ESPN2 received some good news Friday when the Premier League announced the list of games that have had their kickoff times moved to be shown during key television times.
During April, ESPN2 will televise what many believe will be the Premier League title decider between Manchester United and Chelsea on Saturday, April 3 at 7:45am ET.
Even more good news for ESPN2 are some of the other fixtures in April including the north London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal on Saturday, April 10 at 7:45am ET. And also the Manchester derby on Saturday, April 17 at 7:45am ET between Manchester City and Manchester United.
To be fair, ESPN2 hasn’t had the best schedule of games to show for most of this season during the early Saturday kickoff slot. But with the run in to the end of the Premier League, it’ll be very interesting to see what the TV ratings are for these three marquee matches with so much on the line for each team.
View the latest US TV schedule featuring Premier League games.
good to see ESPN2 finally getting the marquee matches…what’s the deal with all the Liverpool games on Mondays!?
This is great news. I love the 7:45AM timeslot and it’s great to know that these big games will be in HD.
The bad news is that it looks like Fox Soccer Plus will be getting all the other big games. Well at least the games involving the big 4 and Tottenham, AV, and Man City. Don’t like that at all. Well it will be fine if Fox Soccer Plus is available from the get go but there is still that worry that it will not be carried by some cable providers. This is not good news. Looks like FSC is taking advantage of the premium service to show all the big games. You can’t blame them but you would think they would throw us a bone and put some good games on FSC. Especially since FSC+ might not be available for everyone.
how do you know they’ll offload them to Fox Soccer Plus? Is there a schedule out somewhere?
The first 3 weeks of programming for FS+ is posted on the FSC website:
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/tvschedule/story/printableschedule
i just dont understand how ESPN expects to garner any type or ratings whatsoever by showing a game at 7:45
What do you want them to do? That is the timeslot they own the rights to or atleast they have agreed upon with FSC. They have no choice. If there is no 7:45 game in a given week than they get the choice of a 10 O’clock game.
I love the 7:45AM timeslot but fortunately I live on the east coast. I’m sure people on the west coast don’t like it. But what are you going to do? If you want to see the games live you are going to have to deal with it. The English Premiership isn’t going to change the times they play the games just to suit the Football fans here in the US.
it’s the only time they don’t have higher rating college basketball or football programs on.
Fantastic news! And they will all be in HD since they are the 7:45 am time slot. SWEET!
it was nice watching Manchester United in HD today. First time this season ESPN2 had a Manchester United match in HD
So it looks like the only time we get to see Man Utd. is on ESPN or when the Champions League is on – unless they put all the games from that too on Fox Soccer + – so we are going to miss all these games as there is no way we are going to get Fox Soccer + in Comcast Land.
Really? 4:45 pacific time? Ughh thats why they dont get ratings!
if you are a fan you will get up,simple as that.
Just don’t go to bed mate. Just keep the party going!
I guess we don’t need FSCHD or Fox Soccer Plus after all!
FOX had better watch their “six” because ESPN has the muscle to push FSC and its little sister FS+ aside within the next 4-5 years. They sublet more EPL matches next season and they’re now given some massive fixtures for the run-in this season. I can watch all in HD straight away, no waiting for FSC to make deals that should have been made months ago. FSC has proven there is a market for football in America but sadly have never really had the ability to capitalise on it….I’ll accept all the low ratings from my rant, don’t really care, just want ESPN to suck the life out of FSC….cheers.
so you would be content with a channel that shows EPL for 3-6 hours a week versus one that shows live and delayed matches almost all day every day of the week? What happens if you wake up late or your DVR ferks up?
I’ll take the lesser of 2 evils
Sucka99, I take your point but if ESPN were to somehow get the entire package they would almost certainly have to create an ESPN 4. I realise its a bit of a dream but if it happened it would bring football into every home straight away. ESPN wouldn’t have to muck about doing deals with carriers as they would almost surely be picked up without delay.
if ESPN were to get the entire package we’d be watching 2 games a week just like we normally do and the rest on ESPN360 as is the case currently with half of La Liga and the Bundesliga. And personally I don’t have a spare computer to put into my A-V setup.
Oh, and I know some will mention that ESPN presenters give our sport a regular slagging off, but they provide a better product for 90 minutes than FSC and I actually like watching a programme that looks like it was prodcued this century.
all Prem matches are produced by the same company – TWI
If you’ve seen Monday’s ESPN match you’ll see a better quality programme from start to finish.
and that ESPN UK-produced monday match will be going away next season as Sky now has those rights.
I’ll give you the better quality lead-in and halftime (though only marginally because of the presence of one Tommy Smyth – ha) but I’ll take the breadth/depth and flexibility of a dedicated footy channel over the ESPN “soccer filler programming” anyday.
ESPN is great for it’s reach and for “growing the game” (which I personally think is overrated) but there’s only so much they will do when they’re beholden to the higher ratings and more available ad time of College Basketball, College Football, College Baseball, the NBA, the WNBA, Poker, Fishing, Hunting, and Jim Rome is Burning.
I’m very impressed with what they seem to be trying to do in the UK but there’s only so much they can do next year with only 23 games broadcast. and when it comes to the UK, and charging for a sports channel (essentially the Setanta model plus the deal with Sky), footy is the only game in town. So we’ll really only see movement there when the next Prem rights come up in 2013 and they bid against Sky.
As a west coaster, it’s gonna blow to wake up that early, but man will it be worth it.
Gaffer,
Can you give us an update on ESPN’s EPL ratings when available?
Cheers
for all the west coasters out there, I have a three letter word for you: DVR
For all true football fans, I have two five-letter word for you: alarm clock
or just google my name plus “HD”
Im in los angeles and have u-verse. For some reason, when i hit on guide – there is no scheduled airing for man utd vs arsenal at any time on money on ESPN2. This is the first time i’ve ever noticed this .. am i missing something ? Are they still airing the game gaffer ?
Rocky, the game is definitely on ESPN2 at 2:45pm ET today. Enjoy.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Thanks man … you rock