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ESPN strikes deal for La Liga rights

Espn_logo La Liga Logo

If you are an American fan of the Spanish First Division (and who isn't?) then you will be able to see many more La Liga games starting next season after ESPN struck a deal with GolTV to partner in multimedia broadcast coverage of the league that boasts world powers FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The new deal will allow ESPN to show La Liga matches on ESPN, ESPN Deportes as well as ESPN360.com. More than 95 matches will be shown on Deportes, with at least 114 matches set to be streamed on ESPN360.com. ESPN2 will televise select matches ('Super Clasico anybody?) while ESPN Mobile TV will also air matches. GolTV will continue to air its 120 La Liga matches throughout the year.

What do you think of this news? Excited at the chance to see even more of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and more?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I don’t even want to hear about other country’s soccer leagues until I can turn on the six o’clock news and see coverage of MLS. After that, yeah, great, let’s see some other sports leagues from around the world, too. Why not?

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  2. I don’t understand alot of Spanish, but I do get Deportes and am jacked about seeing La Liga. HD is cool, but not necessary for me, so having FSC as well as this pretty much covers my soccer luvin.

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  3. Hahahahahahaha! All you EPL fans still have to watch on FSC while the best league in the world is televised in HD on ESPN! Remember who just won the Champions League. Yes, a team from La Liga!

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  4. This is the best soccer coverage news I’ve heard in a long time . . . I am so excited that I’m bound to grow hair on the pals of my hands.

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  5. Great news but I wish ESPN would throw non Spanish speakers a bone and give us more than a handful of games. I don’t get Deportes.

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  6. Texas, one clarification on La Liga

    You cannot see any La Liga next year on ESPN. You have to be able to receive ESPN Deportes – There is a huge difference, and many people on this board are missing that point.

    If you have ESPN2 you may get a few tape-delay replays. But you need Deportes, not ESPN.

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  7. Sterlinho –

    Did you seriously just tell me to shut up? Alos, did I ever say anything about ESPN in my comment? I believe I was talking about the idiocy of a section of american soccer fans that hate being talked down to by other sports fans, but then do the same about other sports they don’t particularly like.

    While I agree that ESPN should have put the MLS game another of their stations until the CWS game was over, you’re crazy if you think they should have switched over. Regardless of your perspective, College Baseball Playoff game = more viewers/money than a regular season MLS game.

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  8. (shrugs) doesn’t affect me much.

    i have DirecTV Latino $70 package (HD), includes ESPN Deportes, GolTV, Fox Sports en Espanol.

    If they can get ESPN Deportes in HD, now that’d be sweet!

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  9. texas, dhawk mentioned above that setanta in uk and setanta usa are separate entity so setanta usa still have the rights to show the premier games. Both setanta usa(may be delayed) and fsc will show the europa league. Setanta usa shows more international friendlies and world cup qualifying games.

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  10. This is truly excellent news. My wife will crap a brick,but she’ll get over it. The EPL is a great league,but something new and fresh is always exciting. Besides,a little bit of Serie A goes a long way.

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  11. Chase and japan,

    Thanks.

    Am I incorrect in thinking that Setanta is going under? Have they retained their rights to EPL games in the US?

    I thought I read where they’d lost their EPL rights, but maybe that’s just for the UK.

    So if I get ESPN, FSC, and GolTV, I’ll basically be covered?

    I can’t get Setanta, I don’t think. But it looks like they’re becoming less important, anyway.

    Who has the broadcast rights for Europa League?

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  12. ” “ESPN will screw it up by playing meaningless college baseball, bowling and golf over the soccer game time slots. ESPN should let a station that apreciates soccer buy the rights. ESPN sucks.”

    I always love this attitude from particular soccer fans. You hate it that most americans won’t get soccer a chance but then you put down other sports that you don’t agree with. Like it or not, bowling gets better ratings than more established sports like hockey. Just because something is “meaningless” to you doesn’t mean it is to others. Grow up…

    Posted by: Kevin | June 22, 2009 at 03:04 PM

    —————————————–”

    Kevin,

    This is a soccer site, so you shut up. I know a lot of pissed off people because ESPN didn’t help out MLS with the DC United vs. Sounders game on Wednesday. Instead, there were pubs full of people waiting for college guys with metal bats to finish their stupid game. We missed 4 goals in a great game and didn’t get coverage until the 62nd minute. Tell me now how great it is that ESPN is getting more soccer. Especially when they have douchebags like Jim Rome and the dudes from PTI always clowning on a sport they don’t understand and could never play because they are too fat to give it a try.

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  13. Texas

    1) English Premiership (FSC and Setanta USA)

    2) La Liga (GolTV, ESPN-ESPN360)

    3) Serie A (FSC, ESPN-360)

    4/ Bundesliga (GolTV)

    4) Champions League (FSC/Fox Sports/FX starting next year)

    Setanta has limited rights of Ligue 1, SPL, Russian PL, and the Coca Cola Championship.

    FSC has Argentina, MLS and some USMNT games.

    GolTV has Brazil, some other random South American leagues.

    ESPN has MLS and I think they have some random games from Russia, Holland, etc on ESPN 360 (not sure though).

