Setanta viewers now get Racing UK thrown in

mike2084

Or at least I think thats what it is:

Press Release:

http://www.setanta.com/portal/article/horseracing?open&articleid=0c5e2aa8bc20b9eb802571c60041c9ef

A discussion has started on:

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=442193

mikeym

This is great news and makes it more attractive to non subscribers. Im not telling my old man or else I wont be able to watch anything else.

donhughberto

Does the €15 cover premeirship football live and racing uk?? Or is there add on costs

mike2084

Yes It does.

Here's another spin on the story

Racing UK agrees deal with Setanta

by Howard Wright

RACING UK subscribers will switch on to six new channels - with more to come - and a £5 per month windfall from Friday morning, after the media rights' holder for 30 British racecourses agreed a three-and-a-half-year deal to become part of the Setanta television bundle.

The package, which is available on BSkyB's satellite service and Telewest's cable operation, will come at the Setanta Sports price of £15 a month, and immediately adds 200,000 subscribers to RUK's direct customer base of 40,000.

Britain's second channel, At The Races, claims an average audience reach of 250,000 individuals a day and 1.2m a year.

Setanta, an Irish-based company founded in 1992, has made serious inroads into sports coverage over the last 12 months, occupy the same block of London offices as RUK, and approached its neighbour several months ago, looking to extend an existing customer management relationship.

Setanta has two main sports channels, showing live major league football from Scotland, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and Celtic League and French Top 14 rugby union.

It also has channels dedicated to top North American sports, and Celtic and Rangers football clubs, while Setanta Ireland covers native Irish sports, as well as F1 motor racing.

All these become available to RUK subscribers from today, along with the existing US racing coverage on Racing World, the joint venture between RUK, Churchill Downs and Magna Entertainment, which has been shown on Setanta from its launch in March this year. However, Setanta is promising more, since it recently fought off bigger and longer established media companies to pull off billion-pound deals that next year will introduce a new daily golf channel, featuring the US PGA tour, and 46 live Premier League football matches, from which the broadcaster has set a target of growing its reach to 1m subscribers.

RUK subscribers are being automatically transferred to the Setanta coverage, and their new monthly fee represents a saving of £5 on the amount charged since the channel launched in May 2004, backed by Racecourse Holdings Trust’s 13 tracks, including Aintree, Cheltenham and Newmarket, and 17 independents, including Goodwood, Newbury and York.

The annual subscription will drop from £200 to £180. Future and pre-paid fees will be adjusted over the next couple of months, and any difference refunded.

Setanta has agreed to underpin RUK revenues at the current level, while RUK will continue to be wholly owned by the 30 racecourse partners.

RUK executive chairman Simon Bazalgette on Thursday described the deal as "a win-win situation for everyone - from our subscribers, who get a better-value deal for less money, to our racecourse shareholders, who get revenue guarantees without giving up any rights, and British racing, which gets a substantially increased audience at a stroke".

He added: "We believed we had got most of the people who would subscribe £20 a month and needed to change the offer. Viewer growth was flattening, so we needed to offer a better value proposition for the next tranche of subscribers.

"This is an excellent solution, which has been achieved without cannibalising the existing base audience of subscribers."

RUK has a joint venture with the Racing Post under thebettingsite.co.uk.

http://www.racingpost.co.uk/news/master.sd?psection=racingpost.co.uk&page=News&category=Industry&story_id=846469

Drag00n79

Lads, did anyone see a promo on Setanta in June that Chelsea TV was joining the Setanta line-up? Despite the fact that I was very drunk at the time I don't think I imagined it. If I imagined it I would not have chosen Chelsea.

mike2084

Shamrok wrote:

Lads, did anyone see a promo on Setanta in June that Chelsea TV was joining the Setanta line-up? Despite the fact that I was very drunk at the time I don't think I imagined it. If I imagined it I would not have chosen Chelsea.

Thats just on ntl I think.