The channel has been broadcasting on Sky Digital since its launch in the UK in March and includes sporting highlights, famous matches, interviews and profiles of sporting stars. It is tailored to the UK market with a focus on cricket and football. The channel is currently showing archive footage of previous World Cup matches in the build-up to the World Cup.
Richard Hawking, Sky Media's operations director, said: "This agreement brings another outstanding channel brand to the Sky Media portfolio. ESPN Classic is a perfect fit with our existing sports offering and will give us an even stronger presence among young and upmarket male audiences."
As well as the Sky Sports channel portfolio, Sky Media has recently acquired the sales contracts for horse racing channel At The Races, the Horror Channel, Reality TV and the Extreme Sports Channel.
Chris Nicholls, director of advertising sales at ESPN Classic, said: "With its incredibly strong sports offering, Sky Media will take ESPN Classic's complementary programming and be able to expand opportunities for clients in the UK."
ESPN Classic has been broadcasting across continental Europe for the last four years, first launching in France in 2002. It has 18m subscribers in more than 35 countries.
Speculation that the channel was going to appoint a third party sales house had been rife since the channel's launch in the UK.
In addition to BSkyB's own channels, Sky Media also controls the advertising sales for Emap, National Geographic, History Channel, Chart Show TV, the Manchester United channel MUTV, Hallmark, FX, Fashion TV and Eat Cinema.
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