ESPN, the US sports cable channel owned by Walt Disney, will bid for the Premier League rights held by Setanta in the event that the struggling media company is forced to relinquish them, according to a person familiar with the process.

ESPN missed out on the rights when they were auctioned in February, with British Sky Broadcasting picking up five of the packages and only one going to Setanta. Since then, however, Setanta has been hit by a cash crunch and needs to complete a financial restructuring to stay afloat. The Premier League said this week it would re-auction Setanta’s rights if the company failed to make a £10m payment on Friday.