SETANTA SPORTS

'Setanta Sports' (pronunciation: ) is an international sports broadcaster, operating 12 channels in 24 countries. The availability of these channels varies depending on the delivery platform and location.

Contents

History

Availability

Ireland

United Kingdom

Channels

Availability

Notes

Selected Rights

Known Costs

Security Concerns

Advertising

United States

Australia

Canada

References

External links

History

Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to Irish expatriates. More recently the network has expanded and it now broadcasts an extensive array of top live sporting events aimed at international English-speaking audiences. Setanta Ireland's CEO is Niall Cogley, former Director of Sport at RTÉ. The company's headquarters is 4th Floor, Georges Quay House, 43 Townsend Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. Joint Group CEOs Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, COO Mark O'Meara and CFO Nigel Brennan are all based in that area.
The very name 'Setanta', comes from the name of the ancient Irish Gaelic Warrior 'Setanta' from the Irish province of Ulster, who frequently played the oldest known field sport, hurling, and who was later given the name 'Cúchulainn' as described in the ancient Irish/Gaelic texts of the 'Annals of Ulster'.

Availability

Setanta Sports offers commercial venues in several countries around the world programming of sports such as football, Gaelic football ,Hurling, golf, cricket, Australian Rules Football, rugby union and rugby league.

Ireland

In Ireland, Setanta Sports' Channels are available on a number of different platforms. Its flagship Channel Setanta Ireland is available for free on UPC Ireland's basic cable package and as a subscription service on Sky Digital. With Sky Digital subscribers receive the full array of Setanta Sports channels — Setanta Sports, Setanta Sports 1 & 2, Celtic TV, Rangers TV, NASN, Racing UK and Racing World.
Setanta also offers a commercial service for Business premises comprising of Setanta Ireland, Setanta Golf, Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2, Celtic TV, Rangers TV and Racing World.

United Kingdom

Channels

In the United Kingdom, the Setanta channels are:

★ Setanta Sports 1

★ Setanta Sports 2

★ Setanta Ireland (although some events shown on this channel, for which Setanta only has the Irish rights - for example, The Open golf, Formula One motor racing, the UEFA Champions League and Saturday afternoon Premier League matches - are blocked to UK subscribers, even though they still appear in the UK Sky Digital EPG)

★ Setanta Golf

★ Racing UK

★ Racing World

★ NASN (now owned by ESPN)

★ Setanta Pay Per View 1

★ Setanta Pay Per View 2 (defunct)

★ Rangers TV

★ Celtic TV

★ Liverpool FC TV - announced ^[1][2]

★ Setanta Sports News - announced

Availability

Setanta Sports is available on the following platforms in the UK:

★ Digital Terrestrial Television (Requires a DTT (Freeview) box with a CAM or card slot)

★ BT Vision (from July 2007)

★ BSkyB

★ Virgin Media (free with the 'XL' TV package ^[3])

★ Broadband (Available via a stream across the internet)

Notes

★ Only one channel (Setanta Sports 1) is available via Digital Terrestrial Television and BT Vision.

★ Only seven channels are available via Virgin Media^[4]

★ Only three channels (Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2 and Setanta Golf) are available via Setanta by Broadband.

Selected Rights

★ 46 live Barclays Premier League games (2007-2010)

★ 60 live Scottish Premier League matches (2004-2010)

★ Blue Square Premier and Setanta Shield matches (English Non-League)

★ PGA Tour events (with the exception of the major championships and the World Golf Championships), Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events (2007-2012)^[5]

★ The German Bundesliga

★ The French Ligue 1

★ The Dutch Eredivisie

★ Portuguese Liga

★ Magners League rugby

★ The Australian National Rugby League (NRL) football competition

★ The Australian Football League (AFL) football competition
Selected live boxing.
Live Ultimate Fighting Championship events held in the UK.
Selected live greyhound racing.
IAAF golden league athletics.
Le mans 24 hour race. (shared with Motors TV.)
Community Sheild
Live FA Cup football.
Live England home friendlies.
England under 21 and B games.

