ESPN's first Premier League fixtures

Whilst ESPN are only showing 23 live Premier League games this season, they have made some good picks for the first few months of the 2010/11 season:

August:

• Saturday 14th Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion 5:30pm
• Sunday 22nd Newcastle United v Aston Villa 1:30pm
• Saturday 28th Manchester United v West Ham United 5:30pm

September:

• Saturday 18th Sunderland v Arsenal 5:30pm
• Saturday 25th Bolton Wanderers v Manchester United 5:30pm

October:

• Sunday 3rd Manchester City v Newcastle United 1:30pm
• Saturday 16th Aston Villa v Chelsea 5:30pm
• Saturday 30th Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur 5:30pm

November:

• Saturday 13th Stoke City v Liverpool 5:30pm
• Saturday 20th Liverpool v West Ham United 5:30pm

Official FA press release on ESPN deal

The FA have posted a press release on their website. This confirms the deal revealed by The Guardian article earlier today.

ESPN will be broadcasting 25 live FA Cup games from 2010 to the end of the 2013-14 season, including an exclusive Semi-Final and sharing the final with ITV. As well as the FA Cup, the deal also includes the forthcoming Women's Super League and England Under-21's home fixtures. The Women's Super League begins in 2011, so there's quite a wait for that.

The press release confirms all matches will be available in High Definition (from both ITV and ESPN).

ESPN to miss out on NFL?

It has been announced over the past couple of weeks which channels had grabbed the rights to showing NFL, with Five and Sky grabbing most of them. However, Monday night games were still available, and it was expected that ESPN would snap this up.

Unfortunately today it was revealed that there is unlikely to be any information regarding Monday night games for at least the first month of the season (which starts in 3 days). Couple this with Sky not having red button games this season, understandably many NFL fans are unhappy.

Hopefully ESPN can pick up the Monday night games, but it's likely to be some time before anything is done about it.

Premier Rugby in talks with ESPN

According to The Guardian, Premier Rugby are in talks with ESPN over a deal regarding rights for the 2010-11 season. Sky currently hold a package of 26 games, with 43 up for grabs next season.

Once more is known, it'll be here.

Premier League kicks off today...and in HD!

Today is the start of the new Premier League season, and also the start of ESPN's Premier League coverage. On top of that, Everton v Arsenal, kick off at 5:30pm, will be ESPN's first HD broadcast.

It'll be worth checking out even if you're not into football.

SPL deal struck (Updated)

Just heard on Sky Sports News that the SPL clubs have voted for the £65m joint deal with ESPN and Sky, to broadcast 60 games a season, up until 2011, with the option to broadcast for another two seasons.

As soon as further details are available, it'll be here.

Update: It has been confirmed that the games will be split equally between ESPN and Sky, and the deal will last until at least the 2011/12 season. No fixture list is yet available, but as soon as it is published, we'll let you know.