A Ginge Talks the Footy Public Service Announcement:
Just a quick post to provide a simple rundown of the broadcasting situation for the 2009/10 English Premier League season. With all the tweets and post flying around the web, it can get a little confusing as to just where you will be able to view EPL (and other leagues) matches here in the US this coming season.

Some of you may have seen a few items related to the English Premier League broadcast rights. Sentanta has gone into receivership and their UK broadcast rights have been pulled. ESPN has won the rights to broadcast 46 live Premier League matches in the United Kingdom for the 2009-10 season, and has also been awarded a contract for the 2010-13 seasons.

Many industry observers were surprised earlier this year when Fox Soccer Channel not only held off ESPN's bid to swipe the US television rights to the English Premier League, but wrestled the Champions League away from the worldwide leader in sports. But ESPN may be ready to get back in the game as the financial difficulties at Setanta Sports could leave the broadcast rights to 46 EPL games up for grabs.

On August 12, 2009, the U.S. National Team will be travelling to Azteca Stadium in Mexico City to play Mexico in their first match of the second half of the CONCACAF Hex for World Cup Qualificiation. Since the match is at Azteca, the television broadcast rights are not held by ESPN but by Telemundo, part of NBC Universal.

Some of you may have seen a few items related to the English Premier League broadcast rights. Sentanta has gone into receivership and their UK broadcast rights have been pulled. ESPN has won the rights to broadcast 46 live Premier League matches in the United Kingdom for the 2009-10 season, and has also been awarded a contract for the 2010-13 seasons.

This report was supplied to us by a loyal MLSR reader:

ESPN have reached an agreement with Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) to bring an exclusive coverage of the new CONCACAF Champions League to fans in
Mexico
Central America
South America and
The Caribbean
ESPN has obtained the television, online, broadband and radio rights to CONCACAF Champions League for the next four seasons starting in 2008-09.

Earlier today on his Twitter account, Stuart Holden announced that he was going to be on Good Morning America on New Year's Day Morning. While I have no confirmation of this one way or the other, I can think of no other reason for Stuart Holden being on Good Morning America except that he will announce that he is staying in MLS and not pursuing a free transfer to Europe at this time.

Bit of a mixed PR bag for Setanta Sports today. On the good side, they've brought some much needed innovation to football broadcasting. I'm on Setanta Sports/Special1 TV has been a huge success (Shut up Dave) and having John Champion tweet the FA Cup final was an interesting way to get some attention.

From the BBC comes an article on Sentanta, who owns the broadcast rights for the English Premier League: Last-ditch effort to save Setanta

Setanta executives are locked in an emergency board meeting to discuss a rescue package in attempt to stave off administration, the BBC has learned.

While the hardcore turned out as always in DC in last years US Open Cup Final. A quick glance reveals 12,000 other empty seats normally filled for United games.
Before we get to the article, allow us to editorialize for a moment:
The US Soccer Federation it could be said has never missed an opportunity -- to miss an opportunity.

Arsenal has launched an App for the iPhone. The App costs £2.99 and provides the Arsenal fans with the latest news from the club, a match report appeared within 45 minutes of the end of the Birmingham City game. You will also find the usual fixtures, tables, player information, but also included are match highlights.

The dawn of a new technological age?

This weekend's England football international will be broadcast exclusively live over the internet for the first time, it emerged today.

The move follows the collapse of pay-TV platform Setanta earlier this year, which had been due to broadcast the World Cup qualifier.

The Future of Live Football

If you want to watch England in this Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine you have three choices — travel to Dnipropetrovsk or watch it live on the internet or at a cinema.

Setanta would have been showing the match on TV if the company had not ceased trading in June 2009.

On a few occasions during 2009, we have discussed soccer stories that are legal rather than business related. Because of sponsorships, contracts, television broadcast rights and a whole host of other reasons, the business and law are closely related in the sports world. Here then, are our top American Soccer legal stories of the year.

Remember a few months back when the rights to broadcast English Premier League games was being negotiated. Many people figured ESPN was a shoo-in to score the rights and establish itself as the continent's primary football network. Then the news came in February that premium cable provider Setanta failed to hold on to its rights to broadcast a significant number of EPL matches; the EPL being the primary subscription driver for Setanta.

English Premier League champions Manchester United received a huge windfall from last season's Premier League's broadcast rights, which saw the league pay out more than UK£1 billion for the first time.
United and Liverpool topped the list of earnings, with the Premier League champions collecting £51.

Earlier today on his Twitter account, Stuart Holden announced that he was going to be on Good Morning America on New Year's Day Morning. While I have no confirmation of this one way or the other, I can think of no other reason for Stuart Holden being on Good Morning America except that he will announce that he is staying in MLS and not pursuing a free transfer to Europe at this time.