SETANTA SPORTS WILL add BT Sports and ESPN channels to their television package, meaning more Premier League matches and 30 live UFC events.
The deal means that Setanta customers will receive 30 Live UFC events including UFC 163 from Brazil in the early hours of 4 August with a main event of Jose Aldo v Chan Sung Jung plus UFC 164 in late August. Setanta subscribers will also get to see the full range of UFC support programming.
Commenting on the deal Brian Quinn, marketing director of Setanta Sports said, “This content is a real game changer for Setanta. It’s not Just 30 live UFC events but it will also include all associated UFC shows such as the Ultimate fighter, weigh-ins and the Road to the Octagon.
The Setanta pack will be the only place to see the likes of Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jose Aldo and we especially look forward to Conor McGregor’s upcoming appearance in Boston on 18 august.”
The acquisition also means Irish sports fans will be able to watch 33 extra Premier League matches as well as Aviva Premiership and french Top 14 rugby coverage.
Quinn added, “The new games from BT include 18 top pick matches meaning that we will have top of the table clashes between the leading teams.”
That’s great. So we will have to pay for sky, espn and setanta to watch the football……and Brian Kerr as a pundit. Best news I’ve ever got on a Monday
ESPN won’t exist outside of the Setanta package from August 1st.
That’s not as bad then, it would kill me to have to pay for three subscriptions on the hope of watching my team play
ESPN was free with Sky Sports too
This is a bad news story for MMA fans here who currently watch on ESPN as part of their Sky package :-(
But ESPN will not be around soon so this programming would have been lost to people that watch ESPN as part of their Sky package.
This helps stop BitTorrent how, Dana White? I was legit on sky/espn, and YOU abandoned me.
Still cheaper to get Al Jazeera sports (inc HD channels) for a year, all the football from around the world live + now EPL and SPL games for the season ahead. Can also watch it all online via their streaming website and on your mobile device.
Setanta has an absolutely horrible picture quality
How do you get it ?
And we only pay the tv licence to RTE for S F A.
why is this not on rte….got rid of the premiership…..could have made up for that with this…..the fucd am i paying a licence for?
Hi everyone,
Just to clarify a few things for everybody. From August the 1st BT sport1, BT Sports 2 and ESPN will come under the Setanta pack. Meaning when you subscribe to Setanta you will get all three of those channels plus Setanta channels. This link should help http://www.setanta.com/ie/bt-sport-is-coming/
With regard to MMA all of the Live UFC events will be exclusive with the Setanta Pack from august 1st as BT acquired the rights to ESPN channel. here is our UFC specific press release
http://www.setanta.com/ie/ufc-to-make-welcome-return/