Setanta upping their game ?

ttankk

been on Setanta for few years now and have noticed a decent increase in their sports coverage lately. they have the premier league matches, champions league, europa league and this year had US masters, IPL ( not a huge cricket fan but was good) Irish cricket + IRE v HUN game at the weekend and showing full coverage of the Roland Garros at the moment. i am a sky sports man through and through but after having all the world cup last summer they seem to be trying to get top sports and competitions. dont know what ye think but just bored and said id put it out there

Johnny Johnson

ttankk wrote: »

been on Setanta for few years now and have noticed a decent increase in their sports coverage lately. they have the premier league matches, champions league, europa league and this year had US masters, IPL ( not a huge cricket fan but was good) Irish cricket + IRE v HUN game at the weekend and showing full coverage of the Roland Garros at the moment. i am a sky sports man through and through but after having all the world cup last summer they seem to be trying to get top sports and competitions. dont know what ye think but just bored and said id put it out there

Most of those can be seen FTA

ttankk

Johnny Johnson wrote: »

Most of those can be seen FTA

for people on UPC yes but im a sky digital man so really only thing thats been free to air is the roland garros unless im mistaken?

channelsurfer2

french open live free to air on itv4 IPL cricket live free to air on itv4 us masters live free to air on bbc ( last 2 days only) so yes 90% of setantas offering can be seen elsewhere free to air.
the reason they have the irish cricket is because sky( who have first refusal) didnt want to show it and rte dont have any money to show it. also the same with the ireland hungary match rte didnt make a bid for it and sky didnt either so that left setanta with an open field.
far from upping their game I would say they are actually just plodding along and barely breaking even. upping their game would be challenging sky or espn for the irish rights to the premier league matches both stations currently show.

Skid

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

far from upping their game I would say they are actually just plodding along and barely breaking even. upping their game would be challenging sky or espn for the irish rights to the premier league matches both stations currently show.

I agree, Setanta need a big acquisition to attract additional subscribers.

The Cricket and Tennis are welcome, and probably help to keep UPC onside by having some decent Sport on their FTV Channel. But I don't know anyone who pays a full price subscription to Setanta now, there is very little to make it a 'must-have' channel, even for diehards.

Manc-Red

Setanta need to get their HD Channel onto Sky quickfast, Most of their programmes is FTA on the same satellite elsewhere & without the 3pm EPL games live.... they'd be completely useless.

ttankk

no one can compete with sky sports like they put over 100 million it was reported into cricket alone in one year. at least Setanta are showing niche sports and with RTE cutting their sport expenditure they will prob get more. they need rugby i think and will b massive, like how tg4 were allowed show it is beyond me

channelsurfer2

ttankk wrote: »

no one can compete with sky sports like they put over 100 million it was reported into cricket alone in one year. at least Setanta are showing niche sports and with RTE cutting their sport expenditure they will prob get more. they need rugby i think and will b massive, like how tg4 were allowed show it is beyond me

TG4 show it because they can and do a service to people who dont have/cant afford setanta. they were the original broadcasters of the celtic league and do an excellent job on it giving it free to people that dont have to fork out 16.95 a month to setanta. alright its in irish but so what it is the national language after all and you can watch the pictures if you dont understand the irish.

ttankk

ok but like most people i dont speak fluent irish and actually watch the games on the welsh channel so i can have commentary in English. but back to main conversation i don't agree with plodding along and just surviving . yes it may be expensive but i get Serie A, FA cup, EPL ,champions league + Europa league. thats football alone then i get the GAA, Top 14, golf, tennis and F1. i think thats a good selection of sports for the money i pay i feel and id say it will continue to improve

caff

ttankk wrote: »

ok but like most people i dont speak fluent irish and actually watch the games on the welsh channel so i can have commentary in English. but back to main conversation i don't agree with plodding along and just surviving . yes it may be expensive but i get Serie A, FA cup, EPL ,champions league + Europa league. thats football alone then i get the GAA, Top 14, golf, tennis and F1. i think thats a good selection of sports for the money i pay i feel and id say it will continue to improve

The biggest thing that annoys me about the TG4 coverage is not the language but when they insist on having the picture in picture commentator pop up, its awful.

ftakeith

for setanta to up their game is to merge with tv3 for super fta alternatives to rtetv on saorview

Johnny Johnson

ttankk wrote: »

how tg4 were allowed show it is beyond me

They bid and were successful.

Kristopherus

ttankk wrote: »

ok but like most people i dont speak fluent irish and actually watch the games on the welsh channel so i can have commentary in English. but back to main conversation i don't agree with plodding along and just surviving . yes it may be expensive but i get Serie A, FA cup, EPL ,champions league + Europa league. thats football alone then i get the GAA, Top 14, golf, tennis and F1. i think thats a good selection of sports for the money i pay i feel and id say it will continue to improve

You'll get no more live GAA from Setanta until the League starts again next Feb. And, as other posters have already said, Setanta are only lurching along. Don't expect any dramatic developments any time soon.

Infoanon

Johnny Johnson wrote: »

They bid and were successful.

They used taxpayers money to outbid RTE who where also using tax payers money.......only in Ireland

Looking at Setanta schedules there are very few programs - Nascar ? - that are not available FTA.
They have priced themselves too high for the majority of viewers and all the 'top' programmes are accessible elsewhere.

If they lost their 3pm EPL matches the writing would be on the wall imho.

Manc-Red

I'm a yearly subscriber to them & I watch only the PremierLeague at 3pm on a Saturday - That's them hanging onto me by a thread....

No Boxing or anything anymore - As I've said before, at 16.99 pm, We really should be getting HD on Satellite.

Up the Game or lose already angered subscribers.

The Dark Knight

ftakeith wrote: »

for setanta to up their game is to merge with tv3 for super fta alternatives to rtetv on saorview

Totally Agree.. The only way forward for Setanta is FTA on Saorview. Even better if the can combine with TV3 and become TV3 Sport.

byte

But sure TV3 haven't any money either.