Digital TV News

ESPN secures rights to show FA Cup

Wednesday 9 December, 2009

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Footy fans will need a digital TV subscription to watch FA Cup ties following a deal between the Football Association and ESPN.

The Football Association has agreed a four-year deal with American-owned sports channel ESPN to broadcast FA Cup ties from 2010.

ESPN will show up to 25 live FA Cup games in the 2010 season - including one exclusive semi-final - and share the remaining games with ITV.

The final will be broadcast live on both ESPN and ITV however.

“We are extremely pleased to have added ESPN to our list of broadcast partners,” said FA chief executive Ian Watmore.

ESPN is available to customers with subscriptions with either Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Top Up TV, and Tiscali TV, although it is not available on subscription-free services Freeview or Freesat.

The new deal sits alongside an existing contract for the FA Cup and England games to be screened on ITV until 2012.

This season ITV have been the only channel broadcasting games after Irish sports broadcaster Setanta lost its rights and went into administration in June this year.

Alongside its FA Cup matches, ITV will continue to broadcast all England home qualifying matches until the end of the 2011-12 season, and both home and away friendly internationals.

Jon Ingram, operations director at Digitalchoices.co.uk said: “Supporters of every team in the Cup will be breathing a sigh of relief following the news of this deal, now that the future of another season has been secured.”

“However, fans need to remember that to be able to watch all the matches, you’ll need a subscription to ESPN - which can cost up to £12 a month extra, depending on your digital TV provider,” he added.