German sports broadcaster Sport1 will close down Sport1 US, its thematic channel for fans of US sports, on January 24, 2019.
The new eSports channel eSports1, which will launch on the same day, will take over the channel’s slots, a Sport1 spokesman confirmed to Broadband TV News.
After ESPN America, Sport1 US is the second channel specialising in US sports to cease broadcasting in Germany. The sportamerica HD venture planned by German sports broadcaster sportdigital was not realised after Sport1 US acquired the key US sports rights from ESPN America in which sportdigital was interested for the new channel.
“eSports1 will take over the place of Sport1 US from January 24 and, alongside Sport1+, will form the second pillar of Sport1’s pay-TV offer,” said the Sport1 spokesman. “However, US sports will remain an important part of our pay-TV line-up: With the NBA and NHL, the two previous programme highlights from Sport1 US will be broadcast live on Sport1+ from the end of January.”
The spokesman did not comment on the question why the closure of Sport1 US was not disclosed together with the announcement of the launch of eSports1.
