Setanta USA on the way out....

[EastTerracer]

Bad news for those in the USA tonight. It seems that Setanta USA has pulled all of its English Premier League coverage amid rumours that it is about to be sold to Fox Sports. This is likely to have implications for coverage of Ireland games going forward as Setanta's top man in the US has already set up a new company to specialise in PPV coverage and he has already targeted the Euro qualifiers as one of his aims. This would likely mean $20 cover charges to watch in the pubs - so much for progress.

Setanta-i proved a great platform during the last year for watching those games I couldn't travel to from the comfort of my own couch. There are always a few links available to watch the games under the radar but Setanta did provide a TV-quality picture in recent times and it will be hard to revert to an uncertain streaming link elsewhere.

[SkStu]

http://www.epltalk.com/breaking-fox-sports-international-in-talks-to-acquire-setanta-sports/14489

according to that, it seems Setanta Canada is alright for now though the writing may be on the wall. Brutal news for the US exiles anyway.

[Jicked]

$20 in to a pub to watch the game?? Just get a fridge pack of crappy American beer, and invite all your friends over to my mate Justins gaff.

[Metrostars]

Bad news for us in the US. I wonder if Fox will keep the channel going in some form since they already have FSC. I'm sure there'll be no more GAA shown on TV in the US now.

[irishultra]

Bad news for us in the US. I wonder if Fox will keep the channel going in some form since they already have FSC. I'm sure there'll be no more GAA shown on TV in the US now.

lucky for some. it was great when i lived in belgium, never had to hear bout it. no disrespect to the competitors i just find both sports crap as evident that nobody outside ireland gives a **** about either one.

[theworm2345]

They already charge $20 to watch Ireland live in pubs, had to pay $20 to see the Nightmare in Nicosia (and the 1-0 loss to Germany)

[Crosby87]

How is this possibly bad news for us in the US? It cost $20 as it is. Maybe the games will go to Fox or Espn.
If not just watch for free on the net. You can get a fine stream if you work on it, hell half the time the Setanta stream is terrible in the bar!
This could be a good thing. ESPN is still looking to get back at Fox for stealing Champs League and them getting the SPL wont do the trick.

Worm you are so right by the way i have wanted my money back many times over the last 6 years. And nicosia was the worst (and most humiliating.)

[EastTerracer]

How is this possibly bad news for us in the US?

It's bad news because it means less games available to the average football fan and this will particularly affect Ireland games. Since the introduction of the new setanta-i software the Setanta coverage online has been very high quality (far superior to any 'free' internet streams I've ever seen).

The broadband coverage from this World Cup campaign has been excellent (and was included with the $150 annual subscription fee). On a game by game basis setanta-i was charging $14.99 per Ireland game until the playoff when they charged $ 19.99 (greedy, greedy).

Very bad news indeed for those who view from home and I fear it will be much more difficult to see Ireland games going forward.

[Crosby87]

It's bad news because it means less games available to the average football fan and this will particularly affect Ireland games.

I disagree man. For this moment in time you are thinking that.
Someone else will buy the rights. My friend works for Versus and he has been telling me they are itching to air some WC and Euro Qualifying matches. They are expanding, also talking to the NBA. They need programming like that.
Also, ever notice that on qualifying days Fox Soccer Channel's (which is going high def) games are like Turkey vs latvia, Romania vs Estonia and some other crap match? They would jump at the chance to get Ireland on here over that crap. Rupert Murdoch knows this stuff. Plus with most cable channels having the ability to get Sky soon, it will be even more likely.

Dont worry about this. I bet you have Ireland on if you are in the US with Hi def in your apartment or house or mental health ward by Euro 2011.

I hope Setanta is never seen in the US again in any form. I hate it like poison. I am still convinced their form of PPV violates US anti trust laws.

[EastTerracer]

Dont worry about this. I bet you have Ireland on if you are in the US with Hi def in your apartment or house or mental health ward by Euro 2011.

I hope Setanta is never seen in the US again in any form. I hate it like poison. I am still convinced their form of PPV violates US anti trust laws.

I will bet you fortunes that Premium Sports Inc (recently formed by the people jumping ship from Setanta) will have exclusive rights to Ireland games in the 2012 qualifiers and it will only be available in pubs at $20 a head. FSC and ESPN are not willing to pay the fees involved for the relatively small audience that these games would attract. The Latvia and Greece games cost practically nothing which is why Setanta show them for nothing while charging for the Ireland and England games.

FSC and ESPN haven't impressed me with their coverage over the last couple of years and I won't be holding my breath on this.

I think you're referring to their PPV in pubs but Setanta offered a really good PPV service for the Ireland games on domestic broadband which beat most of the coverage I've seen on FSC or ESPN.

[Crosby87]

Well maybe then new group will set up a PPV internet site that will be similar you can use.

