Ian Darke and Steve McManaman were announced this morning as two of the talents that BT Sport has hired to bring its Premier League coverage to viewers in the United Kingdom beginning with the 2013-14 season.
Darke and Darren Fletcher will commentate matches for BT Sport with co-commentator Michael Owen. McManaman will be one of the pundits BT Sport will be using next season alongside Owen Hargreaves, David James and Rio Ferdinand.
While Darke and McManaman will be working for BT Sport, the two will continue working for ESPN. Darke will call major matches, while McManaman will be a studio analyst, according to an ESPN spokesperson.
FOX Soccer lost the TV rights to the English Premier League for 2013-16. In the bidding last autumn, FOX Sports and ESPN put in a joint bid but were outbid by NBC Sports Group.
For soccer viewers in the United States who have been accustomed to watching Darke and McManaman on Saturday mornings, Monday afternoons and occasional mid-week games, those soccer viewers will have a whole new set of personalities to watch each week beginning this August on NBC Sports.
Rounding out their coverage, BT Sport have also hired Jake Humphrey, Mark Halsey, Des Kelly, Clare Balding, Tim Lovejoy and Ray Stubbs.
As part of BT Sports' announcement today, the new TV network that will be competing with Sky Sports beginning this summer plans on providing BT broadband customers in the United Kingdom with free access to Premier League matches.
Founder and publisher of EPL Talk, The Gaffer (aka Christopher Harris) is a journalist who has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications as well as on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT. Harris, who lives in Florida, has supported Swansea City since 1979. Harris launched EPL Talk in 2005.
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