I really thought that ESPN had a shot at stealing away the English Premier League, but that wasn’t the case late Tuesday night. The satellite company, BSkyB, outbid ESPN and Setanta, and in the process picked up four of the six EPL live match packages. Via Reuters….
Britain’s dominant pay-TV group BSkyB (BSY.L) won the right to show four of the six packages of English Premier League live soccer matches for the three years starting in 2010, the league said late on Tuesday.
BSkyB, which has lured over 9 million subscribers with its sport and movie offering, currently has the right to show four of the six packages. Privately owned Setanta shows the remainder.
Under that agreement, which ends in August 2010, BSkyB pays 1.3 billion pounds ($1.85 billion) to show the matches over the three years. Setanta paid 392 million pounds for two packages.
In a statement, the league said there would be a second round of bidding for the remaining two packages in “due course.” It did not disclose any financial terms.
There’s obviously still a chance that the American network could snag the final two packages, but with Setanta still looming, it’s probably not likely. You Soccer fans now only have the 2010 World Cup to look forward to on the “Leader”.
BSkyB wins 4 of 6 Premier League rights packages (Reuters)
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