Premier League for free for first time in 20 years as ESPN air Man City Fulham

[satandpcguy]

Premier League in your home for free for first time in 20 years as ESPN air Manchester City v Fulham on Freeview

Fans will be able to watch a Barclays Premier League match for free for the first time ever next month.

Broadcaster ESPN have announced that their flagship channel will be free-to-view over the weekend starting Friday, February 3.

As a result, people who just have basic Freeview, of which there around 10m in the United Kingdom, will be able to watch Fulham's trip to Manchester City on Saturday, February 4.

This will be the first time that a Premier League match has been made available for free.

Viewers will also be able to watch matches from Serie A and the Bundesliga, while basketball, tennis and UFC will also be screened during the four-day period.

"Millions of UK fans have already discovered the great range of great sport ESPN offers – from the Barclays Premier League to Serie A, to cricket, darts, motorsports and UFC," said ESPN vice president Jeroen Oerlemans.

"This is a great opportunity for us to introduce that to millions more and let them sample the programming ESPN has on offer."

Nokia's new Lumia smart phone will sponsor the weekend.

The match will also be made available unencrypted to BSkyB, BT Vision and Top Up TV customers, meaning that it has a potential audience of 20m. The game will not be shown free to Virgin Media customers.