Interesting piece in the paper on Sunday by Tim Noonan, who is convinced that Cable TV will drop ESPN and Star Sports this summer, now that they have exclusive rights to the English Premiership. He's probably right, but I find it very strange - normally cable TV companies want to have as many channels as possible so that they can offer their viewers a good choice. The other thing I don't understand is that in the UK you have to pay extra for Sky Sports, whereas Cable TV offer it in their standard package (yes, I know you can subscribe to a more limited selection of channels, but I don't think most people do).
Noonan thinks that ESPN and Star Sports will end up on Now Broadband, which presumably means that subscribers will have to pay for those channels if they want them. So what is stopping Cable TV doing something similar and offering them as 'pay channels', with the added bonus of intelligent EPL coverage?
Meanwhile, it seems that the overseas TV rights are proving very lucractive for the Premier League, and will probably make up the shortfall in the domestic rights.
The local service here in the Philippines dropped ESPN Jan. first. I suspect it was because of the Peso/dollar exchange rate, but they refuse to say it.
Its no great loss, the quality of programming has been in a steady decline for a while. Here in Asia, at least South Asia, they offer nothing but pool tournys, and a lot of shows that are from six months to 2 years old.
Posted by: marc | April 30, 2004 at 03:39 PM
I think the ESPN schedule varies by country, and it looks as if they don't currently have rights to the English Premier League in the Philippines, so there probably isn't that much to watch on it.
My favourite is the ten-pin bowling. Even more boring than golf!
Posted by: Chris | April 30, 2004 at 04:32 PM