The new FA Premiership football season kicks off next weekend and Chelsea's bid to wrest the league title back from Manchester United won't be the only contest worth watching.

Off the pitch, Dublin-based Setanta Sports is gearing up to take on Rupert Murdoch's Sky Sports with live coverage of games. This will be the first time since the Premier League was set up in 1992 that Sky has had a rival for live Premiership matches.

Setanta has also teamed up this week with UPC Ireland, owners of NTL and Chorus, to offer new subscribers to the cable operators its premium pack of sports channels for free for three months. That's a saving of €15 a month.

UPC is backing up the promotion with a €750,000 advertising campaign.

Setanta's bundle of channels comprises nine stations, which between them will show 79 live games from England's top league. Sky, meanwhile, has 92 live matches, although it will have the pick of the games, including all of the big head-to-heads.

Sky's premium sports pack starts at €41.50.

It's a clever move by UPC. To date, its focus has largely been on switching analogue customers over to its more sexy digital service. This move signals a serious attempt to win new subscribers, possibly nicking a few from Sky.

Never one to shy from competition, Sky is set to launch a 24/7 streaming of Premiership action for mobile phones.

For €7 a month, committed footie fans will be able to download goals and other action to their phones within minutes of it happening.

Sky Ireland recently topped the 500,000 satellite subscribers mark here for the first time. This closed the gap on UPC, which has 594,000 customers, the majority of which are analogue or MMDS users. It's shaping up to be an interesting season.