A rugby themed version of the Movin' On Up closer has already gone out at the end of the Champions Cup and Premiership Rugby finals, though it appears to have gone largely unnoticed.
well you'd best get down to Chiswick Park and start protesting now!
They've been really ramping up the TNT mentions recently - though it's interesting looking at Twitter and seeing how many people are only now finding out for the first time - and how many have the initial reaction "but what about the wrestling?".
I've been told that the contract for ESPN content expires at the end of July, but it'll be largely gone by the rebrand. The exception is MLB, which will continue under a separate rights deal.
Is that the end for college American football coverage (aside from the very small amount on Sky) on this side of the world then? A pity if so, I’ve enjoyed it but don’t know if I’d pay for ESPN Player, if that’s gonna be it’s only outlet.
Mind you, Sky should have access to NBC’s new Big 10 contract, but those games are 12:30am KOs.
Edit: they don’t appear to be covering the CFL either, which starts this weekend, which seems now to be gone to a (thankfully free) stream on the CFL website.
(This post was last modified: 08-06-2023, 08:22 AM by Rdd.)
(08-06-2023, 07:38 AM)thegeek Wrote: I've been told that the contract for ESPN content expires at the end of July, but it'll be largely gone by the rebrand.
Which will be pretty much a decade to the day from when BT Sport inherited ESPN UK and its content. I’ll be honest the ESPN/BT Sport 4 channel is the one I watch the least, but it seemed to have stuck true to its original values of US sports from its schedules. Shame to see it go in that regard.
I noticed they were on screen animations for TNT Sports during the Conference League Final itself last night, I would expect to see more of this come Saturday night.
(This post was last modified: 08-06-2023, 10:13 AM by nwtv2003.)
(08-06-2023, 08:04 AM)Rdd Wrote: Is that the end for college American football coverage (aside from the very small amount on Sky) on this side of the world then? A pity if so, I’ve enjoyed it but don’t know if I’d pay for ESPN Player, if that’s gonna be it’s only outlet.
Mind you, Sky should have access to NBC’s new Big 10 contract, but those games are 12:30am KOs.
Edit: they don’t appear to be covering the CFL either, which starts this weekend, which seems now to be gone to a (thankfully free) stream on the CFL website.
I hadn't considered that at all, what a great shame that would be, not that I ever got the sense BT cared about the coverage of it in any way. That said, they did cover games from other broadcasters - not all of them, but I remember at minimum they covered SEC on CBS regularly, so some deals may have been negotiated separately.
ESPN Player is serviceable but really not an excellent option, would be interested to see something bundled in with Disney+ for sports rights that they have not sold to another broadcaster.
(08-06-2023, 10:13 AM)nwtv2003 Wrote: I noticed they were on screen animations for TNT Sports during the Conference League Final itself last night, I would expect to see more of this come Saturday night.
Indeed - the coverage for the rebrand has dramatically increased at least since last week's Europa League final with idents promoting the rebrand now airing (I recorded a few, there is plenty of idents):
In addition, as previously mentioned in a earlier post on this thread, there seems to be cross-promotion across BT Sport, Eurosport and discovery+ - this promo being a fine example - as well as during the shows themselves:
It was all ESPN other than the SEC on CBS and two non-SEC games (Army v Navy and Sun Bowl) that the main CBS network also showed. They didn’t seem to be able to show games from CBS SN (Mountain West) and had no rights to Fox games. NBC games are on Sky, historically just five Notre Dame games (they should have Notre Dame v Navy from Dublin this year, btw)
If it’s the end, it’s not just the end of ten years of the BT Sport franchise of ESPN, but really a whole history going back through ESPN America and NASN as far back as 2002.