New fixtures released

The eagerly-awaited fixtures for the 2010/11 Barclays Premier League season have now been released.

Champions Chelsea begin the defence of their Barclays Premier League title at home to newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion managed by former Stamford Bridge favourite Roberto di Matteo.

Runners-up Manchester United also kick off against a promoted side as Newcastle United visit Old Trafford. Click here to see all the fixtures in chronological format or click here to see club by club fixtures.

It is a re-run of the opening-day fixture in 2008/09 when the sides drew 1-1. At the end of the campaign, the Magpies were relegated and United went on to win the title.

The other new-boys Blackpool’s first ever Barclays Premier League fixture will be a local derby at home to Wigan Athletic. They then go to Arsenal before hosting Fulham.

But perhaps the pick of the opening day fixtures is a re-run of last season’s intriguing battle for a Champions League place.

After pipping Manchester City for fourth spot, Tottenham Hotspur begin at home to Roberto Mancini’s side while Liverpool host Arsenal who finished third last season.

It promises to be a mouth-watering start to the new campaign. Aston Villa who finished sixth begin at home to West Ham United who just avoided relegation and who will be playing their first match under new manager Avram Grant.

Local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City meet at Molineux and Sunderland manager Steve Bruce faces his old club Birmingham City at the Stadium of Light.

Everton make the short journey to Blackburn Rovers while Bolton Wanderers are at home to Fulham.

key matches

Fans will be keen to see the key matches between the teams who finished in the top four last season, although fixture dates are still subject to change.

The first of these is currently scheduled for 2nd October when champions Chelsea host Arsenal.

The first meeting between last season’s top two comes at Stamford Bridge on 18th December and the sides do battle again a fortnight before the end of the season as Chelsea visit Old Trafford on 7th May.

There is a festive feast on Boxing Day when Arsenal host Chelsea and the first real heavyweight encounter comes on 18th September when Manchester United meet Liverpool at Old Trafford.

intriguing finale

The season boils up to an intriguing finale with champions Chelsea finishing at Everton while title hopefuls United host Blackpool.

Arsenal are at Fulham, Liverpool go to Aston Villa and Manchester City visit Bolton while Spurs finish at home to Birmingham. Newly-promoted sides Newcastle and West Brom face each other at St James’ Park.

Click here to see all the fixtures in chronological format or click here to see club by club fixtures.

All dates and kick-off times have still to be confirmed and the fixtures are still subject to change.

Opening day fixtures

Aston Villa v West Ham
Blackburn v Everton
Blackpool v Wigan
Bolton v Fulham
Chelsea v West Brom
Liverpool v Arsenal
Man Utd v Newcastle
Sunderland v Birmingham
Tottenham v Man City
Wolverhampton v Stoke

Boxing Day fixtures

Arsenal v Chelsea
Aston Villa v Tottenham
Blackburn v Stoke
Blackpool v Liverpool
Bolton v West Brom
Everton v Birmingham
Fulham v West Ham
Man Utd v Sunderland
Newcastle v Man City
Wolverhampton v Wigan

Final day fixtures

Aston Villa v Liverpool
Bolton v Man City
Everton v Chelsea
Fulham v Arsenal
Man Utd v Blackpool
Newcastle v West Brom
Stoke v Wigan
Tottenham v Birmingham
West Ham v Sunderland
Wolverhampton v Blackburn

All fixtures are still provisional and subject to change.

New fixture released

Club by Club Fixtures

2010/11 EPL Fixture out today is a post from: worldwormweb

The spots ended with Budweiser expressing second thoughts: “You do the football; we’ll do the beer.”

Now an American cable broadcaster, ESPN, is poised to “do the football” in Britain. Last month, ESPN bought the rights to show live English Premier League matches, picking them up after the British arm of Setanta, an Irish pay-TV company, collapsed. So is it time for British soccer fans to prepare for “soccertainment” when the new season begins in mid-August?

Not to worry, said Russell Wolff, managing director of ESPN International.

“We have a deep football culture within our company,” he said. “We have football fans, professionals and aficionados. We’re going to build on that experience.”

With channels in more than a hundred countries, ESPN already shows a lot of soccer. But the new agreement is different, highlighting ESPN’s push to broaden itself from an American powerhouse into a force in international sports broadcasting.

Televising Premier League matches in Asia, as ESPN does in a venture with the News Corporation, is one thing; showing matches in Britain is quite another. Imagine, for example, if the BBC were to acquire the rights to Major League Baseball games in the United States.

“It’s a big step forward for our business,” Mr. Wolff said. “We are looking to make our channels ever more locally relevant and exciting for sports fans around the world.”

