North American Sports Network

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Good news for US sports fans. A bit pricey at €14.99 though.

Co-founder of Microsoft and the world's fourth richest man, Mr Paul Allen, will invest up to €10 million in a joint-venture television firm based in Dublin, called North American Sports Network.

The start-up , which is the brainchild of the Irish firm Setanta, will broadcast an American sports channel to US and Canadian ex- pats living in the Republic and in Britain on the Sky Digital satellite platform.

Broadcasts are scheduled to begin in December with the firm using content sourced from several American television networks such as ESPN and Fox.

Mr Leonard Ryan, joint chief executive of Setanta Sports - one of a group of firms that provide TV, radio and mobile services - said the North American Sports Network was a joint venture between Setanta and Mr Allen's venture firm Vulcan Ventures.

He would not disclose the value of Vulcan's investment but confirmed it would be the majority shareholder in the company.

But sources later told The Irish Times the investment was worth up to €10 million, and the full cost of launching and running the new channel was up to €20 million.

The cash will be used to pay for broadcast content from US and Canadian TV networks, marketing campaigns and staff.

The firm would employ 15 to 30 staff in its first year, said Mr Ryan.

Mr Ryan said one of Setanta's employees had approached Mr Allen through a family friend about the idea to target a channel at US and Canadian ex-pats. It is estimated that up to 500,000 ex-pats work and live in the Republic and Britain.

All US and Canadian sports including baseball, hockey and football would be carried on the channel, he said.

The channel will broadcast both live and delayed live sports events 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It had secured rights to college matches also, said Mr Ryan.

He said the final cost of a subscription to the new sports channel was expected to be about €14.99 per month on Sky Digital.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2002/1025/2184118908BWALLEN.html

AMcG

Can't wait for this, except yes at €15 it's very pricey. I certainly don't have €180 a year to set aside for just one channel...

yankinlk

WAHOOO! is all i can say. no amount is too much if i can get march madness college basketball...
GO TERPS!

<edit> thanks for posting the article cigman.

Robert

Are they are gonig to show live baseball, what will be the case with baseball coverage because five show 2 espn games a week during season & are they going to show basketball (Nba) because I don't thing that skysports realy care much about there coverage even dough they are showing 35 games this season because the NBA season started last night and they don't have any Live games Listings on there web sight. The only channel That I know showing live NBA so far is C+ Blauw who showed the Spurs at the Lakers last nightl. I wonder will theb picture quality be not great like sentanta sports. We need more american sports coverage. I spent over €900 going to america to watch 2 Atlanta Falcons games & 6 Atlanta Braves games because coverage is very limited here it is not cheep so to pay €15 is not so bad also wee need collage football on tv here.

yankinlk

p u n c t u a t i o n !

My favorite US sports in order of viewing importance:

1. College Basketball especially all March Madness coverage.
2. College Footbal or at least the Bowl games.
3. Amercian Football (or at least playoff/superbowl, washingotn versus Dallas)
4. Baseball Playoffs/World Series, rest of season a bit like cricket really. (yawn)
5. NBA Basketball Playoffs, rest of season a bit like cricket really. (yawn)
6. Golf (u gotta problem with that?)

PS, and LIVE is not really an issue with me...i would love it if they just gave us delayed coverage.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

1. College Basketball especially all March Madness coverage. Thumbs UP
2. College Footbal or at least the Bowl games. Yawn
3. Amercian Football (or at least playoff/superbowl, washingotn versus Dallas) Yawn
4. Baseball Playoffs/World Series, rest of season a bit like cricket really. (yawn) Baseball is only good when your in Yankee Stadium
5. NBA Basketball Playoffs, rest of season a bit like cricket really. (yawn) Boo to that! I spend the month of May wandering around like a zombie from staying up every night
6. Golf (u gotta problem with that?) Yes

Haven't seen march madness in a few years, there's not very many ways to get it. I got one of the final four games last year, but that's it.

As for Sky and their crap NBA coverage, I think they only buy the rights for the second half of the season. So I don't think they'll show any games before All Star Weekend.

AMcG

Folks, there was an email waiting for me in my inbox this morning from Setanta. Here's the bulk of it...

"During the baseball season, we will be showing baseball tonight every day, as well as around 12 live games per week. Makes my mouth water, as well!! We will also have loads of basketball football and ice hockey, as well as most of the key us highlights and entertainment programs from espn and others."

Now that sounds very, very good to me. The 12 games applies to baseball only by the way, so if you add basketball and rest into the mix then this could be a cracking good station.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

The baseball and basketball seasons don't overlap by much, so I presume that in the summer they'd concentrate on baseball and in winter basketball/NFL etc.

AMcG

I received more information from Setanta today regarding the North American Sports Network. Here's the main points:-

1) They will have a website for the channel.

2) They've done a deal with ESPN to supply sports news/sports entertainment/sports highlights programming.

