Satelitte providers and football (college and pro)

For the NFL, it's all going to depend on how they've sold the games here in the UK.  Last year, the games that were shown on Sky were broadcast in the US on Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN.  This year, with ESPN available in the UK, I'd imagine ESPN will keep the games they've got the rights to and tell Sky to go pound sand.  That said, it's only one game per week, so you ought to look at the schedule of Monday night games and see how many times your team will appear.

ESPN can't do that, the international rights are sold by the NFL, it has nothing to do with who is broadcasting them in the US. As yet though nothing has been announced about who will have the rights in the UK.....I'm keeping an eye on the NFLUK site

ESPN can't do that, the international rights are sold by the NFL, it has nothing to do with who is broadcasting them in the US.

Hahahaha!  ESPN paid the NFL $1 billion for the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football.  Can you imagine the lawyers falling all over each other to get involved in that deal?  I can't imagine that there's not a clause in the contract that outlines who gets to re-broadcast MNF in every country without ESPN, and what happens in case ESPN starts broadcasting in a country where someone else has been broadcasting MNF.

I'm interested to see what happens here in the UK, but I wouldn't be surprised if the MNF broadcasts go from Sky to ESPN.

Hahahaha!  ESPN paid the NFL $1 billion for the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football.  Can you imagine the lawyers falling all over each other to get involved in that deal?  I can't imagine that there's not a clause in the contract that outlines who gets to re-broadcast MNF in every country without ESPN, and what happens in case ESPN starts broadcasting in a country where someone else has been broadcasting MNF.

I'm interested to see what happens here in the UK, but I wouldn't be surprised if the MNF broadcasts go from Sky to ESPN.

They may well do, but that's because the contracts are up for renegotiation. This comes up time and again on sites like Digital Spy as well as sports sites, the rights are sold seperately by the NFL. ESPN have owned NASN for the last 2 years - didn't stop Sky showing the games. Similarly they couldn't broadcast Sportscenter here due to the rights to the clips.

Now that the season has begun, I still don't know who (if anyone) will be showing Monday Night Football.  There are 2 games this Monday night; one at 7pm ET and one at 10:15pm ET.  I'm looking at my Sky channel guide for Monday night/Tuesday morning, and they're not showing either game.  Not on Sky Sports and not on ESPN. 

Maybe that'll change when there's only one MNF game per week, but this NFL UK press release doesn't say anything about Monday Night Football, so I'm not filled with hope.

Now that the season has begun, I still don't know who (if anyone) will be showing Monday Night Football.  There are 2 games this Monday night; one at 7pm ET and one at 10:15pm ET.  I'm looking at my Sky channel guide for Monday night/Tuesday morning, and they're not showing either game.  Not on Sky Sports and not on ESPN.  

Maybe that'll change when there's only one MNF game per week, but this NFL UK press release doesn't say anything about Monday Night Football, so I'm not filled with hope.

As yet nobody is planning to show MNF. Sky have cut back their coverage to just 2 games on a Sunday (no alternate red button game or the late Sunday game), they do have the Thursday and Saturday games and all the playoffs. Channel 5 are showing the late Sunday game. I expected ESPN to pick up MNF but they haven't - it does sound though that the NFL are still trying to get someone to carry it.