Setanta Sports USA
| Setanta Sports | |
|---|---|
| Setanta Sports logo | |
| Launched | April 26, 2005 |
| Closed | February 28, 2010 |
| Owned by | Setanta Sports |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Replaced by | Fox Soccer Plus (unconnected) |
Setanta Sports USA was a premium television channel launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the United States and Caribbean.
Setanta Sports had the rights to delayed Manchester United and Chelsea matches on MUTV and Chelsea TV, which were shown in segments within the channel. Any given broadcaster can only gain access to a maximum of 2 club channels under the current Premier League international TV rights.
On January 27, 2010, Setanta Sports announced that they had reached an agreement with Fox Soccer Channel to transfer rights to select programming (soccer & rugby) that would be effective as of March 1. In addition, Setanta Sports announced that they would cease broadcasting the channel in the US and Caribbean on February 28, 2010.[1] The channel signed off on March 1, 2010 at 12:00 AM EST.
Contents
Ownership changes
As of July 27, 2009 the ownership structure of Setanta Sports North America Limited changed. Setanta Sports North America Limited was owned by Sabloss. Both Setanta Sports Channel Ireland Limited and Setanta Sports North America Limited were licensed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.[2]
Programming
Setanta Sports USA
Soccer
- Shared live rights with ESPN2 and Fox Soccer Channel of the Barclays Premier League.[3] Matches are currently Saturdays at 10am ET (a second live match airs on Setanta Xtra and is rebroadcast on the main channel later that day), Sundays at 8:30am and first-choice of any mid-week matches. Matches from the Saturday 10am ET timeslot that were not originally shown live on ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel are shown on tape delay in the evening on Setanta Sports.
- Shared live rights with ESPN360 of live Carling Cup football.
- Shared live rights with Fox Soccer Channel of the UEFA Champions League (Setanta also has some matches delayed to later that night or the following day).
- Shared live rights with ESPN360 of Football League Championship, League One and League Two matches, including play-offs.
- Live Euro 2012 qualifiers. Others air on tape delay either later on in the day, or a few days later if the live broadcast was on pay-per-view.
- Live French Ligue 1 football.
- Live Russian Premier League football.
- Scottish Cup football.
- Delayed and Live Scottish Premier League matches. The delayed matches consist of Old Firm matches which aired live at designated bars/restaurants on Setanta Premium. On the rare occasion where neither Celtic nor Rangers are on, the game aired live.
- Live international football, including friendlies and 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.
- Highlights shows for most of the leagues Setanta broadcasts.
Rugby Union
- Rugby World Cup.
- Live Guinness Premiership, rugby union club competition of England.
- Live Magners League, rugby union clubs of Ireland,Scotland, & Wales.
- Live Heineken Cup, rugby union club cup competition for 6 top European nations.
- Live Super Rugby, rugby union clubs of Australia, New Zealand, & South Africa.
- Live IRB Sevens Rugby.
- Live Currie Cup, rugby union club cup competition for South Africa.
- Six Nations rugby union competition on tape delay
- Summer and fall internationals, a mixture of live and tape delayed
- Live Tri-Nations, international Southern Hemisphere rugby union competition.
Other Events
- Selected live Gaelic Athletic Association events; delayed GAA Championship matches.
- Tape delayed A1GP - Auto racing; "world cup of motorsport"
- Same-day tape delayed Superleague Formula - Auto racing; fusion of soccer (football) and motorsport
Setanta Premium
This was available only to select commercial subscribers for Pay-Per-View events while most are broadcast delayed on the full-time Setanta Sports US channel.
- Gaelic Athletic Association Championship and League events.
- Scottish Premier League.
- FA Cup.
- Six Nations Championship in rugby union.
- Euro 2008 qualifiers, international soccer matches.
- FIFA World Cup Qualification, international soccer matches.
- UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup matches
This service charges fans a cover charge of $10–$20 per head, depending on the match.
Setanta Sports Xtra
Setanta offered the Setanta Sports Xtra Channel at no extra charge to DirecTV customers when two live events need to be aired simultaneously.
Platforms
Broadband
Setanta-I also offered a broadband subscription service, Setanta Broadband, which allowed customers with a high speed internet connection to view some of the Setanta Sports channel content on their computers and includes access to pay-per-view events. Portuguese Liga soccer was available and Premier League matches were also broadcast starting the 2007-08 season on Setanta Broadband. Broadband customers do not receive Australian Football League matches as of July 2008, due to the league's new distribution deal with aussiesport.tv.
See also
Fox Soccer Plus - the channel Fox created after acquiring coverage rights from Setanta Sports USA.
References
- ↑ Setanta Sports USA To Go Dark Feb. 28 - Premium Network, Transferring More Programming Rights To Fox Soccer, Will Also Cease Caribbean Operations Multichannel News January 27, 2010
- ↑ http://www.bci.ie/news_information/press230.html
- ↑ http://www.epltalk.com/espn-adds-premier-league-to-soccer-line-up/9899
