ESPN operated five sports television channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 2006 and 2013.
ESPN operated five sports television channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 2006 and 2013.
ESPN Classic launched on 13 March 2006 on Sky channel 442, [1] the first channel in the UK under the ESPN branding. Initially it was only available on Sky Digital but the channel became available on Virgin Media and UPC Ireland in August 2009 when ESPN UK launched. It broadcast a range of archive sports coverage but with an emphasis on football. The channel closed at midnight on 1 August 2013.
Programming was available in only standard-definition format.
ESPN launched on in the UK on 3 August 2009. [2] The channel marked ESPN's first foray into live coverage of domestic sports events in the UK. On 31 July 2013, BT completed their purchase of ESPN's UK and Ireland TV channels business but continue to operate ESPN, however the programming largely resembles that of ESPN America.
Programming was available in standard-definition and high-definition formats.
ESPN Player, previously branded ESPN360, is ESPN’s digital streaming platform in the UK and Europe for live and on-demand sports. The service is available across Europe, Middle East & Africa and, predominantly, broadcasts U.S sports content. [3] Main content includes NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball, College Sports, IndyCar Series, World Series of Poker, X Games and others. The platform is a direct to consumer service, as Pay Per View, and not linked to any TV subscription.
ESPN America was a British-based European sports network, focusing on professional and collegiate sports of the United States and Canada. Originally launched in December 2002 as NASN (the North American Sports Network), ESPN purchased the channel in March 2007 for €70m from Benchmark Capital Europe and Setanta Sports. [4] [5] The channel was known as ESPN America from 1 February 2009. [6] ESPN America broadcast a selection of top North American professional and collegiate sports leagues. The network closed at midnight on 1 August 2013. [7]
Programming was available in standard-definition and high-definition formats.
On 6 April 2010, ESPN secured mobile rights to highlights from all Premier League games from the 2010-11 season, after beating British Sky Broadcasting to the deal. [8] The broadcaster won a three-year deal for short-form mobile highlights from all 380 Premier League games. It is thought that ESPN paid under £10m for the rights in a blind auction. [9]
The application, titled ESPN Goals, features a basic service offering news and live scores, which is free-to-download. [10] However, the full video clips package are chargeable on a monthly or season basis. The clips can be issued during any matches not kicking off at 3pm on Saturdays, with highlights from those games only being permitted for release after 4.45pm.
UK users are able to access the application from the Android Market, Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World, Ovi Store and Windows Phone Marketplace, along with ESPN's mobile site.
From the 2011–12 Premier League season, the app became completely free both to download and to view clips, instead relying on advertising revenue to fund the service. [11]
From the 2013–14 Premier League season, the rights to mobile highlights have been sold to News UK, [12] ESPN is not thought to have submitted a bid. [13]
On 25 February 2013, BT agreed to acquire ESPN's UK and Ireland TV channels business and part of the agreement saw one of BT Sport's channels retaining the ESPN name. [14] The value of the deal was not disclosed, but BT is understood to have paid "low tens of millions". [15] However, ESPN Classic, which was not part of the BT deal, and ESPN America ceased transmission across Europe, the Middle East and Africa at midnight on 1 August 2013.
In 2015, BT Group reached a long-term deal with ESPN International to continue holding British rights to ESPN-owned sports rights and original programmes. [16] This resulted in many of ESPN's signature sports shows, such as College GameDay and Baseball Tonight , being shown on BT Sport ESPN.
In August 2022, after Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA acquired a 50% stake in BT Sport, the channel dropped the ESPN branding and was renamed BT Sport 4. [17] [18] ESPN later sub-licensed college sports coverage to the network's main rival, Sky Sports. [19]
ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports including Football, Rugby, Snooker, Cycling, Darts and Horse Racing, cult classic films such as James Bond, US dramas and classic ITV action series of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previously operated channels in Ireland, the UK, Asia, Africa, Australia, the United States, and Canada. It is currently owned by Georgia-based media outlet Adjarasport.
ESPN America was a British-based European sports network, focusing on professional and collegiate sports of the United States and Canada. Originally launched on 5 December 2002 as NASN, ESPN America broadcast a selection of top North American professional and collegiate sports leagues including Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Canadian Football League (CFL), 24 hours a day on digital cable and digital satellite television.
Eir Sport 1 was an Irish pay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in Ireland, while it is available upon direct subscription to the Eir Sport package on other networks across Ireland. Its former sister channel is the subscription based network Eir Sport 2.
EE TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers.
ESPN International is a family of sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1989, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company.
ESPN Classic was a British-based European sports television channel which first launched in France in March 2002, followed by Italy in July 2002, and pan-Europe in December 2003. On 13 March 2006 ESPN Classic launched on Sky channel 442 in the UK and Ireland, the first channel in the UK under the ESPN branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on Virgin Media channel 533 as a part of the XL pack, and in early 2011 video on demand content started to appear on the Virgin Media platform. On 14 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on UPC Ireland channel 409 as a part of the Max package. It broadcast a range of archive sports coverage, with a large emphasis on football.
ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by the Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder.
In the United Kingdom, sporting events are broadcast on several national television networks, as well as radio. Many of the sporting events are listed online or in different kind of apps. These apps are mainly designed by sport fans who want to have an easy way to find when a certain game or match is played, as well as when a race starts or which channel is broadcasting the olympic games etc.
TNT Sports 4 is a British sports television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and the BT Group. It is part of the TNT Sports group of channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is predominantly focused on sports from North America.
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.
TNT Sports is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at Warner Bros. Discovery's complex in Chiswick Business Park, London, having been based at Here East, the former International Broadcast Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London until July 2023. The channels are available on the BT TV, Sky and Virgin Media television platforms in the UK and Sky and Vodafone TV in the Republic of Ireland.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky Sports.
This is a timeline of the history of TNT Sports , and of its predecessor, BT Sport.
This is a timeline of the history of football on television in the UK.
This is a timeline of sports channels in the UK other than Sky Sports, BT Sport and Premier Sports/FreeSports. The timeline also includes sports events which were shown on non-sports non-terrestrial channels. The timeline also includes sports coverage broadcast on streaming services.
This is a timeline of the history of rugby union on television in the UK.
This is a timeline of UK television coverage of the four major sports in the USA - the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball.
This is a timeline of television coverage of basketball in the United Kingdom.
This is a timeline of UK television coverage of American Football on UK television..
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Owners: Walt Disney Company (80%); Hearst Communications (20%) | |||||||||||||||||