ESPN has agreement to show Premier League

Aug 14, 10:47 pm EDT

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NEW YORK (AP)—ESPN has reached an agreement with Fox Sports International to televise a package of Premier League matches in the U.S. for 2009-2010 beginning Saturday and through the completion of the season in May.

Under the agreement, ESPN2 will offer up to 48 live matches this season, including live presentation of the 12 Monday afternoon matches.

ESPN2 will feature one match each Saturday at 7:45 a.m. Eastern time and select Saturday matches at 10 a.m. (when there are no matches at 7:45 a.m.)

ESPN is televising Premier League matches in Britain for the first time this season.

The first match scheduled to be televised is Chelsea vs. Hull City on Saturday followed by Wigan Athletic vs. Manchester United on Aug. 22.

“The Barclays Premier League is one of the crown jewels of professional sports throughout the world,” said Scott Guglielmino, vice president of programming, ESPN. “We’re pleased to work with Fox Sports International to bring some of the league’s marquee matchups to ESPN2 in our continued efforts to serve soccer fans in the United States.”

Updated Aug 14, 10:47 pm EDT
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99 Comments

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  1. J
    99. Posted by J Fri Aug 21 1:15pm EDT

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    Who do I complain too about Mondays 8PM game Liverpool vs. Aston Villa that is not being shown in the US( only in Mexico) because it is being preempted by the Little League World Series. This is total bull!
  2. You Can Call Me Daddy
    98. Posted by You Can Call Me Daddy Tue Aug 18 11:22pm EDT

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    This is awesome news. Tommy Smyth will hopefully be doing the commentary. Hopefully that top notch ESPN presentation will also be showcased. FSC presentation is horrible. Did you catch the Champions League telecast today? It looked amatuer.
  3. ignacioz
    97. Posted by ignacioz Tue Aug 18 9:55pm EDT

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    YAY, !!!!!
    really, YAY

    i'm so happy.
    i cannot get mad.
  4. <i>mscorrigan</i>
    96. Posted by mscorrigan Tue Aug 18 8:33pm EDT

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    this is a trainwreck. watching soccer with the non-stop ESPN2 ticker running across the bottom of the screen will be horrible. no way can i sit through that.
  5. Richard
    95. Posted by Richard Tue Aug 18 7:34pm EDT

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    Very good news, now i can watch some nice soccer game together with nearly all nba games ;p
  6. Bruiser
    94. Posted by Bruiser Tue Aug 18 3:30pm EDT

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    As someone whose cable company pulled FSC from thier line-up about 1/2 way thru last season, I think this is great news!!!! Can't wait to start watching Manchester United again !!!
  7. Leanin Back
    93. Posted by Leanin Back Tue Aug 18 12:05pm EDT

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    This is perfect. Stupid Dish Network makes FSC only in their next to highest package I dont pay for. Plus ESPN2 is in HD... unlike FSC.

    GREAT MOVE ESPN, GREAT MOVE!
  8. <i>mgarrett56</i>
    92. Posted by mgarrett56 Tue Aug 18 11:43am EDT

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    this is great, not that Fox soccer channal is not good, but they do not show games on a regular basis. I cannot afford GolTV. The English Premier league is the one of the best in the world and those games on ESPN will be a better choice....thanks ESPN
  9. goalkeeper
    91. Posted by goalkeeper Mon Aug 17 8:46pm EDT

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    Caught the game by accident on ESPN2 (DirecTV ch. 209). What a surprise.

    I laughed at the comment about changing the start times to accomodate US viewership. The money wasn't that great for these rights.

    How desperate is Mexico if the chest thumping results from a home win. How the mighty have fallen. Zero points away from home. Might be enough to qualify if the US and Costa Rica keeps doing Mexico's work, though.
  10. Christine
    90. Posted by Christine Mon Aug 17 8:30pm EDT

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    yesssssssssssssssssss
  11. CaptainC
    89. Posted by CaptainC Mon Aug 17 7:29pm EDT

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    Fillup -

    It ended up on Telemuno in Spanish, and on their English-Spanish combo channel MUN 2 in English. Bizarre! I was just lucky to notice ESPN wasn't showing the actual game, and fished around on the Net to find the listing.

