Setanta Sports Canada

[Ziaka]

Looks like the Canadians will get their own Setanta Sports Channel:

Setanta Set For EPL Launch

Here's the good news, English soccer fans.

Setanta Sports should be up and running in Canada by Aug. 11. Just in time for the Barclay's Premiership season openers.

Now here's the bad: It'll only be available as a pay-per-view offering at first, with a price of $14.99 per month. And that's only if you're a Rogers Cable or Bell ExpressVu subscriber. (although Cogeco should be on board in very short order, too).

Shane O'Rourke, the president of Setanta's North American operations, said the PPV price includes “all the live product on our U.S. channel except the Champions League.”

That doesn't include any studio shows, he added. But viewers will see “a hell of a lot of Premier League and a lot of other things,” including other soccer leagues and some rugby.

Setanta has rights to all EPL matches except the Sunday 11 a.m. ET game, which airs on The Score. It has also cut a deal with Rogers Sportsnet to show the second-choice 10 a.m. game on Saturdays. O'Rourke said every other EPL Saturday match will be available on Setanta Canada, either live or on tape delay.

“Obviously, we're very excited,” he said earlier today from his San Francisco office. “We've got a fabulous Saturday package, and we think people are going to love the product. They've never seen this much Premier League available in Canada.”

While no carriage agreements are in place with Shaw Cable or Videotron, O'Rourke said both “have shown interest” in Setanta.

While Setanta has applied for a digital channel licence, O'Rourke said only a PPV pack could be put in place for the start of the EPL season. Setanta had hoped to launch in Canada last November, but regulatory wrangling caused a massive delay.

One report today suggested a deal with Rogers Communications paved the way for the launch to finally get the green light.

Details about the placement and purchasing of the PPV channel on the available outlets should be available in the next week.

http://blog.canoe.ca/remotecontrol

[mk21]

Shane O'Rourke, the president of Setanta's North American operations, said the PPV price includes “all the live product on our U.S. channel except the Champions League"

that kills the deal for me.

[loup]

Is there any chance that the Setanta channel shows matches from the Setanta PPV - ie live Euro 2008 qualifiers - or are they 2 seperate entities

ALSO - I just noticed that JumpTV does not include the Greece- Norway game on their schedule - brutal

[mk21]

They sometimes show them a day or 2 later on the Setanta home channel.

I guess Norway home matches are not included on jump TV :(

[DKSat]

Setanta Sports Canada is up on Niniq 1/3 at 91.0 w testing.

DKSat

[mk21]

It's more then testing DK.

Its on free preview for expressvu until Sept 4.

After that it will be 14.99/month.

[loup]

looks like a good channel - but 15 bucks amonth???

[OFHMAN]

I would subscribe to the channel if I could get the Euro qualifiers at home and the champions league but why pay 15$ a month and an additional 20$ entrance fee for every time Greece plays for the Euro. I rather listen to it on sportfm. and relax on my recliner .