don’t carry this from the start, that hopefully FSC will offer FSC+ programming via subscription streaming like they currently do on FSC’s website, or like setanta-I was.
Wow… two good pieces of news today. This will probably make up for not getting FSC Plus if its programming isn’t up to my liking!
any news on espn 360???
ESPN360.com to become ESPN3.com in April:
http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2010/02/espn360-com-to-become-espn3-com-in-april/
Fantastic news regardless of which time slot they have acquired.
Of course, for those of us who’s team may not exist next year (or next month), it’s too little too late.
I’m with AP on this. Fantastic! Any news on if they will be using their own UK production or the international feed. The ESPN feed is so much better.
My guess is that Sunday morning early is the best time slot. Nothing is going on for them then especially after NCAA and NFL football ends.
awesome…but my package doesn’t include ESPN2..they want me to pay $12.99 more a month just for that channel…and i’m already paying that much to watch fox soccer channel…and then i’ll probably have to ay the same to watch fox soccer plus…geesh!
great news. thanks Gaffer.
worldcup3dfan, who’s your provider? are you still under contract?
yes, i’m still under contract…i think i just have to keep calling to get different reps..the right rep will know how to get my packages in order…i got a good rep once and he played around with my packages and added a channel here and there and kept my price the same…i just keep getting stuck with newbies who don’t know how to do anything!
what provider and what package are you on now?
For those wondering about FSC HD, it is indeed launching today on Dish, along with numerous other HD channels, according to some DISH CSR’s as well as satellite uplink data. The Gaffer also updated his original post regarding FSC HD with this news as well. It is supposed to being go live sometime in the afternoon EST. So now the waiting game begins.
Ive heard between 1pm and 5pm EST
waiting game? few hours? are you kidding?
the ones really waiting are us DirecTV subscribers or worse the cable people. Sorry, don’t mean to rub it in but that is the truth
Sorry I know DTV subs are getting the shaft right now, but they are in talks with FOX, so at least that is some good news.
yes, i’m still under contract…i think i just have to keep calling to get different reps..the right rep will know how to get my packages in order…i got a good rep once and he played around with my packages and added a channel here and there and kept my price the same…i just keep getting stuck with newbies who don’t know how to do anything!
ESPN has definitely proven to be the better source…fox is just a mess!
“Sorry I know DTV subs are getting the shaft right now, but they are in talks with FOX, so at least that is some good news.”
well, yes that is true but the real question is will DirecTV add FSC HD upon and agreement with FOX or will we have to wait for D12 to go Live whcih is projected to happen roughly 2 months from now.
I possed that question to DirecTv on Twitter. See if they answer it.
ok, here we go, DirecTV responded. They could not be more evasive then this:
“@skpd_HD: The launch schedule for it has not been determined yet.”
http://twitter.com/DirecTV
Great news, ESPN coverage has been excellent this year
FSC HD is now live on DISH.
I just checked with my wife at home and my dish network channel 149 now appears as a seperate HD channel. I am dvring the United – Villa game to confirm. I am located in the chicagoland area.
FSC in HD now on my Dish Network – so the reply I got from Dish ONLY this morning is atypical of the pants service we pay for…
Does anyone know when COX might pick up FSC HD?
One way to account for “83″ EPL games is:
Saturdays at no later than 1245 London Time – 23 games
Sundays at 1330 or 1400 London Time – 23 games
#1 pick of games on Saturdays at 1500 London Time + #1 pick of games for
each round scheduled during mid-week – 37 games
That would total 83 games. I am “guessing” those 83 games are being sublicensed by FSI to ESPN, Inc.
(The 38th round is usually played on a Sunday at 1500 or 1600 London Time so that BSkyB can televise all games.)
The Sunday Aug 15th schedule for Fox Soccer Plus (on the Fox website) lists a live English Premier League match at 8:30 am (ET). So ESPN may not be carrying the early Sunday match after all this coming season.
This is a bummer. Early Sat and Sun games would have been perfect on ESPN2HD. It would guarantee I have an HD game each weekend day.