Television viewers in the UK will next month be able to watch the first free-to-air Barclays Premier League game in the 20-year history of the division, reports SportBusiness. Premier League broadcast partner ESPN has announced a promotion which will see all of its content available on a free-to-air basis from February 3-6, including league leader Manchester City's clash with Fulham on February 4.
ESPN's Free Weekend, which is being sponsored by Nokia Lumia, will make ESPN and ESPN HD available to all Sky, TopUp TV and BT Vision subscribers in the UK and Ireland. Additionally, the channel will be available for free to the 10 million UK households who have the subscription-free digital TV service Freeview, meaning that in total some 20 million UK households will have free access to the channel.
All live English top flight football has been broadcast on pay-television since the Premier League began in 1992.
ESPN's Free Weekend will also offer football from Italy's Serie A and Germany's 1.Bundesliga, along with action from the National Basketball Association (NBA), men's ATP tennis and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Jeroen Oerlemans, ESPN's vice-president of TV channels for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "Millions of UK fans have already discovered the great range of great sport ESPN offers - from the Barclays Premier League to Serie A, to cricket, darts, motorsports and UFC. This is a great opportunity for us to introduce that to millions more and let them sample the programming ESPN has on offer."
