From the Spot of the Foul

I want my football free

A despondent English football fan writes to musician Mark Knopfler to complain that the upcoming World Cup qualifying match will not be available on standard television - it be shown only online.

Please take your crawler and…

A despondent Premier League viewer in the United States has had it with ESPN's use of a crawler for score updates during match telecasts, and he vents it all at Dave Garroway, the inventor of it all.

English Premier League on ESPN2 this season?!?!

I have died and gone to heaven.

The demise of Setanta

  

Toward the end of the 2008-09 European football season, Setanta’s financial situation was quickly deteriorating. Shareholders had failed to raise enough funds to give it a viable future. Setanta reportedly held talks with private equity firms that were thought to have offered an injection of millions, but British Sky Broadcasting rejected a request for a £50m interest free loan on a deal that would have seen Sky wholesale Setanta to its own subscribers.

The European sports programming network?

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.