The battle for the mobile sports viewing market could be about to step up intensity if reports are true about Setanta Sports looking to enter the mobile phone market.
The operator has seen interest climb since becoming the distributor for BT Sport in Ireland last summer. They will have exclusive rights to Champions’ League matches previously only available through Sky Sports from October of next year.
Discussions are said to be ongoing which would see them enter the market in the same way as Tesco Mobile as what is known as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, using the 3 network as its base.
Other companies expected to adopt similar strategies in getting into mobile as operators include the Carphone Warehouse and UPC.
Sky Go is the leader in the sports viewing tablet sector at present with subscription coming as free with a Sky Sports package. This enables viewers to watch events on smartphones or tablets.
Sky revealed a potential move toward a premium ‘Go’ Service last month when unveiling Sky Go Extra for console players who could then download events and watch offline.
In a survey commissioned earlier this year by Sport for Business and Amárach Research, 25% of 15-24 year old sports fans said they would happily watch live sport on a second screen at the same time as watching another game on TV.
The addition of social media feeds is another boost to the second screen, as is the provision of in play betting services which Setanta already offers through a white label Setanta Bet service.
With mobile being the battle ground for viewers as well as voice and data in the near future it makes sense that an ambitious player like Setanta would want to get in on the action at an early stage. The boost from BT Sport could be the trigger for it doing just that.
3, Vodafone and Eircom will continue to dominate the mobile landscape but as an example of the potential numbers Tesco Mobile now has over 200,000 customers.
AerTV is another player in that market offering a range of channels including RTE and BBC on mobile and tablet for a small monthly subscription.
Setanta Sports reduced annual losses to less than €300,000 on turnover of €8.4 million last year.