3) They'll be showing around 12 live MLB games per week

4) They'll be showing around 6 live NHL games per week

5) They'll be showing "tons of college basketball and football"

6) They hope to have the NBA and NFL on board soon - haven't done so yet but are still negotiating

7) The subscription price will be £9.99/month for an annual subscription, however it will be £12.99 for month-to-month. They have also considered a season-ticket price.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Originally posted by AMcG
6) They hope to have the NBA and NFL on board soon - haven't done so yet but are still negotiating

Typical! They're the ones that Sky Sports have the rights to... I think they'll probably get the NBA though, since Sky only show half the season. The NFL might be a bit more difficult.

dougal

As long as they show Sportscenter with proper NFL highlights I'll be happy.

DMC

Thats something I've always noticed....

Why do Sky Sports show the NFL Films versions of highlights, rather than the footage as broadcast on Fox, CBS, ABC or ESPN? I prefer to watch the coverage as is show on TV, and not like something from a Goldie Hawn film!

dougal

Yeah all that Locker Room footage and sideline trash talking is a waste of time! Just show me the big plays and more importantly show them in real-time not slow-motion with corny music in the background!!!

Plus Sky's highlights are shown late in the week - I'd rather see them the day after.
I am really looking forward to this channel its a pity the college football season will be all but over when it starts!

The Cigarette Smoking Man

The worst of all is Sky and the Superbowl, can't remember last year, but definitely the year before - they used their own crappy commentators. They did that for the NBA finals a while back as well. Hopefully Setanta with their shoe string budget won't be able to force that on us

dougal

Worse than that is US Olympic Games coverage on NBC over there.

"Now we go over to the hundred metres crawl final at the pool - favourite for this is Suzi Chan of the USA!!! Suzi had a tough childhood when her dog 'Chipper' was killed by a snow plow! But she has fought back from that dissappointment and now stands on the threshold of immortality here in the final!"

This would be interespersed with black and white footage of Suzi playing with a dog in the snow and looking at picture of dog and crying. She would then go on to lose the final never to be heard from again!

But I do agree Kevin Cadle is pretty bad!

AMcG

But I do agree Kevin Cadle is pretty bad!

Understatement of the year! The Superbowl commentary was truly, truly awful. Mind you, Sky manage to ruin international soccer, rugby and cricket commentary too so at least they're being consistent...

Regarding the subscription price, they said that they felt they could not hit their targets if they reduced the price any further due to the expense of the actual launch itself.

Does anyone else see a problem with this?

I can see only two scenarios here.

Either 1): They have engaged in hugely comprehensive market research that conclusively showed that they should target this channel at a very, very specific market segment (i.e. all US ex-pats living in Ireland and the UK) and that targeting anyone else would be a waste of time.

or 2): They made a rash, generalistic assumption that only US ex-pats would have any interest in American sports.

Now this is only my opinion, but in my experience there used to be a lot more interest in the NFL here in Ireland way back when there was coverage on Channel 4. Games on Sunday/Monday nights and an hour's highlights/preview show on Saturday mornings, it was great. I'd be willing to bet a large sum of money that the general viewing figures for the NFL crashed massively on its transfer to Sky, and have crashed still further since it's gone to Sky Sports Extra, which almost nobody has. If this channel were made more widely available, it would get viewers, full stop. I could envisage many general sports fans out there shelling out for this channel if it were to be more moderately priced...

BTW, needless to say their takeup figures would suffer big time without the NFL. Speaking for myself only, £120 (or €180 over here) would be a hell of a lot to pay for the baseball season

dougal

Since they are only launching on Sky Digital you would think that they would want to entice as many people on that platform as possible as only a small percentage of US ex-pats will have dishes anyway.
I wonder when they are going to announce a schedule lineup.
They will probably get a preview channel setup pretty soon too.

yankinlk

Originally posted by AMcG


5) They'll be showing "tons of college basketball and football"

Just what I needed on this dreary monday to give me a reason to live...

woohoo! all the other sports can go hang with their overpaid players, give me the college play anytime.

cigman, agreed, the coverage of SB is poor, but its steadily gotten better over the last few years. At least the commentary DURING the match is using the live US commentary. Its only during the HUGE amounts of commercials that they revert to the bland Local commentary. I can live with that, but the SB will never be the same untill you get to see the actual US commercials...who watches the SB for the crap game anyway?

dougal

Looks like this channel has started to test on 11623 H

Got this info from Digital Spy

Hopefully it will give us an idea of what to expect.

carrolls

Sounds like Setanta didn't do their homework once again.
The whole venture smells like a repeat of the Teamtalk 252 fiasco and
that was free and less specialised.
The vast majority of US ex-pats who come over to the British Isles are
either Hi-Tech nurds or arty-farty types who would have no interest in Sport.
Multiply the US ex-pats who don't belong to these groups by the percentage of US ex-pats who have Satellite dishes. Then multipy your sub-total by the percentage of US ex-pats who ar willing to pay €15.00 a month for the channel.
You will end up with about 10 US ex-pats.
In other words they are going to have to market the channel to non US ex-pats.

