Bruce Gottesman

To go along with the announcement of the first wave of Premier League matches for TV in the UK, Setanta has also announced the schedule for its channel in Ireland. This is noteworthy becuase Setanta in Ireland, like North America, airs live matches from the UK blackout time of 3PM GMT Saturday. While Setanta North America is not obligated to do so, in […]

UK broadband television service BT Vision announced today it will offer Setanta Sports 1 for free to subscribers who sign up for one of the service's new value packages beginning next month or subscribe to the current value pack. Those who want to take advantage of this offer will have to pay 10 pounds in […]

Setanta North America has confirmed its first seven pre-season matches the network will be showing in the United States and Canada in the buildup to the new Premier League season. Five of the matches will be friendlies involving Liverpool and Sunderland, while the other two matches will bring us Aston Villa's 3rd round UEFA Intertoto […]

Sunday afternoon's Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany on ABC was watched by 2.4 million overnight households according to numbers announced by Nielsen Media Research. That gives the broadcast a 3.1 overnight rating based on the 77 million households in America which make up the overnight numbers. That number is a little more than double the […]

As we head into the final weekend of Euro 2008, ESPN decided to take the occasion yesterday to put out a new press release talking about how the tournament is doing viewership wise through the quarterfinal round. So, what did they have to say? As noted in the headline, the Spain v Italy quarterfinal shown on ESPN Sunday […]

The 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup played out it's second round last night across the country. The remaining 16 teams from the opening round battled it out for their guranteed chance to face one of the qualifying eight Major League Soccer teams in just a week's time. Among the highlights: *The lone remaining amateur side, Hollywood United, […]

If you happen to notice a sense of relief coming from ESPN in the last few days, there is a reason for it. It's because, while they are not coming in World Cup numbers, viewers are tuning in to the network's broadcasts of Euro 2008. ESPN announced today that, for the 15 Euro 2008 matches […]

So, after having over 1 million viewers tune in for the UEFA Champions League Final last month, how is ESPN doing with the early broadcasts for Euro 2008? The answer is not as well as the final, but fairly decent overall. According to the Associated Press, these were the numbers for each game broadcast over […]

You have to hand it to the Premier League at times; when it decides they really want to shoot a hole in their foot, they know how to do it with little effort. The Guardian broke an exclusive story today on comments made by Sir David Richards, chairman of the Premier League for the last […]

Euro 2008 is finally here after the standard mega sports event buildup. And for ESPN, today is the beginning of their broadcast of the entire tournmanet for the first time. The network has been rolling the ads for weeks and made a big addition to its on-air talent with Andy Gray. Now, at last, the coverage itself is the focus. […]

It has been a long test of patience for EPL fans in America and Setanta to see if the sports channel would finally make the jump to cable. Today, the wait has finally come to an end. Verizon and Setanta have confirmed that Setanta Sports USA will be added to Verizon's fiber optic cable system […]

ESPN confirmed its lineup of announcers and analysts today for their coverage of Euro 2008 in a press release. There has been much speculation on who would be used between ESPN's international talent and the network's own US lineup. The answer the release gives us is a little bit of both... and some outside help […]

A variety of English newspapers are reporting today that the United States Soccer Federation is set to launch a rival bid against England's Football Association for the 2018 World Cup. This comes as the England national team is set to host the US in a friendly at Wembley later in the day, and four days from a friendly […]

Chelsea Football Club has announced it has sacked manager Avram Grant after 8 months in charge. The news comes three days after the team finished its season with a loss to Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League final. Grant was named manager and given a four year contract after the depature of Jose Mourinho earlier this season, and had managed to […]

It may not be anywhere near the 27% of an entire nation that ITV and Sky got in the UK, but for ESPN, their numbers for the American broadcast of the UFEA Champions League Final on Wednesday has given the network its own reason to celebrate. According to overnight Nielsen ratings, ESPN2 netted a .8 […]