BT to buy ESPN UK?

ESPN joins a long line of previous challengers to B***B’s strong hold on prime sports coverage in the UK and Ireland. BT is reportedly about to buy the channel as the Disney-owned service throws in the towel. And thus ESPN UK joins Setanta, BSB, ONdigital/ITVdigital, Homechoice TV, TopUp TV and even Virgin Media in the long line of broadcasters which have tried to mount any sort of alternate supplier to B***B.

The FT is reporting that ESPN is selling off its rights to assets to certain games from Germany’s Bundesliga, the Europa League and English Premier League. The telco’s BT Vision unit is said to be looking to launch as many as three sports channels to reflect the £1 billion of sports investments already in its portfolio.

ESPN’s rights were acquired for only about £20 million, but could be worth more in today’s heated market. Last summer BT paid £738 million for a three-year package of 32 English football games per season.

BT Vision added 21,000 subscribers in the quarter-year to December 31st.

BT buys ESPN UK after European exit
February 25, 2013 14.49 Europe/London By Julian Clover

BT Group is to acquire ESPN’s UK and Ireland channel businesses for the BT Sport portfolio.

ESPN is also proposing to wind down its ESPN Classic business throughout the EMEA region and its non-UK ESPN America TV businesses.

Ross Hair, managing director, ESPN – Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “We could not be more proud of the TV channels built and nurtured by our talented team over the past four years. The value of that hard work is reflected in this deal with BT and the continuation of ESPN on television screens across the UK and Ireland. The same passion, commitment and inn***tion will be at the heart of how we develop our strong digital media business into the future.”

Key to the deal is the rights portfolio ESPN has built up around the Premier League rights package it has effectively lost to its suitor from the start of the 2013/14 season. These include the FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League, UEFA Europa League, and the German Bundesliga.

BT will also pick up the rights to show a host of US sports currently shown on ESPN America, including NCAA College Basketball, NCAA College Football and NASCAR. The ESPN channels will be broadcast from BT Sport’s new home in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. Until completion, the service for current subscribers to the ESPN channels across all television platforms remains unchanged.

Marc Watson, chief executive of television, BT Retail, said: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with ESPN for the acquisition of their UK channels business and that we have been able to add some exciting new sports rights to the ones we already have.

The majority of the output will be branded within BT Sport, though one ESPN-branded channel will remain.

When the deal closes on July 31, 2013, the ESPN channels will be broadcast from BT Sport’s new home in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.

ESPN will continue to own and operate its existing digital media businesses which include multisport news and information portal ESPN.co.uk, ESPNcricinfo (cricket), ESPNFC (football), ESPNscrum (rugby), ESPNF1 (Formula 1) and broadband streaming service ESPN Player. ESPN Classic has been excluded from the proposed transaction.

ESPN returned to the European market in 2007 with the acquisition of NASN. It later picked up rights from the collapsed Setanta business and launched its own UK premium channel on August 3, 2009.