From tomorrow, Friday the 22nd of January, until this coming Sunday, sports channel ESPN will be free-to-view.

The weekend’ sporting action will be free on Sky, Virgin, BT Vision, Top Up TV, TalkTalk TV and Freeview.

The lead event that will be shown free is the Inter vs AC Milan, live on Sunday night from 7pm (David Beckham). Other freebiews include Motherwell vs St Mirren, Juventus vs Roma, UFC Best of 2009, LA Lakers at NY Knicks, and more.

For details of how to watch ESPN, see our ESPN Sports page.

Setanta Sports used to offer subscription to those with a Freeview TV or set-top box. Those with a Freeview TV needed something called a CAM, which is a metal card that slides into the TV set and accepts a subscription card.

Setanta used to sell these cards to customers. When Setanta ceased to offer their service in the UK, ESPN took over to offer a sports service to the UK, but they didn’t offer a CAM to customers. This left many potential ESPN subscribers scouring the net for old Setanta Sports CAMs

Until recently, viewers had to resort to EBay to get an old Setanta CAM, but a month or so back it became possible to get a suitable CAM direct from Top Up TV, who manage the UK ESPN subscriptions.

Now, ESPN CAMs are much easier to find, and you can pick one up quite cheaply online from Laskys.co.uk. These kits come with a CAM and subscription card (plus a month’s free ESPN).

For more details on getting a CAM for your Freeview TV, see our ESPN CAM page.

As of today, ESPN is available on BT Vision. If you’re a football fan, you’ll be aware that Setanta Sports went into administration in June 2009, and ESPN acquired the rights to the English and Scottish Premier League matches previously owned by Setanta.

ESPN now has a UK sports channel to cover the Premier League matches, plus other sporting events. ESPN’s UK sports channel went live on Sky and Virgin on the 3rd of August and is now also available on BT Vision.

BT Vision customers will get ESPN at no extra cost if they subscribe to any one of the Vision packages (Bronze, Silver, Gold). This applies to new and existing customers.

If you don’t yet have BT Vision, BT’s also running on online exclusive deal – if you sign up to a BT phone, TV or Broadband package, you’ll get 3 months of free broadband. Include a BT Vision package for inclusive ESPN. More details: 3 Months free Broadband offer

Coverage of the Barclays Premier League starts from Saturday the 15th of August with Everton vs Arsenal. Then there’s the West Ham vs Tottenham Hotspurs match the following Sunday – both exclusively live on ESPN.

Top-Up TV customers can also get ESPN – for a monthly subscription of £9.99 a month. New customers signing to Top Up TV will get the first month for free, then it’s £9.99 a month.

Latest info, prices and links: radioandtelly.co.uk/channels/espn.html

From 3rd August 2009, Virgin Media will be carrying the ESPN channel, which will show the 2009/10 Premier League matches originally intended to be shown by Setanta.

Earlier this month, ESPN came to an agreement with Sky to carry the Premier League matches on a new ESPN channel – now Virgin has signed up too. Both Virgin and Sky will also offer HD coverage of Premier League matches.

ESPN will be free to those on the Virgin Media TV XL package. It’s also available to ‘M’ and ‘L’ package customers for £10 (or £8 if you also subscribe to Sky Sports).

More information on our ESPN UK page