Ex-bbc Man Stubbs Moves To ESPN
ESPN has announced that former BBC presenter Ray Stubbs is to move to the US broadcaster to host its newly acquired live coverage of the English Premier League.
Stubbs will make his debut on ESPN on Saturday 15th August 2009 as Everton take on Arsenal with the channel’s first live Premier League game of the season.
Following the collapse of Setanta, ESPN secured the rights to 46 Barclays Premier League games for the 2009/10 season and has launched a new UK channel to host the coverage.
Among the other matches from the coming season scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN include possible title contenders Liverpool v Aston Villa on August 24th, Spurs v Man United on September 12th and Chelsea v Blackburn Rovers on October 24th.
Overall, as part of ESPN’s debut schedule of coverage, 12 of the 17 matches chosen for live broadcast so far feature a top four finishing club from the 2008/09 season and include 17 of the 20 Premier League clubs.
ESPN plans to make its Barclays Premier League coverage widely available across multiple pay-TV platforms.
As a first step to this distribution strategy, ESPN reached an agreement for its coverage to be retailed by Sky to residential and commercial customers. ESPN will appear in the Sky Guide at channel number 417 in SD and channel 443 in HD.
