Setanta Sports News to kick off this month
Monday, November 5th, 2007November the 29th on cable and satellite
Setanta Sports and Virgin Media have announced that their sports news channel will launch on November 29.
The 24-hour news channel, produced by ITN, will be available on all Virgin Media TV Sizes and free-to-air on Sky, and promises to offer fresh headlines every 20 minutes interspersed with interactive debates and reports from “fan correspondents”.
“This channel represents a new age for sports fans in this country,” says Malcolm Wall of Virgin. “We’re confident the energy will provide a fresh approach to sports news in the UK and by putting fans at the very heart of the channel, we think it will give us an edge with viewers.”
‘User-generated content’ may be one of those nasty buzzphrases – much like ‘multimedia’ and ‘interactive’ were in the early 90s – doing the rounds at the moment, but many of the enduring features of the Soccer AM institution, such as Stranger on the Sofa and Third Eye could equally be considered as adding to a ‘non-passive user intertextal experience’ – Virgin Media could be onto a winner here.
Geoff Hill, the channel’s editor in chief, explained: “We want Setanta Sports News to be fun and engaging for the nation’s sports fans. Viewers will get the sports news that matters delivered in a thorough, concise and accurate way, but this channel will be much more than a rolling sports news service - we want the added value of passionate input from fans. We aim to be alongside them at every major sporting event in the UK.”
Ever since the Great Sky Channel Exodus, Virgin have placed the launch of a sports news service at the top of their to-do list, alongside purchasing exclusive content for the launch of Virgin 1 whilst the carriage fees dispute was meted out in the courtrooms. Setanta Sports are, of course, direct rivals with Sky in terms of football coverage, and ITN have close ties to ITV, who, following the recent Competition Commission ruling will either be shot of the controversial Sky stake or see the size of the stake reduced.
Setanta Sports News will appear on Virgin channel 518, with An EPG position on digital satellite has yet to be confirmed. No news yet if the channel will appear on Freeview or become part of the Setanta Sports back for non-cable and sat customers.
