Premier League free on cable for first month

London: Cable TV viewers will be able to watch ESPN's live Premier League coverage free from next month as an introductory offer after the US sports broadcaster signed a distribution deal with Virgin Media.

Disney-owned ESPN is launching a new UK cable and satellite subscription channel, and a high definition service, to carry its Premier League matches and Scottish Premier League next season from August 3.

The 2009-10 season starts on August 15, when ESPN will have live coverage of Everton v Arsenal, hosted by the former BBC presenter Ray Stubbs .

Under the deal, Virgin Media's customers will gain free access to matches aired by ESPN in August on both its standard and high definition channels.

After that, subscribers to Virgin's XL TV channels package will get ESPN's new UK sports channel and its archive programming service, ESPN Classic, free. This is the same arrangement Virgin Media had with Setanta, the former holder of the Premier League and SPL rights that passed to ESPN after the Irish pay-TV broadcaster went into administration in late June.