Yes, I agree that we forget how good Setanta's rights were.

I still think, and am happy to be proved wrong, that having missed out on the bulk of PL rights that BT are now mainly concerned about getting Sky to retail them their sports channels at a decent price. Of course they can build a half decent sports channel with non PL rights that will tempt non pay tv customers to switch, however it will never be enough to convince football fans to ditch Sky if they can't offer them the same value.

I suppose the BT Sport package will be a rolling 30 day contract, like Setanta and ESPN were, even if they sell it themselves?

Does anyone know what date these BT channels will start broadcasting, and when will ESPN's channels stop?

The last day of ESPN's operations is scheduled to be 31/7/2013.

How the channels pan out we don't know ie:
ESPN UK - we guess this ceases 31/7 with BT Sport 1 transmitting in its slots from 1/8.
ESPN A - we are pretty convinced this will continue on 1/8 but operated by BT.
ESPN Classic - we know this will cease anytime up to and including 31/7. It is not being acquired by BT.

In the press release it said the transaction was expected to complete on the 31st July so they may well run until then and then start as BT on August 1st


We do, and when you add in the fact Setanta had NRL and AFL also it made for a well rounded group of rights.

Probably yes, but for new subscribers, they will I am sure could also offer a choice of bundles with a Youview from BT box and/or BT Inifinity and/or phone, which may or may not include Sports as part of a 12/18 month BT Vision contract.

ESPN UK will continue as part of the BT pack from 1st Aug, ESPN A will cease, and that content will move onto ESPN UK.

So there will be BT1, BT2 and ESPN UK in the BT Sports pack.

Looking back Setanta did have some very good rights (I am personally not into Rugby so would shade it for me) Also didn't you get Racing UK thrown in as part of package? I never seemed to pay full price for Setanta either, either 3 months for £10 or £5 per month. I quite liked Setanta looking back for rights and what had to offer.

Why do you think this? BT had already bought the rights to Serie A, RU Premiership, Ligue 1 etc way before this purchase of ESPN came about. Do you honestly think these comps will just continue on ESPN UK? Surely they'll be on either BT Sports 1 or 2, and if so what will ESPN UK have to fill their schedules out with?

The World Welly Wanging Championships?

As far as I know the new line up was to be.
Bt sport 1 (formerly ESPN Uk)
Bt sport 2
ESPN America (under bt control)

Regardless of when ESPN change owners, I'm still cancelling my subscription 31 days prior to their last EPL game and let the new owners/operators tempt me at the start of the new season!

ESPN America UK has a series of FAQs on its site about the changes. Does not add much but does refer several times to ESPN not leaving the UK, just, in effect, being under different control here (ie BT).

ESPN will not go off the air, it insists, its presence will just change.

Suggests they wanted to retain a presence in the UK and may have insisted on the ESPN name continuing to retain the impression that they still exist in the UK.

They also say that ESPN America will show what it shows now up to and after 31 July - though, again, without reference to MLB.

I've just had a quick check at what was available, there were some 10 channels or affiliates:[LIST][*]Setanta Sports 1[*]Setanta Sports 2[*]Setanta Golf[*]Setanta Sports News (JV with Virgin, FTA)[*]NASN (Co-owned with venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Europe)[*]Racing UK (independent but in the pack)[*]Four football club channels with varying degrees of ownership (Arsenal, Liverpool, Celtic and Glasgow Rangers)[/LIST]

Setanta really did overreach way too quickly. With better management they might still be around today.

I think we can safely assume that the existing ESPN America will have MLB coverage as normal until 31 July.

Hope so. And hope they clarify what is happening long term before then. The silence on MLB is not encouraging,

The fact that the press release refers to a least one ESPN-branded suggests that BT has not decided 100% to retain the name ESPN America.
If there's just going to be one ESPN-branded channel in the UK then they might as well just call it ESPN. This could also allow them a bit of flexibility if there were any fixture clashes in non-US sports.

Interesting point and one which I hadn't considered. Given how synonymous the ESPN brand is with US sports, perhaps dropping the name America would give them the result you describe above.

Exactly

I agree, I think that the ESPN channel will just be called ESPN, I do not think it will be called ESPN America, but of course we can be wrong, if BT decides to have a channel just for American sports

I'll look forward to seeing this conjecture on your Google Journalism Blog!

Yes, BT Vision on Twitter this afternoon confirms ESPN will be in the BT Sports pack and not sold seperately, and also reconfirming that BT Sport will be on Sky. So, we await the subscription cost, probably still a few months away?

Much as I like ESPN I feel that BT Sport will just be a carbon copy of a product. It'll have Setanta's approach to clip at the heels of Sky though just with a higher budget and the means to stay affloat doing so.

Pundit wise they really need someone like Stewart Robson. He isn't afraid of speaking the truth.

Clever of ESPN to cash in and still manage to keep on the UK scene with BT paying for the privilage of using a now established name sports wise here.