The sports channel will be shown on Virgin both in standard and high definition. Virgin claims that the price of a subscription to the channel will be ‘less than it would cost from anyone else'.
ESPN is increasing the content on its channels with live broadcast rights for German, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch league football. It also shows the USA's Major League Soccer.
ESPN acquired 46 Barclays Premier League and 30 Clydesdale Bank Premier League live matches for the 2009/10 season, which begins this month. The matches will air on ESPN and ESPN HD.
The multiyear deal with the German Bundesliga was agreed with the league's commercial arm DFL Sports Enterprises. It includes up to five live matches per week as well as a selection of HD matches, weekly preview and highlight packages.
Sports fans will be able to watch stars including Italian World Cup medal winner Luca Toni, French star Franck Ribery, Brazilian midfielder Ze Roberto, as well as world German renowned talent such as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Lukas Podolski. The German season will kick-off with Wolfsburg v. Stuttgart on 7 August.
ESPN has also struck deals with the Portuguese Liga and IEC in Sports for exclusive UK and Ireland rights and with IMG for rights to two Dutch matches a week from the Eredivisie. It will broadcast live matches from the Russian Premier League.
The rights to Major League Soccer (MLS) have been secured for the remainder of the current season, which will include regular season matches featuring ten LA Galaxy games as well as at least five playoffs and the MLS Cup championship game. The first live game on ESPN will see David Beckham in action as New England play hosts to LA Galaxy on 8 August.
ESPN will broadcast pre-season friendlies from Real Madrid's North American tour, including the matches against Canadian outfit Toronto FC and D.C. United. Benfica's warm-up match against AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur's game against Olympiakos will air this month.
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