Agree there rocko. TV3 are a joke. Their rugby word cup was embarrassing.
And the general standard of their own produced stuff is poor.
on the subject of digital tele and all that jazz…
Does anyone know if its possible to get the ricky hatton fight on setanta as a 1 off payment option?
i have NTL digital and the normal setanta ireland channel but not their sports channels.
I have absolute zero interst in any british football or its teams so dont want to get the setanta sports in permanently
i’m dyin to see the fight on saturday tho.
Setanta sold the rights to Sky because they don’t really seem to be doing PPV themselves anymore. So you buy it PPV from Sky and it’s a 1 off payment.
Though Setanta in fairness to them do show Portugese, German, French and Dutch football live every week so they’re more than just British football.
Appendage wrote:
Agree there rocko. TV3 are a joke. Their rugby word cup was embarrassing.
And the general standard of their own produced stuff is poor.
Thought that they didn’t do a bad job on the rugby. Cooper was a good anchor.
I’m happy with this. Anything is better than those O’Rourke/Spillane/Broly/Lyons coonts.
RTE’s hurling coverage isn’t bad though. Mulcahy, Farrell and Duignan appear to know their stuff. Finnerty is a fool though.
I’m with Farmer on this one. I didn’t watch any of TV3’s rugby world cup coverage but I don’t think RTE’s GAA coverage is so good that this is something to get annoyed about.
They persist with Canning doing commentary for all the major games even though he doesn’t know the rules and struggles to identify the players correctly.
They also persist with Pat Spillane in the presenter’s on The Sunday Game chair despite the fact it blatantly doesn’t suit him and disrupts the actual analysis. Instead of facilitating debate with his questions he concentrates on throwing out his one-liners etc.
Some of their pundits are quite good, other are pretty average so I’m giving TV3 the benefit of the doubt here to see what they come up with.
Annybody have any suggestions for pundits / presenters / commentators?
I always liked Eugene McGee as an analyser. Similar to Giles with a-no-nonsense-devoid-of-bullshit-style
Would love to see O’Muircheartaigh commentating but it aint going to happen
There’s plenty of ex-players and managers who’d be quite good.
Of the recently retired players then the likes of Brian Corcoran and Liam Dunne would be forthright and articulate. Nicky English is also very good on Radio One during the summer champiionship season. The likes Of Babs Keating could play the Eamon Dunphy role.
As for football then there’s ex-managers like Sean Boylan, Jack O’Connor, Joe Kernan and Billy Morgan who could all surely do the job at least as good as the RTE boys. I’m struggling to think of recently retired players though.
It’s more on the presenting / commentary side that I’d be concerned about. They’re likely to be using Trevor Welch and the likes of that absolute fooking idiot from Today FM / Setanta, Paul Collins.
It’s not because of RT’s brilliant presentation that I’m worried about the transfer - it’s more to do with how bad TV3 are. Trevor Welch and gobshites like that presenting and they just always look cheap. Their analysis has never been anything other than shite for soccer. They did slightly better with the rugby, thanks to Matt Cooper, but I don’t see them repeating that for the GAA which will be a longer term project like their Irish soccer rights.
RT’s weakest point in any sports coverage is always their commentators. Jim Sherwin is particularly laughable but Jimmy Magee and Ger Canning push him close in the buffoon stakes. Funnily enough they’re much better on the radio with Muircheartaigh and Michael Corcoran and the likes.
therock67 wrote:
It’s not because of RT’s brilliant presentation that I’m worried about the transfer - it’s more to do with how bad TV3 are. Trevor Welch and gobshites like that presenting and they just always look cheap. Their analysis has never been anything other than shite for soccer. They did slightly better with the rugby, thanks to Matt Cooper, but I don’t see them repeating that for the GAA which will be a longer term project like their Irish soccer rights.
RT’s weakest point in any sports coverage is always their commentators. Jim Sherwin is particularly laughable but Jimmy Magee and Ger Canning push him close in the buffoon stakes. Funnily enough they’re much better on the radio with Muircheartaigh and Michael Corcoran and the likes.
What about Ryle Nugent? Would happily listen to Jim Sherwin any day ahead of him.
Jimmy Magee is still responsible for the greatest piece of commentary ever with his ‘different class’ for Maradona’s goal against England in 1986
Don’t think RTE’s rubbish GAA coverage is entirely down to Canning et al. It’s Brolly/Spillane/O’Rourke that really annoy me.
