ESPN wins rights to Uefa Europa Leauge
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
ESPN has bought the rights previously held by Setanta to the new UEFA Europa League, which replaces the Uefa Cup from this season.
The US sports broadcaster, which also won the right to screen live English Premiership matches when Setanta went into administration in June, will share rights to the UEFA Europa League with Channel Five.
ESPN will broadcast the first Europa League matches later this month, as part of a three year deal with UEFA. The final will take place in May next year.
48 clubs will take part in the group stage, with matches broadcast from 17th September on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the season. Amongst the sides involved are current Uefa Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk, Roma, Lazio, Valencia, Ajax, PSV, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, as well as British clubs including Celtic, Everton and Fulham.

Communications regulator Ofcom today said that BSkyB should cap the cost of its premium sport and movie channels and make it available to more broadcasters to increase consumer choice.
Irish Pay-TV broadcaster Setanta went into administration yesterday evening after several days of rescue talks to secure funding fell through. Around 200 staff will be made redundant as a result.
The pay-TV broadcaster Setanta must pay the next instalment of the £30 million it owes the Premier League by the end of today, or risk losing its games for next season.
Cash-strapped broadcaster Setanta has paid part of its £35 million instalment to the English Premier League, which was due in full tomorrow. The rest of the payment will be made in further instalments over a number of weeks, it is understood.
Senior executives at Setanta are today locked in talks to wrangle over the final details of a deal that could see the Irish broadcaster’s two founders, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, and an unnamed international backer take a majority stake in the ailing company.
The beleaguered pay-TV broadcaster may have a few weeks longer before it is forced to go into administration, after board members held emergency talks last night to discuss a last-ditch financial package put together by the joint founders, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan.
Football clubs across the country will be breathing a sigh of relief as 
The BBC may have to battle against pay TV channels to hold onto live coverage of the Winter Olympics in 2014 and beyond, as a collective bid from European public service broadcasters was turned down by the International Olympic committee.