The Disney owned US sports broadcaster ESPN, has snapped up the 46 games in next season's English football Premier League following the collapse of the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta.

The new channel will be called ESPN and is set to launch in the UK on August 3rd, replacing ESPN America which is currently available through Virgin and Sky.

For Virgin and Sky subscribers, ESPN will be available for £9 a month (Sky Sports subscribers) and for £12 a month to other customers.

A spokesperson for ESPN commented that the purchase of Premier football rights was part of a wider strategy to develop their presence in the UK. "We are interested in rights when they become available and when they make business sense. If we were to acquire additional live rights for the UK market, it is likely they would be broadcast on this (ESPN) channel," he added.

There are unconfirmed rumours that ESPN is also interested in acquiring rights to Scottish football league games - their US Sports schedule will continue to be covered on the new ESPN channel.

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