The Setanta Sports golf team has come together in recent weeks and today the icing on the cake sees Darren Clarke join the pay TV broadcaster as brand ambassador for the network's new golf channel.
Setanta Golf Channel begins broadcasting next Monday (January 8th) after securing the TV rights to the US PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour. The first tournament to be shown will be the Sony Open from Hawaii from January 11th.
As Setanta continue to make their mark on the sporting spectrum previously dominated by Sky Sports, Clarke will join former Sky presenters Dominic Holyer and Ronan Rafferty plus the BBC's Ken Brown who will all feature on the new Setanta Golf Channel.
Setanta won the exclusive Ireland and UK rights to the high profile US PGA Tour for the next six years plus 78 Premiership games from August this year. In doing so they have fragmented Sky's broadcasting monopoly of top flight football in England and their domination of golf coverage in recent years.
"We are privileged to have Darren as the brand ambassador for Setanta Golf, especially coming fresh from his triumph at the Ryder Cup," said Leonard Ryan, co-founder and joint chief executive of Setanta Sports.
"We asked Darren to work with Setanta because we think there is a very strong brand fit between Setanta and Darren. He is an undoubted talent and we wish him well in 2007. It promises to be a great year for Setanta and for Darren and it starts today with the launch of our new golf channel with exclusively live coverage of the US PGA Tour."
Setanta Sports is fast becoming a leading player in the pay TV market since it was founded in 1992. They currently operate a total of 10 channels in ten countries; more sports channels than any other broadcaster in Ireland and the UK.
The Golf Channel will become the ninth channel available in the overall sports package which costs €15 per month on satellite in Ireland (£11 in Northern Ireland). There are price and channel variations on the cable platform.
Setanta Sports Channels
Setanta Ireland
Setanta Sports 1
Setanta Sports 2
Setanta Golf
Racing UK
Racing World
NASN
Celtic TV
Rangers TV
