- Three year deal will run to 2019
- 28 Saturday 5.30 Premier League Games included
Setanta Sports has secured its presence as a major player in the Irish sports broadcast market by signing a new deal to continue to bring BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe and ESPN on BT Sport to Republic of Ireland customers in a three year partnership agreement commencing from 2016.
The deal was announced hours before Sky revealed it had won the rights to broadcast the Premier league packages in the republic of Ireland that Setanta Sport currently holds. That change will take effect from next season.
BT Sport is only available through the Setanta Sports pack in the Republic and has driven subscriptions for the channel since becoming a major player in the sports rights market.
European Champions’ Cup action is a major boost for the ‘must have’ appeal of the channels here with Brian O’Driscoll fronting much of the channels rugby coverage. From August next year the channel will have additional Premier League games including all those played at 5-30 on Saturday evenings.
“This is great news for our customers and means that sports fans in Ireland will continue to receive the great sports content that BT Sport brings to our pack,” said Michael O’Rourke, co-founder and CEO of Setanta Sports said.
“BT Sport channels have gone from strength to strength both in terms of production and sports content and our Irish customers truly value that the Setanta pack is the only place to receive these great channels.”
The BT Sport channels here are in addition to Setanta Ireland and Setanta 1 which carries more specific Irish sporting content including matches in the Allianz National Leagues through the spring.
BT Sport itself delivers a huge range of live football including every UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League game, live FA Cup, live Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Premier League games.
In addition to soccer it also includes 35 live European Rugby Champions Cup games, 69 Aviva Premiership Rugby games, all the big live UFC events, including Conor McGregor’s title fight on December 12th, Moto GP and the best in live US Sports.
“Setanta Sports have been great to work with over the past two and a half years and we are delighted that they will continue to carry our BT Sport channels for the long term,” said Delia Bushell, Managing Director of BT TV and BT Sport.
“We have seen their passion for sport first hand and look forward to growing the relationship in the future.”
Image credit: Sportsfile
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