ESPN take over from SETANTA

Monday night football has never gone away.Just seems like this year we have more than our fair share of Monday games.

Monday night football has never gone away.Just seems like this year we have more than our fair share of Monday games.

Monday night football has only really existed since Sky got the footie anyway. Said it before and I'll say it agian, Monday night games are sh*te!

I've got Setanta Ireland and they're starting to advertise Live Premier League Games? They have about 14 games between the start of the season and November. 3 games from each of the Top Four and 2 from Man City. I think they might have even more? How did they get them when they couldn't even afford the 5 million for the SPL rights a few months ago?

Whats happening then ? Are they going to have more than one channel or just one ?

My son told me the subscription is free to virgin if you have the XL package is this true ?

Virgin Media and ESPN announce channel deal ahead of Premier League football season
Sports fans can now get ESPN channels as part of Virgin Media’s XL pack for no extra cost
Virgin Media (NASDAQ: VMED) and ESPN today announced that the new ESPN channel will be available in both standard and High Definition (HD) to Virgin Media’s 3.5 million digital TV customers from 3rd August.  The ESPN channel will offer live Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football as well a wide range of international football and top quality sports.

Customers who subscribe to Virgin Media’s XL TV pack will be able to watch ESPN and ESPN HD at no additional cost.  As part of the deal, these subscribers will also receive ESPN Classic, featuring the greatest moments of UK and European sport.

Dedicated sports fans who are on Virgin Media’s M or L pack will be able to subscribe to ESPN and ESPN HD for a great value price of £8 a month if they already subscribe to any combination of the Sky Sports channels, or £10 a month if not.

As a special introduction to the new ESPN and ESPN HD channels, Virgin Media will make these ESPN channels available to all of its digital TV customers, for no additional cost, during August.

Mark Schweitzer, chief commercial officer of Virgin Media, said: “This agreement solidifies Virgin Media’s place as the home of TV entertainment and is unquestionably the best value TV deal for sports fanatics.  We’ve got all the sports content you’d expect and adding the new ESPN channels to our line-up will mean our customers can watch all the football action they want.”

Mr Schweitzer added: “We’re always looking for ways to go the extra mile for our customers and we think this market beating offer does this in spades as well as providing a sweetener for the start of the football season.  We are extremely proud to have partnered with ESPN, which is the world’s leading multimedia sports entertainment company.”

Lynne Frank, managing director for ESPN in Europe, Middle East and Africa said: “We are delighted to add Virgin Media as a new distribution partner and to offer millions more sports fans ESPN’s compelling mix of Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football, as well as the best of international football and top quality sports.  The plan to make the channels available to Virgin Media’s XL customers will help ESPN better serve sports fans in the UK.  It’s an exciting season ahead and we look forward to bringing our new channels, ESPN and ESPN HD as well as ESPN Classic, to as many sports fans as possible.”   

ESPN’s new channel ‘ESPN’ will launch on 3rd August in both standard definition and HD.  It will showcase 46 live Premier League football games during the 2009/10 season and 23 matches for each of the following three seasons.  ESPN will also show 30 live and exclusive Clydesdale Bank Premier League games each season across the UK and Ireland, starting with the 2009/10 campaign this August.  The channel will also broadcast other top international sporting events, which will be announced shortly.

The first live Barclays Premier League game on ESPN will be Everton versus Arsenal with a 5:30pm kick off on Saturday 15th August.

 

About Virgin Media

With almost 10 million customers, Virgin Media is the UK's first quad-play provider of broadband, TV, phone and mobile.

The company is one of the largest residential broadband providers in the UK, using a unique fibre optic cable network to deliver next generation ultrafast internet access of up to 50Mb to just over half of all homes. Combined with a high speed ADSL service and mobile broadband products, Virgin Media is able to offer broadband internet access to virtually the entire country.

Virgin Media has the UK’s most advanced TV on demand service and is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer. It is the second largest provider of pay TV, was the first to launch a high definition TV service and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder.

The company operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world’s first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.

Virgin Media also owns Virgin Media Television (VMtv) which runs eight entertainment channels, including Virgin1, LIVING, Bravo and Challenge. VMtv is a 50 per cent joint partner with BBC Worldwide in UKTV, which consists of ten channels including Dave, G.O.L.D., Watch and Alibi.

With operations based entirely in the UK, Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (VMED).

Premium television services are provided by Virgin Media Entertainment, which is the trading name of Future Entertainment Sarl, a subsidiary of Virgin Media Inc.

For more information, go to www.virginmedia.com

About ESPN

Based in Bristol, Connecticut, ESPN, Inc. is the world’s leading multimedia sports entertainment company. ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

ESPN International has grown to include ownership — in whole or in part — of over 45 television networks outside of the United States, as well as a variety of brand extension businesses, which allow ESPN to reach fans in 200 countries and territories. In the UK, ESPN now includes a portfolio of television and digital brands including ESPN Classic, ESPN America, ESPNcricinfo.com, ESPNscrum.com, ESPNsoccernet.com, ESPN360.com and Racing-live.com.

On 22 June 2009, ESPN was awarded the exclusive rights to 46 Live Barclays Premier League matches in the 2009-10 Season and 23 matches a season from 2010-2013. ESPN plan to launch a new channel in the UK on 3rd August called ‘ESPN. On 16 July ESPN was awarded exclusive live rights to Clydesdale Bank Premier League games for the next five seasons, showing 30 live games each season across the UK and Ireland, starting with the 2009-10 campaign this August.

ESPN Classic Sport now has five networks (UK, French, Italian, pan-European and Middle Eastern feeds) available in over 40 countries, and ESPN America has rights to show NFL, NHL, MLB and NCAA Football and Basketball across Europe, available in 43 countries. Online, Soccernet is the destination of choice for football fans worldwide. ESPN acquired cricinfo.com - the world’s leading cricket website - and scrum.com – a leading rugby news, features and information portal – in summer 2007. ESPN360.com - the company’s signature broadband service - launched in Europe in January 2008. In August 2008, ESPN acquired the world’s leading independent motor racing website, Racing-Live.com.

Whos signed up?

I have, plus you get ESPN HD which is something Setanta promised but never delivered.

........  Just hope they dont call it "Soccer" 

I registered a couple of weeks ago,but  have heard nothing..

What about if you have Sky, not Virgin ?

REGISTAR at sky.com or give them a ring to upgrade.

Does this mean that all you people are going to have to listen to yanks commentate haaa unlucky guys.

Just checked out the Virgin Media website and they are stating that ESPN is on from 3rd August if you have an XL package  

Yippeee !! Thats me, I'll check it out and get back to you.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=21



EDIT:  Just had a look and it says ESPN will launch at 8pm tonight 

No American commentors on premier football,Ray Stubbs is the host, the rest of the team is to be announced.

Oh you lot had a lucky escape then .

€12 extra a month for us leprechauns.

I suppose ill have to get it. FFS

Why not just put up with streams like me .

Why not just put up with streams like me .

I do use them but its the time difference that annoys me. I cant sit watching a match when i know its a 1 min delay.
As soon as a goal is scored  i get a text from a friend and it ruins it for me.

Oh i turn off my phone's and log out of msn when i watch a game no distraction's .

YES!,,,,,,,,  its on Virgin TV now, for free, also in HD quality, anybody who has the XL package, also free for ev4erybody else for a month

YES!,,,,,,,,  its on Virgin TV now, for free, also in HD quality, anybody who has the XL package, also free for ev4erybody else for a month

robby, already being discussed over here mate 

http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php?topic=2174.0