ESPN Major League Soccer - History

History

On August 4, 2006, ESPN reached a comprehensive multimedia agreement with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) for the rights to Major League Soccer through 2014. As part of the eight-year agreement, ESPN2 will televise 26 regular-season and three playoff MLS matches each year, all in primetime on Thursdays.

Highlights of the agreement include:

  • ESPN2 will televise 26 regular-season MLS matches, primarily on Thursday nights.
  • ESPN2 will televise three MLS playoff matches.
  • ESPN will televise one regular-season MLS match, the MLS All-Star Game, and MLS Cup.
  • Televised coverage of the first round of the MLS Draft.
  • MLS telecasts can be re-aired in full or abbreviated versions on any ESPN media platforms
  • Extensive footage rights for all ESPN media platforms such as SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, ESPN Motion, ESPN360, etc.
  • ESPN will also produce and be solely responsible for the content, whereas, they had not been able to do that in the past.

Also in 2007, ESPN2's coverage of the MLS included new on-screen scoreboards, similar to those used on other sports telecasts. In 2008, another new score graphic was debuted, this time in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

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