Sky Sports to Lose Premier League Rights To ESPN In 2009?

The Premiership is the most lucrative football league on the globe, right? So it will come as no surprise that television companies across the world are currently lining up to bid hundreds of millions, in order to broadcast the games when the rights hit the market in January 2009. But will a successful bid by ESPN be the final nail in a rotting coffin that will demonstrate the globalisation of a league that has already lost it's identity? Since BSkyB's acquisition of the Premier League rights in 1990, their sports orientated channel Sky Sports has played an enormous role in the commercialisation of British football. They have arguably played the biggest part in making the Premiership the most popular football league on the planet today. Who can ignore their extravagant themed advertisements for football matches, which somehow appear to have equal significance to a battle in a roman coliseum. Inteligently engineerd phrases like "Ford Super Sunday" are a prime example of just how ... (link)