Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

Being reported, but I have not seen officially confirmed anywhere, that there’ll be some branding changes to the BT Sport channels on Monday. This is not to do with the Eurosport merger, which hasn’t completed yet, but is stuff BT was going to do anyway. What is being reported is that BT Sport ESPN will become BT Sport 4, the red button channels BT Sport 5-10, and there may be increased prominence for EE, which is the new name for BT’s consumer operation in the U.K.

Serie A: Yes, I believe so.

LaLiga: at least in rounds 1&2 they are showing 9 games, that’s all except the one that starts inside the 3pm blocked hours period in England/Scotland. Let’s see if they keep that up once the rugby comes back though.

Moving back to 429 on Monday. How odd.

Those changes to the BT Sport channel names have also been confirmed, along with the addition of BT Sport Ultimate as a red button service (presume you’ll need UHD entitlement for that one).

Because the licensing deal with ESPN is over and they contractually have to change the name. At 9 years to the day when BT took control of the U.K. operations of ESPN it’s lasted a lot longer than I suspect anyone thought it would. They’ll still maintain a relationship/affiliation with ESPN (but will no longer be licensing the name) and the US sport focus of the channel will continue (for now) so hopefully we’ll still see the SEC on CBS there on Saturday nights from mid September.

Only taken six years for BT to come back. Although for three of those the BT channels were being wholesaled by eir who were at loggerheads with VM. You’d think they’d have been told ESPN is gone too.

Launch of BT Sport Ultimate on Sky has been postponed.

Premier Sports are listing certain LaLiga fixtures kicking off inside the 3pm England/Scotland blackout period as “ROI only” and on LaLiga TV yet as we know Laliga TV isn’t available in Ireland any more. Confusing.

for those that really, really love their Spanish football it seems they are showing some LaLiga 2 fixtures over the coming weeks starting tonight.