ESPN Classic (UK)
| ESPN Classic | |
|---|---|
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|
| Launched | 13 March 2006 |
| Closed | 1 August 2013 |
| Owned by | ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company/Hearst Corporation) |
| Picture format | 16:9 (576i, SDTV) |
| Audience share | ~0.0% (September 2012, BARB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sister channel(s) |
ESPN America ESPN (UK) |
| Website | www.espnclassic.com |
ESPN Classic was a British sports television channel which launched on 13 March 2006 on Sky channel 442, the first channel in the UK under the ESPN branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on Virgin Media channel 533 as a part of the XL pack, and in early 2011 video on demand content started to appear on the Virgin Media platform. On 14 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on UPC Ireland channel 409 as a part of the Max package. It broadcast a range of archive sports coverage, with a large emphasis on football.
On 25 February 2013, BT Group agreed to acquire ESPN's UK and Ireland TV channels business, consisting of ESPN and ESPN America, the value of the deal was not disclosed, but BT is understood to have paid "low tens of millions". ESPN Classic, which was not part of the BT deal, ceased transmission on satellite across Europe, the Middle East and Africa at midnight on 1 August 2013.
Much of the channel's output was football. This included action from the Premier League, FA Cup matches, European Cup, European Cup Winners Cup and League Cup finals and some England games. ESPN Classic also showed games from the FIFA World Cup following a multi-year deal to show 150 classic FIFA World Cup matches from 1930 to 2006. Though most coverage on the channel was from the colour era, it had shown original black-and-white footage of European Cup finals going back as far as 1959.
A significant proportion of the football action on ESPN Classic was archive ITV football coverage, including matches covered by regional ITV companies. However much of the football seen on the channel was not shown with the original commentary. Instead, many games, especially the Premier League and FA Cup games, tended to feature commentary dubbed on more recently by Jon Champion and Paul Dempsey, or commentary by Sky Sports broadcasters such as Martin Tyler and Alan Parry which seemed to be from the international feed of the time. Similarly, the footage from games where commentary was later added did not include original on-screen captions, with ESPN adding captions themselves. Some 1960s European Cup finals also had a new commentary dubbed on by Tony Jones.
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