ESPN2 Airs English Premier League Soccer

This story was broken earlier this month by the great people at EPL Talk, but it’s now made official from the Worldwide Headquarters of ESPN.

Starting Saturday, ESPN2 will air weekly English Premier League soccer games. As earlier reported, ESPN2 will take the early Saturday morning game at 7:45 a.m. and the Monday 3 p.m. window. If there’s no game at 7:45 a.m., ESPN2 will have a game at 10 a.m.

This certainly perks up the Saturday morning viewing on ESPN2 and hopefully ends the horrible Charlie Moore programs in that timeslot. Here’s the release.

ESPN to Present Live Match Coverage of English Premier League in U.S. for 2009-10 Season

Exclusive Saturday Morning and Monday Afternoon Matches on ESPN2

ESPN has reached an agreement with Fox Sports International to televise a package of English Premier League (EPL) matches in the U.S. for the 2009-2010 season beginning Saturday, August 15, through the completion of the season in May 2010.

Under the agreement, ESPN2, currently in 98 million U.S. television homes, will offer fans up to 48 live EPL matches this season, including live presentation of the 12 Monday afternoon (U.S. ET) matches. ESPN2 will feature one match each Saturday at 7:45 a.m. and select Saturday matches at 10 a.m. (when there are no matches at 7:45 a.m.).

“The English Premier League is one of the crown jewels of professional sports throughout the world,” said Scott Guglielmino, vice president of programming, ESPN. “We’re pleased to work with Fox Sports International to bring some of the league’s marquee matchups to ESPN2 in our continued efforts to serve soccer fans in the United States.”

This agreement marks the return of the Premier League to ESPN in the United States. For two seasons (1996–97 and 1997-98), ESPN2 was the English-language television home for the league’s Monday night matches.

The schedule through September 2009:

Date	Time	Fixture	Network
Sat., Aug. 15	7:40 a.m.	Chelsea vs. Hull City	ESPN2
Sat., Aug. 22	9:55 a.m.	Wigan Athletic vs. Manchester United	ESPN2
Mon., Aug. 24	2:55 p.m.	Liverpool vs. Aston Villa	ESPN2
Sat., Aug. 29	7:40 a.m.	Chelsea vs. Burnley	ESPN2
Sat., Sept. 12	9:55 a.m.	Liverpool vs. Burnley	ESPN2
Sat., Sept. 19	7:40 a.m.	Burnley vs. Sunderland	ESPN2
Sat., Sept. 26	7:40 a.m.	Portsmouth vs. Everton	ESPN2
Mon., Sept. 28	2:55 p.m.	Manchester City vs. West Ham	ESPN2

ESPN and Soccer:

ESPN networks are the U.S. English-language television homes of the Men’s and Women’s FIFA World Cup events through 2014, having acquired exclusive English-language and other-language (except Spanish) rights of the FIFA World Cup™ and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in the United States in 2005, as well as the rights to the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009 and 2013 and other FIFA events. In addition, ESPN’s multimedia platforms provide extensive coverage of a myriad of international leagues, such as Spain’s La Liga, the Dutch Eredivise, Italian Serie A, Portuguese Liga Sagres, English Premier League in the United Kingdom, Mexico’s Primera División, and more. With its acquisitions of Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer rights through 2014 in August 2006, ESPN continues to offer the most comprehensive coverage of the world’s premier soccer events in the United States.

Well, this certainly has been a good summer for ESPN having picked up the rights to the EPL in the UK and Ireland this summer along with the rights to the Scottish Premier League and other soccer leagues. ESPN is certainly making an effort to bring the beautiful game into more homes both here and in the UK.