Known Costs

★ English Premier League rights - £392m over three years.^[6]

★ Scottish Premier League rights - £13.625m per year ^[7]

★ PGA Tour - £103m ⁵

★ FA Cup - £425m (shared with ITV)

Security Concerns

Concerns have been raised over the security and viability of Setanta's digital terrestrial channel provided by Top Up TV, because the Mediaguard conditional access system was cracked in continental Europe in 2004.^[8][9] News Corporations SKY Italia service suffered heavy losses due to piracy and more than 3 million Italian homes accessed pay-TV services through hacked decoder cards for conditional access set top boxes and conditional access modules for digital televisions and personal video recorders.^[10] Sky Italia had to switch from the insecure Mediaguard to the secure VideoGuard cryptographic algorithm encryption system.¹⁰

Advertising

Former BBC and ITV Sport presenter Des Lynam, together with actress Thaila Zucchi starred in the advertising launch of Setanta's coverage of Premier League football from August 2007. The motto used in this advert is "Setanta Sports - £9.99 a month, no annual contract."^[11]

United States

Main articles: Setanta Sports North America

Setanta Sports North America, currently available in the United States,^[12] is split into four parts:

★ Setanta Sports Channel for domestic and commercial satellite customers, as well IPTV service provider ITVN.

★ Setanta Premium pay-per-view for commercial venues

★ Setanta Broadband, offering live and delayed streaming video to broadband computer users

★ Setanta Mobile offering real time live match scores
Setanta Sports is currently available on the DISH Network (Channel 406); DIRECTV (Channel 615 with an overflow channel called Setanta Xtra on 670); GlobeCast WorldTV (Channel 752 - Residential only) and ITVN.com.
Top football features include live English Premiership, UEFA Champions League, Euro 2008 Qualifiers, Coca-Cola Championship, Dutch & French Leagues, Scottish Premier League, German FA Cup, Asian Cup Qualifiers, Asian Champions League and MUTV and ChelseaTV.
Setanta Sports North America carries most of the world's top rugby competitions, including the upcoming 2007 Rugby World Cup, Six Nations, Tri Nations, Super 14, British & Irish Lions matches, Currie Cup, Heineken Cup, Guinness Premiership, Magners League and EDF Energy Cup, all in union, plus live broadcasts of the Australian NRL, European Super League and Australian AFL.

Australia

'There are three Channels in Australia:'

★ Setanta Sports Pay-Per-View

★ Setanta Sports Pub Channel

★ Setanta Sports Broadband
Setanta Sports Australia shows premium live sporting events from Europe primarily to Australian pubs and clubs and also via broadband. Setanta honours its Irish origins with in depth coverage of the Gaelic Athletic Association football and hurling championships. For football fans Setanta delivers the Scottish Premier League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, Portuguese Liga, Eircom League, Setanta Irish Cup, and soccer international qualifiers. Setanta also has large rugby union coverage (Guinness Premiership, EDF Energy Cup, Magners League and the Six Nations Championship).
Setanta Sports now has a domestic pay television sports channel available for $29.95 per month if you have the right satellite dish. In September it will be included on the Foxtel and Austar services at a price of $14.95 a month (although this has not been confirmed by foxtel).

Canada

On August 10 2007, a Canadian version of Setanta Sports was launched. Currently the service is available to Shaw digital cable customers on channel 154, Rogers digital cable customers on channel 429, Bell ExpressVu on channel 420, and Star Choice on channel 239. Cogeco is showing a free viewing of the station until September 7th, after which it will become a stand alone service at 14.99/mth

References

1.
1237.htm PARRY: NEW TV CHANNEL FOR A NEW ERA, ''Liverpool FC Official Site'', 11 July 2007.
2. REDS TO LAUNCH NEW TV CHANNEL ON SETANTA, ''Liverpool FC Official Site'', 11 July, 2007.
3. Virgin adds free Setanta to top TV pack. ''Digital Spy'', Friday 20 July 2007.
4. Virgin Central
5. Broadcaster is seeking £200m for TV soccer. ''The Sunday Times'', 1 July 2006.
6. English Premier League TV Broadcast Rights - 2007-2010 ''Football Economy''.
7. Record TV deal could result in Monday night matches for SPL. ''The Scotsman'', 28 April, 2006].
8. Setanta sports channel faces piracy challenge
9. Italy - Sky Italia service facing serious piracy threat.
10. Murdoch's Italian pay-TV venture is on course
11. Lynam fronts Setanta campaign
12. ''Setanta Sports North America FAQs'', retrieved 19 February 2007.

External links

★ New channel goes big on Premier League

★ Setanta Sports

★ Official Setanta Sports Soccer Shop

★ Official Setanta Sports Rugby Shop

★ Setanta Sports News Information