ESPN agrees European carriage deals with Liberty platforms

Pay-television sports broadcaster ESPN has agreed carriage deals for its channels in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands with cable-television operators owned by international telecommunications and broadcasting company Liberty Global.

The operators in Germany, Austria and Switzerland renewed agreements to carry the ESPN America and ESPN Classic channels. Dutch operator UPC Netherlands renewed a deal to carry ESPN America, and will now also carry the high definition version of the channel.

ESPN America broadcasts live NFL American football, Major League Baseball, NHL ice hockey and a range of events from the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. ESPN Classic shows archive material and classic games from various sports.

ESPN said the deals enabled it to work with the platforms to provide video-on-demand content.

The platforms covered by the deals are: Unity Media and Kabel Deutschland in Germany, UPC Netherlands, UPC Austria, and UPC Cablecom in Switzerland.