Setanta Ireland secures 33 Premier League Games

Warper

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2009/0715/setanta1.html

Nuff said

Eire-Dearg

So we'll have to keep paying the subscription with Setanta, plus the deal to get ESPN's games if we wish to do so???

SuprSi

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

So we'll have to keep paying the subscription with Setanta, plus the deal to get ESPN's games if we wish to do so???

Isn't Setanta Ireland free?

Daemos

Lovely news for me since, knowing them, half of them will probably be Liverpool games and Setanta Ireland is one of only two sports channels on my subscription

Eire-Dearg

SuprSi wrote: »

Isn't Setanta Ireland free?

Is it?

That_Guy

SuprSi wrote: »

Isn't Setanta Ireland free?

Nothing is ever free these days.

chopperbyrne

SuprSi wrote: »

Isn't Setanta Ireland free?

It's part of UPCs basic digital subscription package and basic cable (in most areas), but it's part of the Setanta premium package on Sky.

SickBoy

Too little too late me thinks...

Y2J_MUFC

Excellent. Have Setanta Ireland as part of the standard Chorus package. I haven't read the link above, but I've heard they are Saturday morning games.

For anybody who is a Setanta subscriber, if you ring up and say you want to cancel, they will offer you a good deal not to cancel. £5 per month for the next 3 months.

Thats basically like getting 3 out of every 4 weeks free, for the next 3 months.

Mossy Monk

Y2J_MUFC wrote: »

I haven't read the link above, but I've heard they are Saturday morning games.

Saturday morning games? When has there ever been Saturday morning games. They are the Saturday 3pm games.

Diabhal Beag

Win for all us UPC customers so

evad_lhorg

espn is only on sky isnt it?

yabadabado

so its the 3pm games setanta have now whats the story with the 5.30 saturday games?will we need 3 different subs(sky,setanta,ESPN)

evad_lhorg

yabadabado wrote: »

so its the 3pm games setanta have now whats the story with the 5.30 saturday games?will we need 3 different subs(sky,setanta,ESPN)

no if you are on NTL you get setanta for nothing and youd have to pay for sky. Dont think they offer ESPN.

yabadabado

evad_lhorg wrote: »

no if you are on NTL you get setanta for nothing and youd have to pay for sky. Dont think they offer ESPN.

i have sky so i have to pay for setanta.ESPN is gonna be a new channel(possibly taking ESPN americas place on 417 iirc) i think i get ESPN america as part of my setanta package.

Leprechaun77

ESPN are using Sky's platform to broadcast to customers. I fear they will make ESPN's games an 'add on' to their Sports pack, and if you don't subscribe to SkySports, you will be charged a lot more for these games.

This setup in my opinion violates the EU competition legislation that prevented Sky bidding for this set of games initially. They effectively are now controlling these games by dis-incentivising (is that a word?) users who dont take their sports package.

Charlie

F*ck the EU.

Leprechaun77

Charlie wrote: »

F*ck the EU.

These competition rules are put in place to stop monopolies. We all know what eventually happens with a monopoly...

...."and we wont be picking up €200 when we pass GO''

Mossy Monk

evad_lhorg wrote: »

espn is only on sky isnt it?

ESPN hasn't launched yet. It wont do for a few weeks yet

evad_lhorg wrote: »

no if you are on NTL you get setanta for nothing and youd have to pay for sky. Dont think they offer ESPN.

You don't get Setanta Sports 1 for free though.

yabadabado wrote: »

i have sky so i have to pay for setanta.ESPN is gonna be a new channel(possibly taking ESPN americas place on 417 iirc) i think i get ESPN america as part of my setanta package.

ESPN will not be part of the Setanta package on Sky or UPC

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

ESPN are using Sky's platform to broadcast to customers. I fear they will make ESPN's games an 'add on' to their Sports pack, and if you don't subscribe to SkySports, you will be charged a lot more for these games.

ESPN will not be an add on to Sky Sports. It will however be cheaper if you subscribe to Sky Sports on Sky at £9 and it will be £12 if you are not a Sky Sports subscriber. No idea how much it will be here or how the pricing will work on cable.

Leprechaun77

Mossy Monk wrote: »

ESPN will not be an add on to Sky Sports. It will however be cheaper if you subscribe to Sky Sports on Sky at £9 and it will be £12 if you are not a Sky Sports subscriber. No idea how much it will be here or how the pricing will work on cable.

Well if you ask me, the fact that the only platform that ESPN will be available on is SKY Digital (based on all facts available at this stage), it acts as an 'add-on' especially if there is a price differential for standalone subscribers.

