Dec 12 2007
ESPN’s Attempt to Take Over World Football
I’m of two minds about ESPN possibly buying up the TV rights to the Premier League.
On the one hand, if it means I can watch more quality football here in America, I’m all for it. Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel do what they can, but they can only deliver so much, and Dish Network forces me to pay for 50 channels I don’t want just to get FSC and GolTV. Right now, soccer fans can get served in this country, but it ain’t cheap. Plus, I don’t believe ESPN is dumb enough to have Dave O’Brien call Premier League games.
On the other hand, this isn’t just about American TV. ESPN isn’t looking to bring the Premier League to a wider American audience, because they can make more advertising coin from showing poker games all day. No, ESPN is seeking world domination, and what better way to do that than to grab the TV rights to the world’s most popular domestic football league in the nation where this brand of football was born?
I suspect this is simply ESPN’s way of convincing Setanta Sports to sell out to them. The empire’s death star is fully operational, and Setanta is a small target by comparison. If they won’t join ESPN’s sporting monoculture willingly, they’ll get obliterated. That’s just how they roll in Bristol.
Will Setanta Sports suddenly get morphed into “ESPN World” in America? The more I think about it, the more I doubt it. Quite honestly, if ESPN manages to acquire Setanta and wrestle all of the U.S. TV rights to the Premier League away from Fox Soccer Channel, they’ll probably stick it in a PPV package. All 380 games from the world’s greatest league for only $199! That’s less than 55 cents a game! It’s also just $10 more than subscribing to Setanta for a year, and some American fans will pay that — especially if the games are shown in HD.
Sorry, though, no FA Cup. Those games will cost you extra. And no rugby, either. If you want your Heineken Cup, Super 14, Tri Nations or Six Nations, you’ll have to pay extra for those, and you’ll probably have to pay for each one separately, and maybe they’ll be shown in HD.
That’s the most likely scenario if the boys in Bristol get their hands on Setanta. Every competition becomes a PPV event, and we’ll be forced to decide just how much we really care about these other forms of football. “ESPN World” wouldn’t bring nearly enough ratings in America, because not enough American sports fans care about soccer and rugby. ESPN isn’t interested in changing that. They just want the fans that do exist to pay them to see soccer and rugby. Business is business, after all.
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I haven’t actually seen anything about ESPN bidding for the U.S. Premier League rights, though it wouldn’t be too surprising if they did so if they won the British rights.
I could see them buying Setanta, but I think they’d keep the subscription model as it stands in North America rather than asking for an annual fee that would lose them thousands of subscribers.
The main problem is that the games aren’t on at a very appealing time for ESPN to slot them into their main channels, unlike the Champions’ League.
As a footy fan who doesn’t follow soccer I have a feeling I could get really screwed on this deal. If Premier League is the big part of an ESPN buying Setanta deal then footy must be an afterthought.
Indeed, Tony. There are days when I’d like to see the AFL put together a PPV package of their own — even if it’s just an online video package — but I don’t think they believe the U.S. is a big enough audience. Asia is closer and probably a better market in terms of overall growth potential.
“Plus, I don’t believe ESPN is dumb enough to have Dave O’Brien call Premier League games.”
Dear lord, Dave, don’t give those nitwits any ideas!
a different Dave,
My first thought, exactly. I don’t think I can take Dave O’Brien repeating the same three anecdotes about “the Kop” for 2 hours.
Have to say I think you are giving ESPN way too much credit. I’m not sure they would have another channel and I can see them using their own feed through ESPN INTL and giving us much less football than the 8 games we get now.
Okay, first of all, ESPN has already begun its takeover of Setanta. There is a speciality channel in the UK called NASN (North American Sports Network) which shows the staples of North America (American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, NASCAR, etc.) to a European audience. Setanta was the co-founder of the network and generally operated it until ESPN bought them out last year. Actually, now that I think about it, Setanta might still operate it, but ESPN calls the shots, which is a central reason for additional non-sporting event ESPN programming on the network, such as Around the Horn and PTI.
Secondly, the pursuit of the Premiership rights are for the UK. Face it, ESPN likes to call itself the “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” and snarky bloggers love to use “WWL” as shorthand for the Four-Letter Network, but it really does not have a European presence. Its “international” broadcasts and “international audiences” that you always here Derek Rae referring to are generally in South America and especially in Southeast Asia. So if they really want to be the “WWL,” they really need to be “WW.”
[...] Dave wrote a fantastic post today on “ESPN’s Attempt to Take Over World Football”Here’s ONLY a quick extractOn the one hand, if it means I can watch more quality football here in America, I’m all for it. Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel do what they can, but they can only deliver so much, and Dish Network forces me to pay for 50 channels … [...]