Hopefully TV3 actually put some analysis into the game instead of random comments trying to be controversial
farmerinthecity wrote:
therock67 wrote:
[quote]It’s not because of RT’s brilliant presentation that I’m worried about the transfer - it’s more to do with how bad TV3 are. Trevor Welch and gobshites like that presenting and they just always look cheap. Their analysis has never been anything other than shite for soccer. They did slightly better with the rugby, thanks to Matt Cooper, but I don’t see them repeating that for the GAA which will be a longer term project like their Irish soccer rights.
RT’s weakest point in any sports coverage is always their commentators. Jim Sherwin is particularly laughable but Jimmy Magee and Ger Canning push him close in the buffoon stakes. Funnily enough they’re much better on the radio with Muircheartaigh and Michael Corcoran and the likes.
What about Ryle Nugent? Would happily listen to Jim Sherwin any day ahead of him.
Jimmy Magee is still responsible for the greatest piece of commentary ever with his ‘different class’ for Maradona’s goal against England in 1986
Don’t think RTE’s rubbish GAA coverage is entirely down to Canning et al. It’s Brolly/Spillane/O’Rourke that really annoy me.
Hopefully TV3 actually put some analysis into the game instead of random comments trying to be controversial[/quote]
Nugent was shite and while he’s not a likable guy there’s no doubt he has improved over recent years. He’s not brilliant by any means but while he was “watch the throughly annoying BBC’s Mark Robson instead bad” at the start, he’s now “ah feck it he’s better than that Robson fecker passable.”
Jimmy Magee is a pure fool. Anyone working in the media who still thinks Michelle Smyth is innocent should be fucked out on their ear. His commentary in the Sunderland - Derby match last night on the Premiership was embarrassing.
I think you’re being overly harsh on O’Rourke and Brolly. They’re not brilliant but they’re not as dreadful as you’re making them out to be. Spillane is though and that’s RT’s biggest mistake - their highlights package. I don’t know if they’re trying to replicate MOTD2 or what they’re trying to do but whatever their strategy is the results are awful.
O’Rourke and Brolly do not analyse. That is their primary reason for being there and they don’t do it. They don’t look at key moments from the half and say where the backs went wrong or give any type of ‘expert’ opinion whch is what they are there for. For me that is as dreadful as you get.
Yeah fair enough that’s pretty bad. But it can be worked on though - at least they have opinions, it’s just the format of the shows is all wrong. Michael Lyster doesn’t ask the right questions and nor does Spillane. Work on the host first before you start culling analysts because it’s the format of the shows that is wrong IMO.
Setanta have bought the rights to all Ireland’s away games except the Italian match which hasn’t been decided yet. They also have away games rights for the 6 Counties, England and Scotland - not sure if those are Irish rights or UK rights or both.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/away-games–on-setanta-1267623.html
Away games on Setanta
Thursday January 17 2008
Setanta Sports have confirmed that they will broadcast live satellite coverage of the Republic of Ireland’s away qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup – although the rights for the Italian encounter still have to be decided.
Ireland’s next boss will face away trips to Georgia and Montenegro in September as the qualifying campaign gets underway. There will also be live coverage of Northern Ireland’s, England’s and Scotland’s away qualifiers.
Republic of Ireland live games on Setanta Sports – Sept 6: Georgia v Republic of Ireland. Sept 10: Montenegro; v Ireland. June 6, 09: Bulgaria v Rep Ireland; Sept 5: Cyprus v Rep Ireland.
N Ireland live games (all away) – Sept 6: Slovakia; Oct 11: Slovenia; Feb 11, 09: San Marino; Sept 5: Poland; Oct 14: Czech Rep.
England away games – Sept 6: Andorra; Sept 10: Croatia; Oct 15: Belarus; June 6, 09: Kazakhstan; Oct 10: Ukraine.
I wonder are those exclusive rights. Who gets the money for the away games? Am I correct in presuming it is the national assosication where the match is being played.
It is yeah, it’s the away association. I’d be very surprised if they’re not exclusive rights Larry.
Setanta have bought the rights to the new Indian cricket league. Not a bad purchase given they have it for 5 years so it gives them time to properly invest in a commentary and pundit team. Doubt they paid that much for it either as Sky weren’t involved, though Sony did outbid Sky for a few cricket events in the past didn’t they?
Setanta vs Sky Sports. Ding, ding, round three!
February 26, 2008 12:25 PM
Coming soon to a small screen near you, Indian Premier League cricket, live on Setanta Sports! But will you be watching?
