Great news for fans of NBA.
"The NBA is live on ESPN, every Wednesday and Friday from midnight, starting Wednesday 28th October. Every team is covered, with 100 live games including The Finals, plus ESPN's news and highlights show 'NBA Fastbreak'."
"ESPN will also broadcast the 1st Preliminary Final live at 10.45am on Friday, September 25, and the 2nd Preliminary Final at 3pm on Saturday, September 26."
"Since its launch, ESPN has been working diligently to upgrade its technical infrastructure to provide as much of its programming as possible in native HD on the ESPN HD channel. Following some technical issues, we have been unable to provide non-live or non-football programming in HD. We anticipate having these problems resolved in the next few days . We thank you for your interest in ESPN and hope you enjoy the channel."Hopefully it won't be long now before we see more HD on the channel.
"ESPN is delighted to announce that it has secured an exclusive deal, with MP & Silva,*to broadcast up to three live Serie A matches per week for the 2009/10 season. Featuring some of the world's greatest players, from recent Inter Milan signing Samuel Eto’o to Juventus veteran Alessandro Del Piero, Serie A is one of the most popular leagues in the world watched by millions around the globe.
ESPN will feature up to three of the top picks from each weekend’s fixtures. The season kicks off on Saturday 22nd August with Siena against seven-time European champions AC Milan, followed on Sunday by Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan as they face Bari. The following weekend’s action will see the prestigious Milan derby as AC take on Inter for early season bragging rights on Saturday 29th August. The next day, on Sunday 30th August, ESPN will broadcast Juventus v Roma.
Jeroen Oerlemans, Vice President & Channel Manager TV, ESPN Europe, Middle East & Africa said: “We’re very pleased to be able to broadcast the Italian Serie A. As one of the best leagues in the world, the live coverage will sit nicely with our Barclays Premier League, Clydesdale Bank Premier League and Bundesliga matches, making the channel the number one stop for football fans around the UK in SD and HD.”
Carlo Pozzali, CEO Media Partners and Silva: “We are delighted to increase our relationship with ESPN, a broadcast partner which ensures best coverage for Italian Serie A in United Kingdom.”"
"ESPN, due to launch a new UK channel in time for the beginning of the football season to house the 46 live Premier League matches that became available when Setanta went under, is poised to sign a vital production deal. The US broadcaster will commission IMG Sports Media, the production arm of the global sports marketing company, to make the studio shows and ancillary programming for its Premier League coverage and any other rights it wins. Sky cameras will provide its on-pitch coverage but IMG will take responsibility for other content, some of which is also likely to be shared with its ESPN Soccernet website. The deal is the latest manifestation of ESPN's efforts to keep costs down by outsourcing retail, customer service and production to third parties. It is also expected to extend to programming around other rights that ESPN is seeking. The Scottish Premier League is considering a joint bid from Sky and ESPN to step into the void left by the collapse of Setanta and the broadcaster is believed to be in negotiations with the Football Association over FA Cup rights."IMG currently work with Sky Sports for their Premier League coverage. This is also the first we've heard about ESPN trying to get FA Cup rights, so here's hoping they can add those rights to the Premier League ones. More as we get it.
