North American Sports Network

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North American Sports Network
Launched	December 2002
Owned by	ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company)
Audience share	N/A (Data Unknown, Source:)
Website	www.nasn.com
Availability
Satellite
Sky Digital	Channel 417
Cable
NTL Telewest	Channel 533

NASN, (North American Sports Network), is a television channel available in Ireland and the UK, and now across Europe. Originally launched in December, 2002, NASN broadcasts a selection of top North American professional and collegiate sports leagues (MLB, NHL, NCAA, CFL, plus more) 24 hours a day on digital cable and digital satellite.

1 Sale to ESPN
2 NASN programming
3 See also
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Sale to ESPN

In late 2006 there were reports of Setanta seeking to sell NASN, and a sale was soon confirmed, with ESPN purchasing NASN for €70m.^[1]

It is not known if ESPN plans to change the channel's name from NASN to ESPN, bringing the channel's name in line with ESPN Classic (UK). The fate of NASN 2 is also in question.

It is thought that ESPN will use the new channel as a foothold to compete with BSkyB and Setanta for access to the FA Premier League when its bidding rights come up in 2009-10.

[edit] NASN programming

NASN's coverage is exclusively taken from the American and Canadian sports broadcasters. It was a joint venture between Benchmark Capital Europe and Setanta Sports and was operated by Setanta Sports in their headquaters in Dublin, Ireland.