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ESPN To Be Free On Cable
Cable television viewers viewers will be able to watch ESPN's live Premier League coverage free next month as an introductory offer after the US sports broadcaster signed a distribution deal with Virgin Media.
Disney-owned ESPN is launching a new UK cable and satellite subscription channel, and a high definition service, to carry its 46 live Premier League matches and 30 Scottish Premier League for next season on August 3.
The 2009-10 season starts on 15 August, when ESPN will have live coverage of Everton v Arsenal, hosted by the former BBC presenter Ray Stubbs
Under the deal, Virgin Media's 3.5 million cable TV customers will gain free access to matches aired by ESPN during August on both its standard and high definition channels.
After that, subscribers to Virgin's XL TV channels package will get ESPN's new UK sports channel and its archive programming service, ESPN Classic, free. This is the same arrangement Virgin Media had with Setanta, the former holder of the Premier League and SPL rights that passed to ESPN after the Irish pay-TV broadcaster went into administration in late June.
Subscribers to Virgin Media's M or L packages will be able to subscribe to ESPN's new sports channel for £8 a month, if they already subscribe to any combination of the Sky Sports services, or £10 a month if not.
Yesterday, ESPN announced that the sports channel's football coverage would be extended to include matches from the top-flight domestic competitions in Germany, Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands.
The US broadcaster has also secured the UK and Ireland rights to air the remainder of the Major Soccer League competition in the US, featuring David Beckham's LA Galaxy. The first matches from these overseas leagues will air on ESPN from August 7.
waveguide.co.uk
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