SA TV viewers will not have to forego all US-based sports events, with MultiChoice announcing that its SuperSport channels will pick up much of the slack when ESPN ceases broadcasting on DStv.
SuperSport will now cover US Open golf and tennis, Nascar and IndyCar, collegiate basketball and gridiron football and X Games and broadcast documentaries produced by ESPN Films.
DStv subscribers “will be informed of the relevant channel number and broadcast times of these programmes in due course”.
MultiChoice said it was also looking at picking up the rights to the popular NBA basketball, baseball and NFL football games previously shown on ESPN.
It was announced earlier this month that ESPN (channel 230) and ESPN Classic (231) would be discontinued from Wednesday.
The Guardian reported in February that BT had continued its expansion into sports broadcasting by buying ESPN’S UK and Ireland TV channels.
Although not part of that deal, ESPN Classic was expected to cease transmission across the Middle East and Africa region when the deal was completed this month.
Stripped of the content taken over by BT, which includes major soccer coverage, Disney-owned ESPN decided it was not practical to continue its MultiChoice channel.
Article originally published via SportLive
