I’m up this morning watching English Premier League soccer on ESPN2. Late last night, ESPN came to an agreement with Fox Soccer Channel to air two games a week, early Saturday morning games and Monday afternoon games so fans who had had to depend on Setanta Sports and shelling out money to watch the games don’t have to anymore. Setanta still has the Saturday 10 a.m. and early Sunday morning games, but not as many as in the past. It’s a nice feeling to wake up to EPL games on ESPN2 for the next 10 months.
I’ve been critical of ESPN for many things, but getting the EPL this season in both the UK and the US is a great move. I can hardly contain my excitement.
Of course earlier this year, ESPN won the rights to air EPL games in the UK and its website is up and running.
Let’s do some linkage for you.
The Nielsen Ratings Wire blog looks at the excitement over the new Madden 10 NFL video game.
Mary Ellen Fillo of the Hartford Courant looks at a new ESPN promo starring Snoop Dog… and Mike Ditka????
Jack Bell of the New York Times looks at ESPN’s entry into the English Premier League starting today.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union is urging a local radio station to stop airing the Dan Patrick Show on a 6 hour delay.
John Boccacino of the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle looks at ESPN’s Chris Mortensen making a stop at Buffalo Bills training camp on Friday.
Jonathan Tannenwald writes in his Philly.com Pretzel Logic blog that he’s excited to watch English Premier League games on ESPN2.
Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says scoring the EPL rights is a huge feather in the cap for ESPN.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer says Fox Sports Ohio will have a full slate of high school football games this fall.
Janelle Gefland of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with ESPN’s Cliff Drysdale who’s in town to call a women’s tennis tournament this weekend.
In the Shreveport (LA) Times, CBS’ Tim Brando previews a college football show he hosted for the network.
Christopher Curry of the Gainesville (FL) Sun says Cox Communications and Sun Sports have finally come to an agreement to air Tampa Bay Rays games this season.
Angela Busch of the Naples (FL) News writes that a local minor league hockey team is changing flagship radio stations.
Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman does not like CBS’ Gary Danielson’s predictions for the BCS Championship Game.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News talks with local sports radio legend Norm Hitzges.
Patrick Finley of the Arizona Daily Star writes that the new Arizona Wildcats Sports Network is hiring new talent for football and basketball games.
Mitch Chortkoff writing in the Santa Monica Mirror says contrary to a Los Angeles Times report last month that Dodgers voice Vin Scully would retire after next season, now has Scully backtracking on those comments.
Cary Osborne of the Santa Clarita Valley Signal says there’s an increase of high school sports on TV.
Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times is disturbed, but also encouraged by some of the trends he’s witnessing in baseball reporting.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that the NFL has begun the promotional push for its NFL RedZone which will be available on cable this year. RedZone is different from the Red Zone Channel which is an exclusive to DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers.
Mike looks at ESPN’s US deal to air EPL games.
Sam Dunn of the Guardian in the UK writes about ESPN getting ready to join the battle for EPL viewers today.
Andy Fixmer and Margaret Brennan of Bloomberg combine for a story in which ESPN is predicting a high UK viewership for EPL games.
James Corrigan of the Independent in the UK feels ESPN’s signing of legendary football announcer Ray Stubbs is a big deal for the upstart network.
The great EPL Talk blog says this is not the first time that ESPN2 has aired English Premier League games.
The Sports Media Watch says last week’s Red Sox-Yankees game tied the highest ratings of the season for Fox Sports with …. a Yankees-Red Sox game!
Joe Favorito discusses the best way to deliver a message.
And Joe looks at the way the New Jersey Nets are trying to spread their message during the NBA offseason.
Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media looks at the SEC’s final revised media policy.
The Big Lead looks at the traffic for the major sports websites during what turned out to be a very busy July.
Chuck Hanf from the Two Cents from Beantown blog has a new show and it debuted last night. Check it out.
That’s going to do it. Turned out to be busier than I thought, but that’s a good thing. This should d
o it for today unless something major breaks.
