The Aviva Premiership Rugby 2010/2011 season begins this weekend with lead broadcaster ESPN offering live TV coverage of 43 games, weekly TV highlights, classic Premiership Rugby games and extensive online coverage via ESPNscrum.com.
ESPN and ESPN HD’s first live Aviva Premiership Rugby televised match of the season, at 2.00pm on Saturday 4th September, features a clash between the runners-up of the last two Premiership Finals, Saracens and London Irish. Directly after, at 4.30pm, ESPN will broadcast the clash between Harlequins and London Wasps, winners of the Premiership in four of the past eight seasons.
ESPN’s coverage is accompanied by a new weekly highlights show, Aviva Premiership Rugby Highlights, every Monday evening at 8.30pm. Presented by Austin Healey, the programme will look back on the best of the weekend’s rugby action as Austin is joined by special studio guests each week. ESPN plans to cover all of its 43 matches each season on-site at the grounds
ESPN’s Aviva Premiership Rugby Live will be led by Mark Durden-Smith, with analyst Austin Healey, the former England international and Leicester Tigers back. Chief commentator Nick Mullins will be joined in the commentary box by Ben Kay, the six-time Premiership Rugby Champion and Rugby World Cup winning former England International. Completing the line-up is experienced sports presenter Sarra Elgan, who joins the team as rugby reporter, having previously presented Celtic League Rugby for Welsh broadcaster S4C.
ESPNscrum.com, ESPN’s specialist rugby website, will offer rugby fans in the UK extensive online coverage of Aviva Premiership Rugby, including 90 second video highlights of each game, a 10 minute compilation of the best action from each match weekend plus exclusive weekly analysis from Austin Healey and Ben Kay. There will also be exclusive online-only video clips featuring comment and analysis from ESPN’s presenters. In addition, the ESPNscrum.com team will offer fans a live interactive service to accompany televised matches with in-game commentary and behind-the-scenes insights from ESPN’s match day broadcasts. Completing ESPNscrum.com’s offering will be dedicated Facebook and Twitter feeds as well as the ESPNscrum Fantasy Rugby game.
Aviva Premiership Rugby adds to ESPN’s established heritage of rugby coverage in the UK and worldwide. In the UK, ESPN delivers live coverage of French Top 14 Orange rugby. ESPN will also broadcast matches and footage from each of the six Rugby World Cup tournaments on ESPN Classic.
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