Setanta enters the big league

IRISH sports channel Setanta has added German, French and Dutch football to its schedule which is now running seven days a week.

The station is the first dedicated Irish sports channel and will broadcast live English and Scottish Premier League football, Celtic League and Leinster Schools rugby and has poached the rights to the Formula 1 Championship.

Setanta, best known for broadcasting Irish sports abroad, has grown rapidly since snapping up the rights to the Scottish Premier League from BBC. It has since acquired a number of other rights to major sporting events.

“Six months ago we had nothing, we had no studies, no cameras or programmes. Here we are six months later saying we have arrived and prepared to be compared with the best of the other broadcasters,” Setanta Sports chief executive Niall Cogley said yesterday.

Mr Cogley said the station was always on the lookout for new sports rights, but would not say it had a specific target.

Setanta will find it easy to compete with RTÉ, as its coffers are stuffed with cash following the sale of a stake in the company to investment group AIG last year.

“There are plenty [of sports] to go around. We are a new broadcaster and we present opportunities to all of the sporting federations, and not just for headline materials.

“The idea of a sport channel is something that almost everyone you speak to feel is a good and viable thing,” Mr Cogley added.

To attract viewers the station has announced a special price package with an annual subscription of €99 for Sky Digital and Chorus Digital customers. It is free to NTL customers.

Setanta was founded in the early 1990s by Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, who own most of the company’s shares. It employs more than 70 people in offices in Dublin, San Francisco, Sydney, Glasgow and London. It is believed to have an annual turnover in the region of €60m.

It started life replaying broadcasts of GAA, soccer and rugby to the US, Europe and Australia.