Originally Posted by mlt11:
“- SPL (exclusive???)
Setanta then had its own sports news channel - we haven't yet heard about any such operation from BT.”
Yeah, Setanta did have exclusive rights to the SPL, and certainly at the start the only FTA highlights were on a Monday night so it was a pretty decent proposition for Scottish viewers - whereas now if you've got Sky you get half the SPL (the good half) plus Scotland and Scottish Cup matches, plus FTA highlights on a Sunday for the ESPN games, so it's less essential.
BT seriously don't need a sports news channel, Setanta Sports News was an appalling waste of everyone's time, there simply isn't enough sports news to go round. It wasn't even as good as the sports bulletins on News 24 and Sky News. It's of absolutely no value. The second Sky Sports News came back on Virgin was the exact second it was doomed.
Originally Posted by 1andrew1:
“[*]Four football club channels with varying degrees of ownership (Arsenal, Liverpool, Celtic and Glasgow Rangers)”
I'd forgotten about Arsenal TV completely, yet I watched the opening press conference with Des Lynam, Arsene Wenger and Matt Lucas. Liverpool TV is still on of course but the others all disappeared. Celtic TV was used an an overflow if Setanta Sports 1 and 2 were full, I remember them showing some Gaelic sport on there once, and plugged it as being on Setanta Sports On Channel 438 or something.
Setanmta had some decent rights and I had it through its entire life, but it was always a channel I felt that was tolerated rather than liked, not least that ridiculous idea to unencrypt the build-up to matches and so constantly demanding you subscribe, which for people who did subscribe was intensely annoying, and plain bad manners. Especially that period where they had a "subscribe" DOG permanently burned into the picture.