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Rights To English Soccer Games Helping
ESPN Earn A Good Reputation In U.K. |
ESPN is "just getting started" in the U.K., where it has "smartly taken a very different strategy: the polite and unassuming guest in someone else’s house," according to Ben Grossman of BROADCASTING & CABLE. ESPN U.K. launched in August '09, and "behind the scenes, it still looks like a startup." The HQs in suburban London is "bursting at the seams." While there is "soccer paraphernalia everywhere, there are also people everywhere." But with "anchor properties like English and Scottish soccer, the pay-TV service is finding its space." ESPN U.K. has "put together a roster of wellknown on-air talent and this year added the biggest soccer tournament in England, the FA Cup." It also "has or is developing British versions of such U.S. shows" as "PTI," and ESPN branding "sits outside many pubs, right alongside the long-established Sky Sports logo." Just like "any start-up, ESPN U.K. has faced its challenges." It already has "turned over its top executive," and next season has rights to "much fewer top-tier English soccer matches." Still, Grossman writes the "timing is right for ESPN to expand into the U.K." At its "first-ever FA Cup soccer telecast, the network set up a mobile studio right on the side of the field at a small stadium, complete with big ESPN branding." It was the "perfect microcosm for the fledgling network -- trying to strike the balance of introducing foreign elements without stepping on toes as the pushy Americans" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 12/20 issue).
