Setanta Sport Holdings Ltd is the parent company of the Setanta group. As a leading international sports broadcaster with operations in Great Britain, Ireland, Luxembourg, USA, Canada and Australia, Setanta owns and operates premium sports TV channels that are made available on a subscription basis to residential and commercial customers through satellite, cable, digital terrestrial, broadband and mobile distribution. Founded in 1992, Setanta now has over three million subscribers to its channels and is believed to be the fastest growing pay television operator in Europe.
Setanta operates independent business units for Britain, Ireland, USA, Canada & Australia. Whilst pricing, packaging and channel content vary in each of these markets, there is significant co-operation between the businesses that allows for sharing of branding, programming and technical resources.
In Britain and Ireland, Setanta operates more sports channels than any other broadcaster and has the most widely-available premium sports channel in the UK. For digital satellite viewers Setanta distributes a Sports Pack that comprises eleven channels - Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2, Setanta Golf, NASN, Liverpool TV, Celtic TV, Rangers TV, Racing UK, Arsenal TV, Setanta Ireland and the recently launched channel, Setanta Sports News. Ensuring the widest possible distribution to all sports fans the leading premium sports channel, Setanta Sports 1 is available in Britain on Freeview and BT Vision, and eight of the channels are available to Virgin Media customers through the XL pack.
Setanta Sports is also joint owner with Virgin Media of Setanta Sports News, the new 24-hour sports news channel, available free-to-air on the Virgin Media platform, and also on satellite, covering all the top sports stories from the UK and abroad. Setanta Sports is also available online, live and on demand, via Setanta by Broadband, featuring all Setanta’s leading content offered on Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2 and Setanta Golf, allowing sports fans to access at home, work or elsewhere.
Since August 2007, Setanta has broadcast exclusively live Barclays Premier League matches and these have joined a range of premium programming that includes Clydesdale Bank Premier League, Blue Square Premier, the French, Dutch and Portuguese leagues, PGA Tour golf, Magners League rugby, Australian Rugby League and some of the best boxing fights from both sides of the Atlantic. In November 2007 Setanta showed the Calzaghe v Kessler fight exclusively live from the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and in December 2007 Joe Calzaghe was voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
From August 2008, Setanta will expand its football coverage to include the Community Shield and FA Cup as well as the great majority of the home nations 2010 World Cup Qualifiers and all of the home England friendly internationals.
Setanta’s North America operations comprise both residential channel and commercial venue businesses which provide a market leading line-up of soccer and rugby from around the world. This includes The Barclays Premier League, The Champions League, The FA Cup and World Cup & European Championship Qualifiers, The IRB Rugby World Cup, The Six Nations, The Tri-Nations, The Guinness Premiership & Heineken Cup. In the USA, the Setanta Sports channel is available in over 30 million homes via DirecTV and DISH Networks and in Canada to nearly 6 million homes across all major television providers including Rogers Cable, Shaw and Bell ExpressVu.
Setanta in Australia is available in all pay television homes via a combination of Foxtel and Austar. The channel content follows the same model as the North American business and also includes the European Football Championships (Euro 2008) and India and Bangladesh international cricket.
Setanta Sports' strategy is to develop sports programming services that are highly valued by its customers and prospects, either as an addition or as an alternative to other channel packages available on all current and emerging digital distribution platforms. In order to achieve this, the company will continue to acquire sports rights that broaden the appeal of the service and value for our existing subscribers.
Setanta is a privately backed company whose shareholders include its management team and several leading institutional investors including Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe), Doughty Hanson, Goldman Sachs and Montrica.