ESPN, which is majority-owned by the Walt Disney Company, is already available in more than 200 million households outside the United States, twice its potential American audience. But in many international markets, particularly in Europe, it attracts only small audiences.

ESPN has tried to break into the big leagues of European soccer before, bidding unsuccessfully for domestic rights to the German Bundesliga last year. ESPN also tried three years ago to acquire English Premier League rights, but lost out to Setanta.

Setanta got its opening because European regulators objected to a long-running exclusive relationship between the league and British Sky Broadcasting, which is controlled by News Corporation. Sky has retained a majority of the matches since then, but Setanta won the rights to broadcast 46 games a season, one-third of the total, from 2007 through the 2009-10 season. Those games will now be taken over by ESPN, along with 23 matches in each of the next three seasons.

ESPN declined to say how much it had paid, though reports in Britain put the price at about £240 million, or $392 million, for the four seasons.

Analysts say ESPN’s move to acquire the Premier League rights could set up a battle between ESPN and Sky when negotiations for the next round of domestic rights agreements take place in 2012. Backed by Disney, they say, ESPN might try to wrest a larger share of the rights away from Sky.

“I think this could change the sport broadcasting landscape,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business strategy at Coventry University. “Up until now, it has been a bilateral landscape.”

For now, Sky and ESPN play down talk of conflict, adding that the companies have already reached an agreement to show the ESPN games via Sky’s satellite system. “We look forward to working with ESPN to bring their Premier League coverage to Sky customers,” said Robert Fraser, a Sky spokesman.

Mr. Wolff said that with just six weeks to go until the season begins, ESPN was focusing on getting broadcast crews and announcers in place, as well as securing rights to other events to round out ESPN’s programming in Britain.

ESPN already has two channels there, one of which shows reruns of classic sports events. The other has mostly imported sports like baseball, basketball, hockey and American football. It will probably be combined with the Premier League matches and other events on a new premium-price channel, analysts say.

Can ESPN succeed where Setanta failed? Backed by Disney and the Hearst Corporation, which owns 20 percent of ESPN, the company does not have to worry about paying the bills month to month, which Setanta was unable to do. Analysts say Setanta also overpaid for sports rights, while ESPN has a reputation for being more conservative in its spending.

But ESPN will have to make its mark quickly, analysts say, because it will have fewer games after the coming season.

“If they haven’t established the coverage with the Premier League next season, then they are going to have a lot of ground to cover,” said Tim Westcott, an analyst at Screen Digest, a research company in London.

As Mr. Wolff noted, ESPN has considerable experience with international sports. It used to own 33 percent of Eurosport, a pan-European channel controlled by the French broadcaster TF1, but sold that in 2002. It showed World Cup soccer matches in Brazil in 2006 and broadcasts top cricket events in India. It produces SportsCenter, a sports news show, in 14 versions for audiences around the world.

ESPN also owns Web sites with global appeal, like Cricinfo, which is about cricket; Scrum, which covers rugby; and Racing Live, about Formula 1 auto racing.

Still, few sports fans are as demanding, or as tribal in their passions, as followers of Premier League soccer. American involvement in the game has been a sore subject at clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool, where fans objected to takeovers by American owners.

In a reference to ESPN’s controlling owner, Disney, the tabloid The Daily Mail joked that the broadcaster might try to rename the F.A. Cup, a venerable English soccer tournament, the “Mickey Mouse Cup.”

With everything related to ESPN’s coverage of the Premier League, from camera angles to analyst comments, likely to be scrutinized for signs of a hidden agenda of Disneyfication, Mr. Chadwick had some advice for ESPN: “There is a strong sense of counterculture in English football. They can’t be too glitzy, they can’t be too showbiz, they can’t be too American.”

Fans in Britain Cringe as ESPN Takes Over Broadcasting Soccer is a post from: worldwormweb

It left the sports pay-TV company one step closer to administration.

The Premier League will now sell its 46 live games for next season to the highest bidder. A decision is expected next week.

The move comes after last-ditch efforts to bail out the Irish company failed.

American tycoon Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries found Setanta had an outstanding VAT bill of up to £50million.

Administrators Deloitte could now be called in within days.

Setanta issued a statement last night saying it will “consider its options this weekend”.

It added: “In the meantime, Setanta’s sports channels continue on air.”

The broadcaster had already missed a £3million payment to the Scottish Premier League.

Setanta has around 1.2 million subscribers but it needs a reported 1.9 million to break even. Customer numbers have been hit by the recession.

For more go to thesun.co.uk

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