Eir Sport 1

Eir Sport 1 (formerly Setanta Ireland) is an Irish pay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in Ireland, while it is available upon direct subscription to the Eir Sport package on other networks across Ireland. Its sister channel is the subscription based network Eir Sport 2.

Eir Sport 1
CountryIreland
Broadcast areaIreland
Northern Ireland
Programming
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerEir
Sister channelsEir Sport 2
History
LaunchedAugust 2004
Former namesSetanta Sports Ireland
Setanta Ireland
Links
Websitewww.eirsport.ie
Availability
Satellite
Sky
Ireland & Northern Ireland		Channel 421 (HD)
IPTV
Eir VisionChannels 106 & 400 (SD)
Channel 420 (HD)

In June 2013, Setanta Sports signed a long-term agreement with BT Sport to distribute these channels within the Republic of Ireland. In November 2015, Irish telecommunications company Eir acquired Setanta Sports.[1] On 5 July 2016, Setanta Ireland was renamed Eir Sport 1.

On 15 August 2019, eir Sport and Virgin Media Sport contracted a deal to show Virgin Media Sport on eir Vision and eir Sport 1 on Virgin Media Ireland.[2] On 13 August 2020, eir Sport 1 was removed from Virgin Media Ireland, as eir refused to pay the contracted distribution license fee.[3]

History
  • As of 5 July 2016 the Setanta Sports brand has been replaced by Eir Sport operated by Eir.
  • Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to Irish expatriates
  • Setanta Ireland launched in August 2004 initially on the UPC platform in the Republic of Ireland.
  • Setanta Ireland's CEO is Michael O'Rourke, who was one of the original company founders. He took over following the departure of Colin Morgan in late 2012. Niall Cogley was the CEO prior to that.
  • The company's production headquarters is in Broadcasting House, Princes Street South, Dubln 2, Ireland.
  • Senior positions include Brendan Higgins CFO, Brian Quinn Marketing Director, Trevor Twamley Advertising Sales Director, Graham Byrne Head of commercial premises
  • The name 'Setanta', comes from the name of the ancient Irish Warrior 'Setanta' from Ulster who frequently played the oldest known field sport, hurling, and who was later given the name 'Cúchulainn' as described in the ancient Irish texts of the 'Annals of Ulster'
  • Setanta acquired the Premier League highlights rights for the Republic of Ireland in August 2013, taking over from RTÉ. In July 2016, it was announced that they had lost these rights to Sky Sports Ireland with effect from the 2016/17 Premier League season.

Programming

In Ireland, Eir Sport 1 broadcasts League of Ireland, Setanta Sports Cup, Premier League (ROI only), Allianz Leagues GAA, F1, The Masters, The Open Championship, Europa League, Champions League, Roland Garros, Live Horseracing and Golf Channel programming.

For a brief period from June 2011, Setanta Ireland experimented with music programming and Irish films as part of its line-up.[4]

In 2012 Setanta had the Irish rights to cover all of Liverpool's home games live in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.

In August 2013, Setanta Ireland started showing Premier League Highlights for the first time. The new show Premier League Central took over from RTÉ who had previously held the rights. The show goes out on Saturday and Sunday nights and is hosted by Connor Morris.

In June 2013, Setanta Ireland added the newly formed UK sports broadcaster BT Sport to its platform for Republic of Ireland sports fans. This resulted in the Setanta Sports pack in the ROI containing six channels; Setanta Ireland, Setanta 1, BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe & ESPN. All programming available on the Eir Sport pack can found below.

Football
Golf
  • Masters Tournament
  • Open Championship
  • Royal Trophy live from Asia – 3 days in December
  • Golf Channel Content including the Feherty show, Big Break Ireland and Being John Daly
  • Golf Central from Golf Channel
Rugby
  • Irish Schools Rugby
  • Six Nations - highlights
  • National Rugby League
  • In Touch – weekly rugby highlights
North American sports
  • NFL
  • NBA
  • NHL
  • NCCA football & basketball
  • NHL Tonight – Magazine show
  • NASCAR
Horseracing
  • Over 50 days of live racing from various UK meetings
  • Mark your card – weekly horse racing show
Tennis
  • Roland Garros
  • Wimbledon
Other
  • World Rally Championship - Rally Preview and Highlights
  • Sundry MMA events including cage contender
  • Boxing Magazine shows
  • Sundry Athletic Shows including the Great North Run
  • Irish Sports Documentaries commissioned for Setanta
  • European Games
GAA
  • Allianz Leagues
  • GAA Championship - deferred coverage

Ownership

see Eir Sport.

Eir Sport HD

Eir Sport HD is a high definition simulcast of Eir Sport 1. The channel was the first ever Irish owned HD channel in the Republic of Ireland. It launched on 23 November 2010 then known as Setanta HD.[5][6]

The former company Setanta had previously hoped to have a high-definition channel launched by August 2008, in time for the 2008–09 Premier League season.[7]

Former logo Setanta HD Logo 2010-2016

Availability

As of 5 July 2016 in the Republic of Ireland, the Eir Sport Package is available for free to any Eir broadband customer. This includes the BT Sport package. Additionally, since 1 August 2016, the Eir Sport Package is available on Eir TV, Sky Ireland and Vodafone TV.[8][9] Eir Sport offers commercial venues in Ireland programming of sports such as football (soccer), Gaelic football, hurling, golf, cricket, rugby union and rugby league and boxing.

BT Sport deal

On 24 June 2013, Eir Sport (previously Setanta Sports) announced that it has struck a 3-year deal with BT Sport to carry the BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN channels as part of the Setanta pack in the Republic of Ireland. The HD feeds of these channels are also available at no extra cost. In September 2015, BT Sport Europe was added to the pack. BT Sport Europe was introduced to broadcast the BT Sport's live UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches.

See also

References
  1. "Eir in talks for takeover of Setanta Sports". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  2. https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/eir-sport-and-virgin-media-agree-deal-to-share-sports-packages-1.3987033
  3. "Virgin Media suspends supply of sports channels to eir Sport". The42.
  4. "Setanta Sports gives Irish films a try-out". The Irish Times. 1 July 2011.
  5. "Setanta HD launches tomorrow". Business and Leadership. 26 November 2010.
  6. "Setanta scores a first in high-definition revolution". Irish Independent. 16 September 2010.
  7. Welsh, James (6 December 2007). "Setanta, Sky spar over high def channel". Digital Spy. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  8. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/eir-sport-secures-rights-to-2019-rugby-world-cup-1.2710988
  9. http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2016/0705/800289-eir-sports-pack/

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