US broadcaster ESPN last night won a £90million contract to show 46 live Premier League games next season.
Espn, owned by Disney, picked up both packages which were put up for auction by the Premier League after they were taken away from Setanta.
And in a separate deal, they also won the rights to screen 23 games for three seasons from 2010 in what is a double blow for Sky.
Sky have long feared ESPN bidding for Premier League rights as the US giant represents a huge threat to their domestic dominance.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said. "ESPN have a formidable worldwide reputation and I am sure we will enjoy a long and fruitful relationship."
So now SKY's dominance in UK's sport broadcast market could come to end after entry of strong player like ESPN. It would be good if ESPN could also get rights of other sporting event like Cricket of UK, so they could offer some refreshing broadcast for UK Cricket