It is no easy task taking on Sky Sports, but the Dublin-based pay-TV operator appears to be making a game of it.
The good news for Setanta is that it already boasts more than 3 million subscribers. The bad news is that only just over 1 million of them are paying the full 9.99 monthly fee, as Owen Gibson reported yesterday.
Just as importantly, Setanta’s channels are offered on a no-contract basis, so the danger is that the end of the Premier League in May could coincide with a stampede of viewers rushing to cancel their subscription.
Hence, presumably, the deal for the Indian Premier League, one more reason - other than Premier League football, boxing, PGA golf and so on - to subscribe to Setanta. It won’t fill much of the gap, though, with the competition’s first season due to run from April 18 to June 1.
Sky is understood not to have bid for the Indian cricket league, nor the BBC, with the only competition apparently coming from Sony Entertainment Television Asia (SET Asia), which is available on Sky and Virgin.
The Twenty20 cricket will undoubtedly generate huge amounts of publicity in its early stages, and might become a fixture for years to come - Setanta has signed it up for five years.
But there is also a danger that the novelty will wear off for UK viewers, and the playing times - morning and lunchtime, GMT - are hardly the most attractive from a commercial point of view. Peak time repeats just aren’t the same thing.
Rivals predict BBC will bid ‘whatever it takes’ to win Champions LeagueDan Sabbagh, Media Editor
The BBC is ready to tackle ITV and BSkyB for the right to broadcast Champions League football.
Setanta, the sports broadcaster, is also expected to bid, but Virgin Media is thought unlikely to participate after Neil Berkett, its chief executive, said that the cable company would invest instead in its broadband network.
Bids are due on March 12 and broadcasters predict that Uefa, European football’s governing body and the owner of the rights, will receive about 125 million a year for the next three-year package, which begins in 2009. There may be several rounds of bidding and a final deadline has not been announced.
ITV and Sky, which is 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, share the rights at present. ITV has the first two picks of games on Tuesdays, with Sky showing the rest, including high-profile live fixtures on Wednesdays.
ITV is believed to pay 42 million a year and Sky 47 million. Matches involving the top English clubs deliver a good audience, particularly on free-to-air television. Last week 6.1 million watched Liverpool defeat Internazionale of Milan, an above-average audience share for ITV1 of 24 per cent.
The next rights deal will be broken into smaller chunks in an attempt to extract more revenue. Team, the Swiss company that manages the rights, is asking for broadcasters to bid separately for the right to the first and second picks of matches on each evening. The hope is that more broadcasters will bid because each package is relatively small, although sources suggested that only the BBC, ITV and Sky are serious contenders. The BBC would have to placate the six main tournament sponsors, all of which agree deals with Uefa. ITV and Sky are obliged to carry advertisements from all six for free at the beginning and end of each break — advertising that has been valued at between 5 million and 10 million in total per year.
That could force the BBC, which is not allowed to show commercials, to bid extra, although it may be able to mitigate the loss of advertising exposure by ensuring that sponsors’ logos are prominently displayed. E.ON, the utility group that sponsors the FA Cup, receives prominent exposure during matches shown by the BBC, the rights-holder.
If the BBC failed to gain Champions League rights, it would be left without live top-flight football once existing deals to show the FA Cup and England internationals expire in the summer. As a result, the BBC’s expensively assembled commentary team would be left with little to present: Gary Lineker earns an estimated 2 million a year for his presenting work with the Corporation, while Alan Hansen, the pundit, is thought to earn 1 million annually.
Rival broadcasters believe that the pair have been told that the BBC is prepared to bid “whatever it takes” to gain Champions League rights, although the Corporation declined to comment yesterday.
The BBC airs EastEnders on Tuesdays at 7.30pm, so it may have to move the show or go head-to-head with Sky should it again win rights to Wednesday games.
Uefa is keen to share matches between free-to-air and pay TV, but a big bid from a single broadcaster is unlikely to be turned down.
Was reading a small bit about this the other day and I think they’re just going to completely split the rights up - which means BBC will get some by default. Don’t think Setanta will be involved.
They’ve got themselves the FA Cup next year which looks unappealing to some but there are two weekends with no EPL fixtures at all due to the FA Cup. They happen in January when tv viewing is high and subscribers want content. If Setanta can force Sky to have a blank weekend, then Setanta will believe that makes them a hugely attractive proposition to soccer fans in the UK.
