ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Setanta, ESPN and the Big 4

Someone mentioned that Setanta do not disappear up the collective arseholes of the Sky-appointed "Big 4", and may be getting bought out by ESPN. Well, bad news I'm afraid: ESPN (US) and ESPN STAR Sports (Asia) are all part of the stable known as News Corp. Which includes Sky.

Don't know what ESPN are like State-side, but in Asia they are possibly even worse than Sky in terms of eulogising the Big 4. Even so far as guest pundits invariably having been former players.

To be fair, I did ask some of the presenters why this is the case, and the not-unsurprising answer is because "most" followers of the English game in Asia support one of the Big 4. Guess you gotta give the viewers what they want....

Overall though, coverage of the Prem is far better over here than in the UK. Get to see almost every game live, or on tape delay, as long as you can put up with the time difference!
Matt Traynor, Singapore Posted 09/01/2008 at 01:08:44

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Comments

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Paul Daly
1 Posted 09/01/2008 at 02:22:52

.........ESPN aren’t a NewsCorp Company......not a corporate twin of Sky.....so wrong....

Rob Coffey
2 Posted 09/01/2008 at 03:02:44

ESPN is owned by Disney.

Clyde McPhatter
3 Posted 09/01/2008 at 03:44:49

I have no idea where you get this stuff...Setanta has been a godsend in the States...I see 9 out of 10 Everton matches live! Disney owns the majority of Setanta.

Mohammed Hassanudin
4 Posted 09/01/2008 at 08:32:52

I definitely agree on the point that the coverage here ( Singapore) on our beloved team is virtually non existent apart from the matches that is on live coverage. Shows like Football Focus etc consistently talk about the bunch of four and even when they do talk about Everton its very brief and no credit is usually given when we play very well.

Terence Leong
5 Posted 09/01/2008 at 09:39:29

As a fan, I can relate to how we are often passed over. That’s a fact of life we gotta accept, cos there is no way the broadcasters are going to forego $$ for "the love of the game", the romantics etc.
The way I see it, the only route to getting mentioned more often is staying & earning our way up into the top 4 positions. You may say it’s a vicious cycle, no money, we can’t get there, and if we can’t get there, nobody’s gonna talk about us.
Well, if we can try to stay top 5 thereabouts, keep churning out results, be real contenders in the cups and get really solid in europe, we might get some bigger investors who can help us make that financial muscle count.
Remember that Chelsea wasn’t really part of the "big 4" until recently. Newcastle was actually, for a good number of seasons. So in the meantime, let’s enjoy the ride, and see where this season of attractive football leads us. In fact, I rather the media gets off our backs, let us do our job quietly, and before they know it, we’ve "sneaked" up and make ourselves count in the table.
Given the intense media coverage, if our players are not used to it, it can go awry.

Allan Hobbs
6 Posted 09/01/2008 at 10:15:23

To utilize the words of the legend that is Mr Horace Andy.......money money money is the root of all evil......

Peter Pickles
7 Posted 09/01/2008 at 10:22:46

Horace Andy also said: Skylarking

Mark Stone
8 Posted 09/01/2008 at 12:27:28

Isn’t Setanta something to do with Virgin?

Dave Lawley
9 Posted 10/01/2008 at 09:34:22

Espn are not owned by News Corp you twit, Disney own them