ESPN Classic (UK) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

version of ESPN Classic launched on 13 March 2006 on Sky channel 442, the first channel in the UK under the ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on Virgin Media

Virgin Media

Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...

channel 533 as a part of the XL pack, and in early 2011 video on demand

Video on demand

Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

content started to appear on the Virgin Media platform. On 14 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on UPC Ireland

UPC Ireland

UPC Ireland is Liberty Global Europe's telecommunications operation in Ireland. UPC Ireland is the largest digital cable television provider within the Republic of Ireland. As of September 2010 the company offers broadband internet, digital television and digital telephony to over 531,000 customers...

channel 409 as a part of the Max package. It broadcasts a range of archive sports coverage, with an large emphasis on football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

Programming

Much of the channel's output is football. A significant propirtion of the footballing action on ESPN Classic is archive ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

football coverage, including matches covered by regional ITV companies, FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

matches from the ITV Sport

ITV Sport

ITV Sport is a sport producer and brand name owned by ITV plc. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network. The company produces Champions League and FA Cup Football, along with coverage of England's national...

archives, European Cup

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

, European Cup Winners Cup

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup

The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a football club competition contested annually by the most recent winners of all European domestic cup competitions. The cup is one of the many inter-European club competitions that have been organised by UEFA. The first competition was held in the 1960–61 season—but...

and League Cup

Football League Cup

The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...

finals, matches from the Premier League, and some England

England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

games. ESPN Classic also shows games from the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

following a multi-year deal to show 150 classic FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

matches from 1930

1930 FIFA World Cup

The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 July to 30 July 1930...

to 2006

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

. Though most coverage on the channel is from the colour era, it has shown original black and white footage of European Cup finals going back as far as 1959.

Most football matches on the channel have the original UK commentary, especially when the channel is broadcasting action originally shown by ITV, but Premier League games tend to feature commentary dubbed on more recently by Jon Champion

Jon Champion

Jon Champion is ESPN UK's number one football commentator. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the past 20 years. His late father David Champion was the deputy headmaster of the independent school Bootham School, York...

, or commentary by Sky Sports

Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...

broadcasters such as Martin Tyler

Martin Tyler

Martin Tyler is an English football commentator who was voted as the FA Premier League Commentator of The Decade...

and Alan Parry

Alan Parry

Alan Parry is a British sports commentator, born and raised in Garston, Liverpool, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all three main broadcasters of football in the UK - the BBC, ITV and Sky TV, as well as for both BBC and commercial radio.Starting his career at BBC...

which seems to be from the international feed of the time. Some 1960s European Cup finals have also had a new commentary dubbed on by Tony Jones

Tony Jones (football reporter)

Tony Jones is a football broadcaster based in England. He has contributed to all the commercial UK broadcasting outlets - Sky Sports, five, Channel 4 and ITV - commentating on everything from the UEFA Champions League to the English non-League.He was part of the Hostbroadcastservices team at...

.

The channel also shows some rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

international matches, including action from the Rugby World Cup

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....

, as well as past matches from the rugby union Premiership. Other sports featured include some archive cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

coverage, ESPN-produced vintage boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

matches, The Ultimate Fighter

The Ultimate Fighter

The Ultimate Fighter is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts competition produced by Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship , and soon to be shown on FX. The show features unknown, professional MMA fighters living together in Las Vegas, Nevada, and follows them as...

and more recently, action from American sports to complement the live American sports action which is broadcast on ESPN UK and ESPN America.

During 2010, the channel did not show BBC produced sporting action after a previous deal with the BBC expired in 2009. Therefore, sports such as rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

, golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, athletics, darts

Darts

Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...

and snooker

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

were not shown on the channel nor were events such as domestic cricket prior to 1999 (the year that the BBC lost the rights to show live cricket), Wimbledon tennis, the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

and football coverage to which the BBC had the exclusive rights, including 1970s and 1980s editions of Match of the Day

Match of the Day

Match of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in English football's top division, the Premier League...

which had been shown without the opening and closing titles and were branded "The Dead Good Match", and were sometimes truncated, with only one of the matches covered in a particular programme being shown. All UK football coverage on the channel during this period was either from the ITV Sport

ITV Sport

archives or specially produced compilation programmes, such as Premier League football season reviews, often with dubbed commentary due to the channel no longer showing BBC-produced coverage, as well as goal compilation programmes. One exception had been BBC-produced coverage of rugby union's Five Nations tournament shown during the 2011 Six Nations Championship

2011 Six Nations Championship

The 2011 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2011 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 12th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was contested by England, France, Ireland, Italy,...

. However, in a new deal between ESPN and the BBC, classic BBC action started to be shown again on the channel. Around 80 hours of action will be shown beginning in April 2011 as part of the deal, including FA Cup matches, Formula One from when the BBC had the rights to the event, test cricket and BBC-produced sporting documentaries. This deal with BBC Sport co-insided with a new look for the channel, the first new look since ESPN UK launched in summer 2009.

ESPN Classic has also recently been producing its own programmes. Examples include 'Sport Years' as well as football compilation programmes. In addition, to mark the 30th anniversary of ESPN

ESPN

, the channel has been showing the ESPN Films

ESPN Films

ESPN Films is a production company owned by ESPN that produces and distributes sports films and documentaries.-History:...

' 30 for 30

30 for 30

30 for 30 is the umbrella title for a series of documentaries airing on ESPN and its sister networks. The series, which premiered in October 2009 and concluded in December 2010, chronicles 30 stories from the "ESPN era," each of which detail the issues, trends, people, teams, or events that...

series.

On 29 September 2011, ESPN Classic, for the first time, aired a live event - the UEFA Europa League match between Maribor

NK Maribor

Nogometni Klub Maribor , commonly referred to as NK Maribor or simply Maribor, is a professional association football club based in the city of Maribor, Slovenia. Founded on 12 December, 1960, Maribor is one of only three football clubs in the country who have never been relegated from...

and Birmingham

Birmingham City F.C.

Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they became Small Heath in 1888, then Birmingham in 1905, finally becoming Birmingham City in 1943.They were relegated at the end of the...

. The channel will broadcast another live Europa League match on 20 October.

External links

ESPN Classic

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Programming

See also

External links