Sport on Television: Over 340,000 ntl customers will receive exclusive English Premiership and Scottish Premier League (SPL) coverage on Setanta Sports as part of their basic television service, executives announced yesterday.
Ntl Ireland and Setanta Sports were unveiling the August schedule of fixtures for Ireland's dedicated sports channel, which will be available to ntl customers from Saturday, August 7th, as part of its basic television package.
Setanta Sports will initially broadcast a number of selected games from the SPL and the Premiership during August to all ntl customers.
The key games include Rangers and Celtic matches on August 7th and 8th from the SPL and on August 21st Setanta will broadcast live and exclusive coverage of Manchester United's game against Norwich, followed by the Scottish Old Firm game, Celtic against Rangers, on Sunday, August 29th.
In September, Setanta Sports will commence its full weekend broadcasts. The hours of transmission are 7 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and noon to midnight on Saturdays and Sundays.
From January 2005, the station will extend its broadcast to seven days a week.
Chief executive Niall Cogley said the station had received "tremendous support and genuine goodwill" since announcing the launch on ntl.
"We are very excited about providing viewers with more choice and quality programming," added Cogley.
Setanta will be on the channel currently shared by Nickelodeon and The Music Factory on ntl's cable analogue service. These stations will move to another channel.
A Setanta test card will be displayed on the channel during "downtimes". Customers who avail of ntl's digital cable and MMDS service will receive Setanta Sports on EPG channel 401.
Mark Mohan, sales and marketing director of ntl Ireland, predicted: "Setanta Sports will become the new TV home for sports fans in Ireland featuring everyone's favourite sports and clubs."
AUGUST SCHEDULES ON SETANTA SPORTS
Wednesday, August 4th - Setanta test card commences transmission 6 a.m.; Saturday, August 7th - Rangers v Aberdeen, noon; Sunday, August 8th - Celtic v Motherwell, 2 p.m.; Sunday, August 15th - Dundee United v Dundee, 2 p.m.; Saturday, August 21st - Manchester United v Norwich, 2:45 p.m.; Sunday, August 22nd - Inverness CT v Celtic, 2 p.m.; Saturday, August 28th - Chelsea v Birmingham, 2:45 p.m.; Sunday, August 29th - Scottish Premier League begins, Rangers v Celtic, 1 p.m.
