Originally Posted by 1andrew1:
“I've just had a quick check at what was available, there were some 10 channels or affiliates:[LIST][*]Setanta Sports 1[*]Setanta Sports 2[*]Setanta Golf[*]Setanta Sports News (JV with Virgin, FTA)[*]NASN (Co-owned with venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Europe)[*]Racing UK (independent but in the pack)[*]Four football club channels with varying degrees of ownership (Arsenal, Liverpool, Celtic and Glasgow Rangers)[/LIST]”
Originally Posted by cook0891:
“Thanks for that. Like someone else said they probably just tried too hard too quick. Shame really.”
Originally Posted by Jaycee Dove:
“In fact in the Daily Mail yesterday it was suggested that ESPN's big mistake was to do deals with Sky and not take them on in an all-out battle.”
It looks like however you compete against Sky, you will have difficulties in succeeding. Setanta went for an all-out battle and lost, ESPN went for a slower and more co-operative approach...and lost too.
I'm not sure how well the other sports channels are faring - subscription channels BoxNation and Premier Sports and packaged channel EuroSport.
I believe
Eurosport is certainly loss-making and owners TV3 have sold a stake to the Discovery channel.
Premier Sports could be adversely impacted by sister channel Setanta losing its 33 EPL matches in addition to any escalated rights competition it faces from BT.
I see
BoxNation as a possible contender to become a fourth channel in the BT pack. Simon Green (BT's head of sport) used to run BoxNation as its chief executive and surprisingly remains a non-executive director there. BoxNation is not yet available on BT Vision.
The
Independent on Sunday suggested BT was in talks to acquire the channel back in January but this story died a death. But the story seemed quite convincing [yes, I know, all stories do!

] and opened with "However, I understand they are likely to add the sport to a portfolio..." so being in a BT sports pack may be a likely outcome. Whether the sports pack in question would just be for the BT platform remains to be seen.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/g...g-8449350.html