Charlie

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

These competition rules are put in place to stop monopolies. We all know what eventually happens with a monopoly...

...."and we wont be picking up €200 when we pass GO''

Bollox.

Theres still essentially a monoply in place (in the form of Pay TV). If both providers showed the same matches, and basically fought each other on price and production values, then yeah, I could see the point of the EU's rules. Or, if X amount of matches had to be sold to terrestrial stations.

But that's not the case. For most fans, they now have to take out two subs instead of one, and pay more than they we're previously. Well fcuking done to the bureaucrats who thought they were making things better for the consumer :rolleyes:

Mossy Monk

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

Well if you ask me, the fact that the only platform that ESPN will be available on is SKY Digital (based on all facts available at this stage), it acts as an 'add-on' especially if there is a price differential for standalone subscribers.

And who said it will only be on Sky Digital? Seeing as it's a fact can you please provide a source. Thanks.

Leprechaun77

Charlie wrote: »

Bollox.

For most fans, they now have to take out two subs instead of one, and pay more than they we're previously.

Fair point Charlie

ctrl-alt-delete

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

Well if you ask me, the fact that the only platform that ESPN will be available on is SKY Digital (based on all facts available at this stage), it acts as an 'add-on' especially if there is a price differential for standalone subscribers.

I'd agree there,

the facts are, it's only be announced to appear on Sky so far,

Sky are responsible for selling advertising on it,

Sky will produce it,

basically it just has ESPN branding.

Whether this is just because it is at short notice as such for ESPN remains to be seen, but as it is this season it will basically be Sky Sports 4,

It wouldn't surprise me to see Sky pundits on it.

Anti-Competition my arse.

Mossy Monk

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

the facts are, it's only be announced to appear on Sky so far,

Virgin Media in the UK have an EPG number set out for it so I doubt it will be Sky only. They have 3 weeks to announce that they will be carrying the channel. It is up to UPC to sort out a carriage deal with ESPN.

Leprechaun77

Mossy Monk wrote: »

And who said it will only be on Sky Digital? Seeing as it's a fact can you please provide a source. Thanks.

To my knowledge, the only broadcaster who has confirmed that they will be showing the ESPN channel so far is SKY. UPC have yet to comment (or I have probably just not come across it yet) Whilst UPC do provide an ESPN channel already, I would guess that the new one will differ a bit. To be honest, I have a pain in my $%^& with all of them and tend to just stream the games on the laptop watch the highlights on Match of the Day.

OPENROAD

Currently on 5 euro for the next three months with Setanta, will be interesting to see what the new subscription fee will be for setanta, it can't be as expensive as it was last season, I was paying 16.50, so it would want to be cheaper than that.

copacetic

this is a right pain in the bollox, now you have to take out 3 seperate subs to get all the premier league games available.

Presumably setanta will move the games to setanta sports 1 now also to try and drive subs, so upc people won't get them for free?

Liam O

It would be great if ESPN just showed the games on ESPN America

thomond2006

Liam O wrote: »

It would be great if ESPN just showed the games on ESPN America

And have American commentators who know nothing about "Socker" ??

No thanks.

Zonda999

copacetic wrote: »

this is a right pain in the bollox, now you have to take out 3 seperate subs to get all the premier league games available.

Presumably setanta will move the games to setanta sports 1 now also to try and drive subs, so upc people won't get them for free?

But i assume that setanta sports 1 is broadcast in the UK as well isnt it? In which case, they cant! Its is prohibited by law to broadcast 3pm EPL games in the UK

Daemos

Looks like they've chosen most of the matches they will be showing up until the end of November. Like I predicted, lots of Liverpool matches there (yay for me )

Link here.

EDIT: Never mind, that's the 08/09 season :rolleyes:

copacetic

Zonda999 wrote: »

But i assume that setanta sports 1 is broadcast in the UK as well isnt it? In which case, they cant! Its is prohibited by law to broadcast 3pm EPL games in the UK

You'd assume incorrectly.

zing

Zonda999 wrote: »

But i assume that setanta sports 1 is broadcast in the UK as well isnt it? In which case, they cant! Its is prohibited by law to broadcast 3pm EPL games in the UK

But hasn't Setanta (UK) has ceased trading - and therefore one assumes broadcasting as well - in the UK in which case moving the games to a channel no longer available to UK viewers shouldn't be an issue ??

ArmaniJeanss

copacetic wrote: »

Presumably setanta will move the games to setanta sports 1 now also to try and drive subs, so upc people won't get them for free?

I don't think so. The last few seasons they had a deal with NTL (UPC) that guaranteed that 25 of these games were to be shown on Setanta Sports Ireland, and that NTL paid them a nice amount of money for this guarantee.

