Broadcaster Setanta Sport has announced that it will launch the UK’s first free-to-air mainstream sports channel for digital television viewers in the UK and Ireland.

Setanta has agreed carriage for the new channel on Freeview with SDN and will launch it in early 2004 on both Freeview and Sky. Setanta will also seek cable carriage to maximize distribution. This broad distribution will see the channel in 8 million homes from launch and potentially 16 million homes by 2008.

The channel will combine live, current and classic sports, and sports related programming. These will include football, cricket, rugby and motor sports with content drawn from the UK, Europe and beyond.

The service will carry advertising and sponsorship, enabling brands to reach the predominantly male, 34+ year old audience which is difficult to target efficiently in non-Sky Sports homes.

Michael O’Rourke, Joint Managing Director of Setanta Sport said: ‘This service will be a welcome addition to the channel lineup in the millions of digital homes that do not have a dedicated sports channel. Our service will fill a real gap in the market.’

Setanta Sport is a global sports broadcaster. Founded in 1992 Setanta provides sports programming on a pay basis to both residential and commercial customers in key markets such as the US, the UK and Australia.

Flagship rights overseas include World and European Cup football, UEFA Champions League, English and Scottish FA Cup and the Rugby World Cup. In the UK, Setanta broadcasts Scottish Premier League, world title boxing and Gaelic Games on its own two pay-per-view channels.

In addition, last year Setanta launched the North American Sports Network (NASN) in the UK in partnership with Vulcan Inc, Paul Allen’s venture capital fund.

For Further Information Contact:

Alen Lang
Commercial Director
Setanta Sport
020 7930 8926