|
ESPN Classic was a British sports television channel which launched on 13 March 2006 on Sky channel 442,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Disney Cinemagic & ESPN Classic launch in March )〕 the first channel in the UK under the ESPN branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on Virgin Media channel 533 as a part of the XL pack,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Virgin Media and ESPN announce channel deal ahead of Premier League football season )〕 and in early 2011 video on demand content started to appear on the Virgin Media platform.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ESPN Classic VOD coming to Virgin Media )〕 On 14 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on UPC Ireland channel 409 as a part of the Max package.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chorus ntl to carry ESPN HD in Ireland )〕 It broadcast a range of archive sports coverage, with a large emphasis on football. On 25 February 2013, BT Group 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".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BT buys ESPN'S UK and Ireland TV channels )〕 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, FA Cup matches, European Cup, European Cup Winners Cup and League Cup finals and some England games. ESPN Classic also showed games from the FIFA World Cup following a multi-year deal to show 150 classic FIFA World Cup matches from 1930 to 2006.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ESPN secures archive World Cup footage )〕 Though most coverage on the channel was from the colour era, it had shown original black-and-white footage of European Cup finals going back as far as 1959. A significant proportion of the football action on ESPN Classic was archive ITV 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 commentators such as Jon Champion and Paul Dempsey, or commentary by Sky Sports broadcasters such as Martin Tyler and Alan Parry 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 international matches, including action from the Rugby World Cup, as well as past matches from the rugby union Premiership. Other sports featured included cricket, ESPN-produced vintage boxing matches, The Ultimate Fighter and more recently, action from American sports to complement the live American sports action which was broadcast on ESPN and ESPN America. In addition to the programmes mentioned above, ESPN Classic had made a variety of other programmes. These included ''Sport Years'' as well as many football compilation programmes. In addition, to mark the 30th anniversary of ESPN, the channel showed the ESPN Films' ''30 for 30'' 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ESPN Classic (UK)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|