ESPN Classic was a British-based European sports television channel which first launched in France in March 2002, followed by Italy in July 2002, and pan-Europe in December 2003. On 13 March 2006 ESPN Classic launched on

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

channel 442 in the UK and Ireland, the first channel in the UK under the

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

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

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

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

UPC Ireland Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Global's telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the country. As of 31 December 2014, the company offers broadband internet, digital television and d ...

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

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. On 25 February 2013,

BT Group BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broa ...

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.

Programming

Much of the channel's output was football. This included action from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

matches,

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

European Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

and

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

finals and some

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

games. ESPN Classic also showed games from the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

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

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. Though most coverage on the channel was from the colour era, it had shown original black-and-white footage of

finals going back as far as 1959. A significant proportion of the football action on ESPN Classic was archive

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

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 Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as the lead association football commentator for ESPN (US). Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC ...

and Paul Dempsey, or commentary by

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

broadcasters such as

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English football commentator. He has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports since 1990, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competitions. T ...

and

Alan Parry Alan Parry (born 1948 in Garston, Liverpool) is an English sports commentator, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all four main broadcasters of football in the UK – the BBC, BT Sport, ITV and Sky TV, as well as f ...

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. The channel also showed some

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

international matches, including action from the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

, as well as past matches from the rugby union Premiership. Other sports featured included

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, ESPN-produced vintage

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

matches,

The Ultimate Fighter ''The Ultimate Fighter'' is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Pilgrim Media Group currently airing on ESPN+. It previously aired for fourteen s ...

and more recently, action from American sports to complement the live American sports action which was broadcast on

and

ESPN America ESPN America was a British-based European sports network, focusing on professional and collegiate sports of the United States and Canada. Originally launched on 5 December 2002 as NASN (the ''North American Sports Network''), ESPN America broadca ...

. In addition to the programmes mentioned above, ESPN Classic had made a variety of other programmes. These included ''Sports Years'' as well as many football compilation programmes. In addition, to mark the 30th anniversary of

, the channel showed the

ESPN Films ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which ow ...

' ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

'' series. ESPN Classic regularly repeated the sporting action that it showed on the channel with the same material often being shown time and time again. Some of the action, especially ESPN-produced programmes and series, had been broadcast on the channel on dozens of different occasions.

BBC-produced programming

During the first three years of the channel sporting action from the BBC was featured extensively. However, this deal expired in mid 2009 and was seemingly not renewed as for the next eighteen months the channel did not feature any sport produced by the BBC. Therefore, sports such as

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

and

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

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 Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is play ...

, the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and football coverage to which the BBC had the exclusive rights, which had included showings of 1970s and 1980s editions of

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary L ...

under the title of "The Dead Good Match" with the opening and closing titles removed, and some editions were truncated, with only one of the matches covered in a particular programme being shown. One exception had been BBC-produced coverage of rugby union's Five Nations tournament shown during the

2011 Six Nations Championship The 2011 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2011 RBS 6 Nations due to sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 12th series of the Six Nations Championship, and the 117th edition of the international championship. The annual rugby uni ...

. In March 2011, a new deal between ESPN and the BBC was signed which provided ESPN Classic with access to around 80 hours of footage. However, this was far less than under the previous agreement which had given the channel access to around 630 hours. The new deal meant that previous ESPN-produced programmes based on the BBC archive, such as the darts series ''Bellies and Bullseyes'', were once again shown on the channel along with new programmes, such as athletics series ''Solid Gold - Team GB'' and other one-off programmes such as a compilation of top Grand Nationals. This new deal with BBC Sport coincided with a new look for the channel, the first new look since ESPN UK launched in summer 2009.

Live action

ESPN Classic occasionally showed live action when two events to which ESPN has the rights took place at the same time. The first live sport that the channel showed was two

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

matches, on 29 September and 20 October 2011. The first of the two games was

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. On 9 January 2012, the channel broadcast the third evening of the

BDO World Darts Championship The WDF World Darts Championship is a world championship competition in darts, organised by the World Darts Federation. It would previously organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO), who held it 43 times from 1978 to 2020. The champio ...

because the main channel was showing a third round match from the

. This happened again a year later when for the same reason ESPN Classic again showed the third evening's action. On 5 May 2012, ESPN Classic broadcast two live events - the final day of rugby union's Premiership league season and a football match from

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

. This was due to the main channel showing live coverage of the

Final. On 1 September 2012, ESPN Classic showed a live rugby union match from the

Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

because the main network was broadcasting its weekly match from football's Premier League. The same happened two weeks later although the clash this time was due to the main channel showing the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

. On 20 and 22 September 2012, ESPN Classic showed live coverage of the European Darts Championship because the main channel was showing the UEFA Europa League and the Aviva Premiership respectively. The following day (Sunday 23rd) ESPN swapped its coverage with the darts being shown on the main channel with much of its traditional Sunday fare of European league football plus another Aviva Premiership match airing on Classic. On 4 May 2013, ESPN Classic was used to provide coverage of a second game from the final set of league matches of the 2012–13 Aviva Premiership season.

References

External links

ESPN Classic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espn Classic (Uk)

Classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

Defunct television channels in the Netherlands Defunct television channels in Italy Television channels in Flanders Television channels in Belgium Television channels in the United Kingdom Sports television channels in the United Kingdom Sports television in the United Kingdom Sports television in Poland Sports television in Italy Italian-language television stations 2002 establishments in Italy 2013 disestablishments in Italy Television channels and stations established in 2002 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2013 Classic television networks

Programming

BBC-produced programming

Live action

See also

References

External links