    Good commentating - Marcelo Balboa and the really big guy from GOL TV.
  12. <i>naxianric</i>
    88. Posted by naxianric Mon Aug 17 7:12pm EDT

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    Nice
  13. Fillup
    87. Posted by Fillup Mon Aug 17 7:12pm EDT

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    In regards to the USA vs. Mexico soccer game. On what station were you (in the USA) able to see the game. I saw what I thought was the pre-game show and than I could not see the game anywhere. Don't you think it strange that Landon Donavon caught the swine flu in Mexico or is caught the won word. I think this needs to be looked in to.
  14. L2daB
    86. Posted by L2daB Mon Aug 17 6:35pm EDT

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    I’m in the Midwest (out skirts of St. Louis) and watch the game last Saturday. What a pleasant surprise!!! Keep up the good work ESPN.
  15. L2daB
    85. Posted by L2daB Mon Aug 17 6:35pm EDT

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    I’m in the Midwest (out skirts of St. Louis) and watch the game last Saturday. What a pleasant surprise!!! Keep up the good work ESPN.
  16. WWW.BOAZ-NY.COM
    84. Posted by WWW.BOAZ-NY.COM Mon Aug 17 5:25pm EDT

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    That’s great! Just do me a favor espn - don’t have Tommy smith broadcasts the games, find some people who can really add to the experience and if you can't find anyone, believe me we will all do very well with just hearing the crowd!
  17. J M
    83. Posted by J M Mon Aug 17 4:48pm EDT

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    The TV schedules do not seem to be updated yet.

    To record Chelsea v Hull this last Saturday on my DVR - all I had to do was record "Browning Expedition" and modify the recording options to go over by 2 hours.

    It recorded the pregame & game perfectly.

    Will do the same for Wigan vrs ManU this Saturday if the schedule is still out of date.
  18. C K
    82. Posted by C K Mon Aug 17 4:10pm EDT

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    Smart move by ESPN. I guess they finally realized that soccer has no market at all in America and withdrew from its agreement to broadcast soccer. Also, to Matt who posted message #62, those British soccer teams are mostly unknown to the public while the Yankees and the Red Sox are known by most populations in the world, you comparisons sucked.
  19. Hendu
    81. Posted by Hendu Mon Aug 17 2:25pm EDT

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    I had the same problem.... couldn't find Chelsea v. Hull last weekend and they advertised the Man U v. Wigan match this weekend, but I don't see that on ESPN2 either. I'm in Sacramento, CA. ESPN is completely dropping the ball here. Way to start off the season with a bang!!!
  20. Dukes
    80. Posted by Dukes Mon Aug 17 12:44pm EDT

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    Game was on espn2HD in roanoke, va on saturday. Picture was beautifully.
  21. nathan
    79. Posted by nathan Mon Aug 17 10:00am EDT

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    This may be good for the casual fan, but I think this blows. I'd much rather the games be back on FSC. Until ESPN starts taking soccer broadcasting seriously its not worth it. No more cutaways to sportscenter updates about Michael Vick during games! If only there was a goltv2.
  22. chris m
    78. Posted by chris m Mon Aug 17 8:29am EDT

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    The ESPN online schedule still has the redneck olympics (hunting, fishing, more hunting and fishing) as their Sat AM ESPN2 programming. This has been their standard fare for as long as ESPN2 has existed.

    They may well have acquired the rights to these games. But consider that Fox Soccer Channel had the rights to these early AM Saturday games and chose to show infomercials in that time slot and maybe show the games on tape delay later in the week. Will ESPN2 tell Bubba to take a hike because they are showing UK soccer now?

    We may well see these games this year, but considering the way American TV has historically f*cked up soccer coverage, I'm not holding my breath. More likely they'll end up on ESPN360 PPV this year. This has lot more to do with ESPN trying to establish itself on satellite TV in Europe and suck up to the EPL itself (they will start showing the EPL in England next year) and little to do with the Amertican soccer fan.
  23. Jeff G
    77. Posted by Jeff G Mon Aug 17 7:21am EDT

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    " 55. Posted by Jerry Sat Aug 15 3:56pm EDT Report Abuse
    The subject here is ESPN's coverage of the English Premier League in the U. S. and nothing more. There are a bunch of idiotic posts that don't even apply to the real substance of the article. It was great seeing the EPL this morning on ESPN2. "

    What are you talking about? I have both Time Warner Cable and DirecTV and I did not see Chelsea v Hull on either platform. Instead, my DVR's recorded two hours of bass fishing and little league world series replays. Way to go ESPN, way to shell out the big bucks for the rights, only to not show it. Dog channel. Now I only have to decide who's worse, ESPN or FSC???
  24. neekees01
    76. Posted by neekees01 Mon Aug 17 5:39am EDT

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    at long last, bravo espn hope to see more sports channel in the states follow your lead. thanks for making it easy to watch a epl game on saturday. i hope day come where you show more live games. thanks.
  25. Kaycee
    75. Posted by Kaycee Mon Aug 17 4:31am EDT

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    yESSSSSSS is going to be wonderful watching EPL from ESPN.........I like it.
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