If you don't like to pirate things on moral grounds ET, fine, and I am not trying to strike up an argument, but games this last campaign were easily found in very high quality. Frankly I cannot believe you would ever pay for that. (Again unless you object morally.) I mean, i could not take off on those wednesdays usually, and if you know where to look (not saying you dont) you can find them. I had the whole offfice watching on my computer at times and it was like TV...

So if the worst thing is it will still cost 20 beans it is hardly worse. Im telling you any sporting event can be found in pristine quality on the internet if you know where to look. The feed you are paying for is available on the net for free.

[elroy]

In recent times have found sopcast to be very good, far superior to any steams on ustream or justin.tv etc. Nothing more frustrating that watching a stream that keeps going down, stopping. This generally doesnt happen with sopcast.

[tetsujin1979]

I've been getting excellent results with Veetle, although you will need a decent connection speed to get the best picture quality from it

[EastTerracer]

Good news. It looks like Setanta got a (temporary?) reprieve - Arsenal v Everton is live on Setanta USA tomorrow morning ..... weather permitting.

[elroy]

Setanta deal with Fox Sports looks set to close this week.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0111/1224262051406.html

[EastTerracer]

Even if the sale of Setanta does not proceed it appears that Fox will be taking back the Premier League rights from Setanta USA in March. They just announced this morning that they are setting up a new channel which will cover the football matches currently on Setanta
http://www.epltalk.com/fox-soccer-plus-scheduled-to-launch-march-1-2010/14760

[Metrostars]

Here you go:


Fox will announce Tuesday that it is launching its second all-soccer network in the United States on March 1.

The new network, called Fox Soccer Plus, will televise matches of the European Champions League, England's Premier League, the English Football Association Cup and the Italian Serie A....

The new network will draw content from Setanta USA, whose sublicenses with Fox are expiring, a person familiar with the negotiations said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail won't be included in the announcement.....
The new network will be broadcast in high definition; Fox also has been preparing to start high definition telecasts of FSC.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-soc-fox-soccer-second-network,0,7282981.story

Also this tidbit.....

Also Monday, FSC said it was hiring Andy Gray of News Corp.'s Sky Sports in Britain for its studio show during this year's World Cup....ah jeeez

[tetsujin1979]

Will he come with subtitles? His accent can be a bit impenetrable sometimes!

[Crosby87]

I knew this would all work out. The original poster is a Worrying Willy. aka Nervous Nancy.

[EastTerracer]

I knew this would all work out. The original poster is a Worrying Willy. aka Nervous Nancy.

Thanks for the kind words Crosby!

A nice positive American attitude from you! The English Premier League games will be all over Fox Plus (@ $15 a month) but I'm pretty sure they won't be showing Irish international games. I remain a worried Irish fan.

[billybunter]

the sooner the better these mercenary ba$tards (setanta) are out of business the better. they are a disgrace and have been fleecing the irish exile for far to long. .

[paul_oshea]

billybunter billybunter.

i thought billybunter was in the uK?!

[billybunter]

billybunter billybunter.

i thought billybunter was in the uK?!

been in the US since '94. the number of times that shower of sh*t at setanta have screwed me over. best one was when they had our game with the czech republic (last euro qualifying round) on tape delay so they could show england live in the pub. the response I got from their anti customer service dept " ireland were mathematically out of qualifying at that time - which was wrong. their mercenary fleecing of irish sports fans wont be missed. they bit off more than they could chew here in the states, and I for one hope they go belly up (unless of course obama, or the Queen - which would be quite fitting) bail them out.

[paul_oshea]

i thought it was you billybunter a few years ago that went onto explain to your wife that the kids couldn't have england jerseys even though ireland kept failing to qualify for tournaments and it was getting tougher everytime they failed to qualify to justify it to wifey. And the grief you were getting by not letting them get england jerseys....i wonder who that was now.
it must have been another billy or bunter.

[Metrostars]

Thanks for the kind words Crosby!

A nice positive American attitude from you! The English Premier League games will be all over Fox Plus (@ $15 a month) but I'm pretty sure they won't be showing Irish international games. I remain a worried Irish fan.

They won't be showing GAA or Rugby either so that's a bummer. But no worries, Shane O'Rourke has created his brand new Premium Sports to keep on fleecing us Irish fans in the pubs across America: http://www.premiumsportsinc.com/index.html

[Metrostars]

Official, From the Setanta Website:

New York, NY, January 27th, 2010 – Setanta Sports has today announced that it has reached an agreement with Fox Soccer Channel to transfer select programming rights, including many premium soccer and rugby events. Fox Soccer Channel will acquire these rights effective March 1, 2010.

Setanta Sports also announced that it will cease broadcasting its channel in the United States and the Caribbean on February 28th 2010.
http://www.setanta.com/us/Customer-Info-Articles/SETANTA-SPORTS-USA-AGREES-TO-TERMS-WITH-FOX-SOCCER-CHANNEL/gnid-59836/