ESPN Snatch Copa America & Emirates Cup Rights from Sky

Global sports broadcaster ESPN’s UK department has snatched British rights to the Copa America and Emirates Cup summer soccer tournaments from domestic pay television giants Sky.

This year’s Copa América and Emirates Cup will be shown on the ESPN UK channel, having both been staples of Sky Sports’ output during previous British summers.

On top of the Emirates Cup, ESPN UK has also purchased rights to all matches from the pre-season tours involving Arsenal (who will be playing in Asia), Everton (USA) and Tottenham Hotspur (South Africa).

Sky Sports has held television rights to every edition of the four team Emirates Cup to be played at Arsenal’s home stadium since its inception in 2007. This year the tournament features French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain, Argentinean Primera División team Boca Juniors and the New York Red Bulls from Major League Soccer, alongside the English Premier League club.

The Copa América has been affiliated with Sky Sports for even longer having began their relationship in 1997. Since then, the past five editions of the South American national team tournament, equivalent to the European Championship in Europe, have been broadcast live by the British pay television network.

This year’s Copa América, Argentina 2011, will take place between Friday 1st and Sunday 24th July. The Emirates Cup will be held over the weekend of Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July.

In other news, ESPN has defined new roles for top digital media executives within the company. ESPN Executive Vice President of Content John Skipper announced that ESPN’s digital and print media operations have been consolidated under John Kosner, who will oversee ESPN The Magazine, the ESPN RISE high school publications and women’s sports content initiative espnW, as Senior Vice President of ESPN Digital and Print Media.

As part of the change, Rob King, most recently Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, Digital Media, will assume the role of Vice President, Editorial, Digital and Print Media, and will lead the editorial content of those initiatives while continuing to report to Kosner. Patrick Stiegman, formerly ESPN.com Executive Editor, is now Editor-in-Chief of ESPN.com. Stiegman and Chad Millman, who was recently named Editor-in-Chief of ESPN The Magazine, will both report to King.