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  14. Like Ives said in his post ESPN acquired the UK broadcast rights. Which is huge in a way, but will not directly effect us in the US, unless Setanta is forced to offload its American and Canadian broadcast rights, which as the epltalk article I linked claimed was one of their more valuable assets.

    I’m interested to see who ESPN brings in to do their UK EPL coverage, what kind of programming (pre and post game) they are going to put together (and whether it will be available in the US through soccernet), and how much cross promotion they will do when ESPN’s American team is doing soccer coverage.

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  15. Also, if anyone would be so kind as to include the Champions League broadcast rights in with that above question.

    Thanks in advance.

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  16. So could someone please clear up the following questions for me…

    In the US, what channels have the broadcasting rights for:

    1) English Premiership
    2) La Liga
    3) Serie A

    Or another way to answer it, what soccer rights do the following channels have:

    1) ESPN
    2) Fox Soccer Channel
    3) GolTV
    4) Setanta

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  17. To clarify: ESPN has the UK rights to the Premier League. The PL rights for the USA are with Setanta USA which is a separate entity. Here is the statement from customer service at Setanta:

    As has been widely reported in various media channels, Setanta Sports has today had its agreement to broadcast 46 Barclays Premier League matches in the UK terminated.
    This development does not affect our channels and other services in the US.
    Setanta Sports in the US is a separate operation that has separate agreement to show the Barclay’s Premier League. Our channels and other services in the US continue to broadcast and our subscribers can still enjoy our programming including the Lions Tour of South Africa and the UEFA U21 European Championship.
    New customers are welcome to subscribe to watch some of the world’s best soccer and rugby either by contacting our cable and satellite partners or online at http://www.setanta.com.
    We thank you for your continued interest in Setanta Sports and look forward to bringing you a wealth of sport over the coming months and years.

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  18. “ESPN will screw it up by playing meaningless college baseball, bowling and golf over the soccer game time slots. ESPN should let a station that apreciates soccer buy the rights. ESPN sucks.”

    I always love this attitude from particular soccer fans. You hate it that most americans won’t get soccer a chance but then you put down other sports that you don’t agree with. Like it or not, bowling gets better ratings than more established sports like hockey. Just because something is “meaningless” to you doesn’t mean it is to others. Grow up…

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  19. would be nice if Espn made a soccer only channel to rival FSC…i mean really…do we need espn classic??? convert that crap pronto

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  20. this is awesome news, because i think ESPN lost the champions league, no? and i am dying to see the new real madrid squad. even tho barca is still the best!

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  21. Wow premier league and La Liga will air on espn. Now I can show my friends how entertaining quality soccer is. To me both of these leagues are the best to watch especially for the soccer naive.

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  22. Bull**** on the “this is worse news” and “there is not much to celebrate.”

    This is great news as it is showing that they are getting more and more serious about covering the sport. For those of you who already have GolTV, you’ll still have it to watch this with.

    For people like me who do not have GolTV, I’m happy as hell that I’ll get to see games on TV, even if they’re tape-delayed.

    Most importantly, many will be available on ESPN360, which I will have and will definitely use come August 1, 2009, when I hear it will be available on Comcast.

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  23. ESPN will screw it up by playing meaningless college baseball, bowling and golf over the soccer game time slots. ESPN should let a station that apreciates soccer buy the rights. ESPN sucks.

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  24. Thank you John – this is actually worse for most of us in the States (especially if the tape delay is true).

    Will the lesser match-ups like an Espanyol-Osasuna still stay on Gol TV?

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  25. John’s right, but even though they’ll only be televising 20 games, ESPN loves to extensively advertise any product they broadcast (WNBA anybody?) so this will only help to expose more viewers to top-flight European football. Hopefully this includes more highlights on SportsCenter too.

    ESPN currently only has the rights to EPL games in the UK, but with all of Setanta’s financial troubles (they can’t even pay for their SPL rights), it is a definite possibility that ESPN will make a bid for their US EPL rights too.

    Ultimately very good news for soccer in America.

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  26. Wow – I can’t believe how many people are mis-interpreting this deal.

    Here are the facts:

    – Unless you get ESPN Deportes – don’t get too excited –

    – You will only get 20 games on ESPN2 per season – (tape delayed)

    – Super Classico will probably air on both Deportes and Gol TV (good news here)

    – For the majority of english lang ESPN fans, nothing will change, except you will be able to see LESS Barcelona and Real Madrid games on GOL TV. So hopefully you have ESPN 360 or Deportes.

    – And the ESPN EPL deal just announced is not for the US — it’s in the UK

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  27. Thank You Ives for making my day…I’m a dish network subscriber, and I was pissed as hell when I lost GOLTV…I had to watch La Liga games over the internet, but that’s no longer going to happen…Great move by ESPN…Now this makes up for the lost of CL games on the network…

    Can’t wait

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  28. JAT – just saw that. Does that mean they’d be able to show it over here as well? If so – I do wonder if they’ll eventually switch ESPN Classic to ESPN3.

    Honestly – that channel has long jumped the shark with me. ESPNClassic should be a category of programming, not a whole network.

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