ESPN offer first free Premier League game - is it the beginning of the end?
Should this experiment prove to be successful, it will raise further questions about the longevity of the paid subscription service as football tries to adapt with the advances in digital media.
Sky and the ESPN currently share pay-for-view coverage in the UK following the £1.78 billion deal for the rights to cover matches between 2010 and 2013.
However, the Premier League is already seeing its profit margin eroded by the popularity of live streaming websites, which offer feeds of games from foreign distributors.
The increase in availability coupled with the improvement in quality of these streams, means greater numbers of fans are becoming inclined to watch matches via their computers rather than pay to view them on television.
There is, of course, also the case of Portsmouth publican Karen Murphy , which has forced the Premier League to reconsider how it packages its television rights going forward.
Last September, the European Court of Justice ruled that Mrs Murphy was not in breach of the law when she used a decoder to screen Greek footage of the Premier League games in her pub.