€15.00 a month??? hmmmmm
Bugger off , Setanta.

dougal

I love the 2 Setanta PPV channels with nothing on them!
Absolutely hilarious they are!!!

€15 a month is very steep when you consider that most of their live games midweek will be on in the middle of the night!

Tony

I disagree we get more enquiries from US sports fans than any other non national group.

Tony

Originally posted by carrolls
The vast majority of US ex-pats who come over to the British Isles are
either Hi-Tech nurds or arty-farty types who would have no interest in Sport.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Eurobird 28,5° East 11623 H SR 27500 2/3 id cjx

dougal

Is there anything being shown on this - I tried last night and just got blue screen.
The program info said NASN FREEVIEW and the info gave a phone number to subscribe to.

Robert

Does any one know if they are going to show NASCAR Live or delay but more than 1 hour a week that Eurosport shows a week

Robert

North American Sports Channel test signal (CJX) is now showing a loop of a old episode of this week in baseball.

DMC

I'll merge this with the existing thread...

dazcush

anybody know if NASN is going to be available on NTL digital, or is it exclusive to SKY?

cheers

DC

Robert

The North American Sports Network websight is rumored to be up with in 24hr @ www.NASN.com

The Cigarette Smoking Man

It's up now, there's a faq on the site. It's only on Sky Digital:

NASN will be available on Channel 420 on Sky Digital from December 5. The channel will be free to view for all homes with Sky Digital for approximately 2 weeks. The channel will then become an encrypted subscription service.

No NBA or NFL:

What about the NBA and the NFL? We are always working to bring you more North American sports to the UK and Ireland, be they live games, tape delayed games, week in review programs and/or highlights. Stay tuned.

Robert

It is a pity that there is know NBA & NFL. But you can yet your weekly fix of Nfl between & five. The skysports coverage of NBA is a descrase they are only showing taped games and now higlights. hopefully NASN will at least carry NBA.

Robert

Cjx test channel active again showing This week in baseball the picture is freezinf all the time but the quality is vey good now stuck on the This week in baseball logo

yankinlk

· College Basketball: Our problem here is that we will have too many games to choose from! Nonetheless, we expect to bring you up to 10 live and delayed games each week, from the Big East, the ACC, the Big Ten, the SEC, the PAC 10, the Big 12 and other top conferences (including the end-of-season conference tournaments). As with college football, Saturday and Sunday afternoon basketball games will be broadcast live in UK/Eire primetime.

· March Madness!: We will provide coverage of all the games and live broadcasts of every game from the Sweet Sixteen onwards, all the way to the Championship Game! A total of more than 30 live games from the Big Dance. We are drooling already!


yeah babeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Robert

I was watching the NASN test channel to day and it said that the channel would start on the 9th of December. But when I read the FAQ on there websight it said the 5th of December, does any body know which date is right.

DMC

The 5th is Thursday week, the 9th is a Monday.

I'd predict its Monday week.

spanner_head

Taken from wotsat.com.....

New US sports channel to be free in December
The North American Sports Network has announced it will start broadcasting on Sky Digital channel 420 on December 5. The channel has said it will transmit free for several weeks before becoming a subscription channel in late December. NASN will cost £9.99 per month as part of a 12-month subscription, or £12.99 per month otherwise. [Nov 22]

dazcush

I've been reliably informed by an inside source that the launch date is definitely the 9th of dec.

Robert

NASN Web Site is up with TV listings for the next week.

philipe

NASN is now up and running on Ch 420 with preview ads but live action starts on Saturday

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Programs start at 3.30pm on Saturday. It'll be partially encrypted for the two week freeview, so I dunno if they're going to show live games for free. There's probably licencing problems with some of the content..

yankinlk

OKAAAAY....NOT IMPRESSED SO FAR.

I watched the first program this weekend, and was delighted that it was a matchup of my old college in basketball. Fantastic game - very close, down to the last second when it was tied up...player throws a 50 foot jumper that goes in but the referees said it was after the buzzer...so overtime.

What a debut, i was drooling...i woulda paid 50 euro a month for action like this. but then.... the problems started 4 minutes into the 5 minute overtime. 1 minute left, timeout. NASN goes to commercial break, when they get back the tape has rewound to the start of overtime. I think, no big deal, ill won't mind watching that again if i get to see the last minute...

no joy. when the tape gets to the last minute again, it pauses and goes off for 10 minutes...then just shows a loop of the preview signal. i never got to see the last minute, 20 minutes later, they launched into the next scheduled program.

Is this a preview or still a test signal? they need to get this right if they expect me to pay 15 squid a month. FFS, i wouldnt mind missing the first minute..but the last minute is unforgivable.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

I was watching that too. They made a right arse of the end of it. Couldn't believe it when they made the 50 foot hail mary at the end. BTW Indiana won.

yankinlk

so im not insane then. i hope the problem is not that if the game goes to overtime, they cant handle re-gigging the time slots...i mean, that's the point of watching sports, for the result.

if the game goes into OT and overruns another game/whatever no one would complain. but please dont lose the RESULT!