New ESPN Channel Scores Virgin Media Carriage

LONDON: ESPN’s new British channel, delivering Barclays Premier League matches, has reached a carriage deal with Virgin Media.

The service will be available on Sky and Virgin Media beginning August 3, delivering live Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League football as well a wide range of international football and other sports. Subscribers to Virgin Media’s XL TV pack will have access to ESPN and ESPN HD at no additional cost, along with ESPN Classic. Customers of Virgin Media’s M or L pack will have to pay £8 a month if they already subscribe to any combination of the Sky Sports channels, or £10 a month if not.

Mark Schweitzer, the chief commercial officer of Virgin Media, said of the deal: “This agreement solidifies Virgin Media’s place as the home of TV entertainment and is unquestionably the best value TV deal for sports fanatics. We’ve got all the sports content you’d expect and adding the new ESPN channels to our lineup will mean our customers can watch all the football action they want.”

ESPN recently picked up the rights to 46 live Premier League football games during the 2009/10 season and 23 matches for each of the following three seasons, after Setanta Sports closed down. ESPN also nabbed 30 live and exclusive Clydesdale Bank Premier League games each season across the U.K. and Ireland.