This then allowed NTL to have a Unique Selling Point in their basic package of 25 'free' PL games (because only NTL give Setanta Ireland as part of their basic package).

Hopefully the same deal will still make commercial sense for both sides.

Mossy Monk

thomond2006 wrote: »

And have American commentators who know nothing about "Socker" ??

Their commentary team for soccer in the USA is appalling. There is some Irish guy I have never heard of

Zonda999 wrote: »

But i assume that setanta sports 1 is broadcast in the UK as well isnt it? In which case, they cant! Its is prohibited by law to broadcast 3pm EPL games in the UK

Setanta Sports ceased broadcasting in the UK.

s_carnage

I sent an e-mail to UPC yesterday asking them about whether or not they offer ESPN. I'll post up here there response when i get it.

Probably around December!!!

Mitch Connor

So freaking annoyed by this. the worst part being we actually have UPC in the house, and Setanta Ireland should be part of our package but I have never been able to tune it in - don't think it is on their cable package in Greystones (but they do manage to have the Sky Sports channels. Jerks)

Mossy Monk

Have you contacted them?

Liam O

'ESPN and Sky Sports' (because they are the same thing) have gotten 60 SPL games for next season.

lpool2k05

DaPoolRulz wrote: »

Looks like they've chosen most of the matches they will be showing up until the end of November. Like I predicted, lots of Liverpool matches there (yay for me )

Link here.

Think you may find that was 2008-2009 season

Daemos

lpool2k05 wrote: »

Think you may find that was 2008-2009 season

Damn Google search :rolleyes:

astrofool

Mitch Connor wrote: »

So freaking annoyed by this. the worst part being we actually have UPC in the house, and Setanta Ireland should be part of our package but I have never been able to tune it in - don't think it is on their cable package in Greystones (but they do manage to have the Sky Sports channels. Jerks)

Are you on digital or analogue? Digital is actually cheaper now than an analogue connection and may be worth switching to.

On analogue, Setanta can be a bit funny to find (it's among the higher ranges of the tuner), but should definitely show up, providing your tv has a tuner capable of finding it.

Eirebear

Liam O wrote: »

'ESPN and Sky Sports' (because they are the same thing) have gotten 60 SPL games for next season.

Theyre not the same thing as far as i can tell. The deal is that theyll be showing 30 games a piece. Looks like it will mean two subscription fees for SPL fans.

copacetic

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I don't think so. The last few seasons they had a deal with NTL (UPC) that guaranteed that 25 of these games were to be shown on Setanta Sports Ireland, and that NTL paid them a nice amount of money for this guarantee.

This then allowed NTL to have a Unique Selling Point in their basic package of 25 'free' PL games (because only NTL give Setanta Ireland as part of their basic package).

Hopefully the same deal will still make commercial sense for both sides.

Possibly, however the company that made the deal is gone, as are their rights. The new deal for the rights is with Setanta Hibernia out of Luxembourg apparently, according to todays Times.

They also say that the games will be split across Setanta Ireland and Sports 1 but no defintion of what that split will be.

gucci

thomond2006 wrote: »

And have American commentators who know nothing about "Socker" ??

No thanks.

Might not be much different than alot of the pundits used on Setanta over the years.

astrofool

Why do people think ESPN will use american commentators and display the matches in the states?

They bought the rights to show matches IN THE UK and Ireland. They will set up staff over here to broadcast it. This is part of ESPN expanding their market into Europe.

Drag00n79

Ray Stubbs will be the footy presenter on ESPN.

mousey007

apparently setanta are going to a new price of 16.00 a month and giving it free on an extra box if you have one. i have seen their line-up of games. not bad if you your'e a liverpoll or manu fan. i'll be holding off any decisions until I hear what ESPN are charging. i am starting to think that sky + setanta will do for me or maybe even setanta plus the pub for teh big sky games.:pac:

spockety

Oh for the days of Sky only.

copacetic

mousey007 wrote: »

apparently setanta are going to a new price of 16.00 a month and giving it free on an extra box if you have one. i have seen their line-up of games. not bad if you your'e a liverpoll or manu fan. i'll be holding off any decisions until I hear what ESPN are charging. i am starting to think that sky + setanta will do for me or maybe even setanta plus the pub for teh big sky games.:pac:

thats absolutely crazy pricing, their service has been cut by at least 2/3rds!
Personally I'll cancel on principle rather than pay that. Have you a link for the infor?

ESPN pricing was already announced a while back, I linked it somewhere from the Irish Times. It was €9 if you have sky sports and €14 if you didn't afair.