In some long-awaited news, John Ourand of Sports Business Journal tweeted that ESPN and DirecTV agreed to a long-term deal which includes DirecTV subscribers to finally receive WatchESPN, an online service that allows ESPN subscribers access to watch live streams of ESPN stations as well as other events.
The obvious question is, what does this mean to soccer fans who have DirecTV and are getting WatchESPN?
– For one thing, get ready for a wide range of soccer leagues/games. Every UEFA Champions League and Europa League game is available as well as many of the lower European leagues, Brazilian League and international friendlies. US based leagues such as NCAA, NASL and MASL indoor soccer are also included.
– Games are “on demand” for 30 days after the live broadcast.
– MLS agreed to a record TV deal worth $720 million over eight years between ESPN, FOX and Univision. As part of this deal, MLS games that aren’t nationally broadcast will be on WatchESPN, replacing MLS Live. This will give those who had MLS Live access to MLS games.
This is welcome news for the soccer fan in America. There is an infinite number of leagues and soccer games in the world and the soccer world has just gotten smaller. Well, most cable and satellite companies already have WatchESPN and DirecTV is the last big hurdle.
