The Associated Press reported today that ESPN, a unit of the Walt Disney Co., will start sharing U.S. television rights to Spain's La Liga with GolTV. ESPN2 will televise about 20 matches per season, and ESPN Deportes two or three per weekend of league play for a total of at least 95. At least 114 matches per season will be available online on ESPN360. ESPN's networks will also share rights to Spain's Copa del Rey. The league's most-watched games, the two El Classico matchups between Barcelona and Real Madrid, likely will be simulcast by GolTV and ESPN.
Monday’s other earth-moving story of ESPN’s successful bid for two 23-game Premier League packages auctioned as a result of Setanta’s failure to make a rights payment to the Premier League, is not as immediately clear as to exactly what matches will be available to U.S. viewers and through what vehicles. Nonetheless, these developments are stunning.
To think that La Liga will be available every week for nine months a year via a network more famous for traditional American sports (including poker!) was not much more than a pipe dream just a few weeks ago. But ESPN revolutionized televised sports beginning thirty years ago by saturating the air waves 24 hours a day with events such as professional slow-pitch softball, professional wrestling, and Australian Rules Football, and eventually became the leader in televised major American sports. So, it is exciting for ESPN, a world sports icon (as opposed to a more esoteric network) to acquire this chalice and share its beautiful contents with the starving masses. Hopefully, the ESPN folks will not try to "Americanize" the product, but instead will let it speak for itself. For many people in the U.S., the arrival of European club football will be seen as a threat to their way of life, but to a burgeoning number of soccer fans thirsty for weekly world class football that is more readily available, this is Christmas on a 90-degree day.
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