Goooaalll!! ESPN Wins U.K. Soccer Rights

ESPN's deal pits Disney against its media-conglomerate rival, News Corp.(NWS Quote), part owner of British Sky Broadcasting(BSY Quote), which has long held sway as the Premier League's television mainstay.

Indeed, BSkyB owns a majority of the rights to the league's games next season -- a total of 92 -- and 115 matches for each of the following three season. It acquired that lot earlier in the year for a reported 1.6 billion pounds.

(The Premier League divides each season into six "packages" of 23 games. No one broadcaster, according to the EU's equivalent of antitrust laws, is allowed to own all six.)

ESPN has already agreed to distribute the matches over BSkyB's satellite network, but has said that it wants to use other pay-TV channels, as well. According to Dow Jones, ESPN has been in talks with Virgin Media(VMED Quote) and BT Group(BT Quote), the UK telecom giant, which has a pay-TV service.