ESPN2 recently signed a deal with SkySports News to broadcast one or two games each Saturday from the English Premier League, the top footballing league in England. Last week Sky Sports reached a deal with La Liga (Primera Divison) to have rights to broadcast their games on Sundays. Sky Sports then passed this off to ESPN2 as a part of the first deal.
In conclusion; anyone who has ESPN2 can now watch Premier League action on Saturday mornings and La Liga action on Sundays.
While this may not be a big deal to some, footballing fans in the US should be rejoicing. The oppurtunity to watch two of the top leagues in the world (sorry Serie A) is now available to almost anyone who pays for cable.
This bodes well not just for soccer fans but Americans in general. Let's face it, has anyone ever been up on a Saturday or Sunday from 7:30 am to 9 am? If you have and ever turned on ESPN2 you'll notice that it's either fishing, bowling, Nascar or drag racing on tv.
Now let's be serious for one second? Is it more beneficial to gain exposure for a sport that's on the rise in the US (soccer) or wasting time on a whole bunch of nonsense that A.) No one cares about or B.) Isn't Entertaining.
By signing up the two biggest leagues in the world right now, US fans will get exposure to teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Valencia to name a few. Not only do these teams score goals, but they play entertaining football; something that will entertain and keep ther view captivated as opposed to someone sitting on a boat waiting for a fish to bite. (no offense)
When it's all said and done both ESPN2 and the US audience's will be winners. ESPN2 will fetch ratings and American's will slowly begin to follow it. Moving soccer to a cable access channel is the best thing ESPN2 has done in awhile. Now if only we could get the NHL on it.....
No comments:
Post a Comment