RT Sport announces eircom League coverage
Friday, 29 February 2008 12:33
RT Sport has confirmed its increased commitment to Irish soccer for the coming season.
RT Television will broadcast 10 live games from the FAI eircom League of Ireland, beginning with League Champions Drogheda United playing host to Shamrock Rovers on Saturday, 8 March, at 5.25pm on RT Two.
RT Television will also broadcast both FAI Ford Cup semi-finals, plus the final itself.
In addition to broadcasting 13 of the biggest games of the season, RT Television will also introduce a brand new hour-long dedicated Irish soccer programme: Monday Night Soccer (MNS).
MNS will feature highlights of every top-flight FAI eircom League of Ireland match throughout the season so fans will get the opportunity to watch every crucial goal, tackle, shot and save.
The programme will be broadcast each week on RT Two at 8pm beginning on Monday, 10 March.
Presenter Con Murphy will be joined by some of the biggest names in Irish soccer, including former Cork City manager Damien Richardson, newly retired St Patrick’s Athletic defender Colm Foley, former Bohemians manager Sean Connor, former Irish international and Millwall striker Richard Sadlier, former UCD midfielder Tony McDonnell, renowned former Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians manager Roddy Collins, Cork City legend Dave Barry and former Cork City striker Pat Morley.
In a further commitment to Irish soccer, RT Television is to increase the coverage of live eircom League of Ireland matches as agreed in the new contract extension announced recently by the FAI.
Beginning in 2010, the number of live matches shown by RT will grow each season, culminating with 33 live matches (one per week) in the final year of the term - the 2013 season.
Sky wins rights to most Champions League games
Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk,
Monday March 17 2008
Sky has tonight scooped the majority of the TV rights to Champions League football until 2012, after tabling a blockbuster bid estimated at more than 240m.
Uefa made the announcement after the broadcaster comprehensively outbid three rivals in order to secure exclusive rights to all but one match per round of games from the start of the 2009-10 season.
The live rights to the most attractive match on a Wednesday night remain up for grabs, with ITV and the BBC expected to fight it out.
The terrestrial broadcasters, together with Five, will face further competition from Sky when the second round of bids are opened at lunchtime tomorrow.
The auction was expected to run for months, but the size of Sky’s bid is believed to have led Uefa to make an early decision.
The pay TV operator was determined to retain the rights, partly to make up for the loss of the FA Cup and England internationals, previously shared with the BBC but now snatched by ITV and Setanta, from this August.
Its dominance of live Premier League coverage has also been threatened for the first time this season by Setanta.
Industry insiders believe the BBC is now in pole position to win the rights to the remaining Wednesday night game.
Much will depend on the determination of Uefa president Michel Platini to reserve at least one game for a free to air broadcaster in the face of another large Sky bid.
The BBC has promised its big name on-air names that it will pull out all the stops after losing the FA rights, leaving it without any regular live football next season.
The Champions League rights are currently shared between ITV, which shows two matches per round, and BSkyB, which shows the rest.
They pay an estimated 90m per season between them, but the new deal for three seasons from 2009 is expected to net Uefa at least a 50% increase on that amount.
Those close to the bidding speculated that Sky had already shelled out around 80m per season to increase its live coverage.
The value of the rights to Europe’s biggest club competition have continued to soar as competition among broadcasters for top flight football, with its ability to drive subscriptions and bring in mass audiences, continues unabated.
The recent success of English clubs has also contributed to their determination to win the rights.
Under the deal, Sky will increase the number of matches it shows per season from 103 to 130, utilising its interactive service to show several games at once. It will also broadcast them on the internet and mobile phones.
The number of match nights will also increase, from 25 to 34, as matches from the final qualifying round are included and the first knockout round is spread across more nights.
Sky will have exclusive live rights to one semi-final and share the final, which will take place on a Saturday night for the first time, with the other successful bidder.
“Sky Sports will be able to give our viewers more live matches and more of the giants of European football,” said Sky Sports managing director Vic Wakeling.
"We have used digital technology over the last five seasons to offer a menu of live games. It has worked superbly and given viewers choice; they can decide which game to watch and they appreciate that.
BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch added: “We have secured an excellent rights package at a price which we believe reflects their value to our customers and which recognises the increasing attractiveness of this competition to our business.”
The rise mirrors the increase in other major rights deals, with the latest Premier League deal bringing in a total of 2.7bn and the 425m paid for the FA Cup and England rights representing a 42% increase on the previous deal.