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Setanta/ITV FA Rights deal

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An Tarbh

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Setanta Sports and ITV have joined together to seal a â'¬650 million rights deal to broadcast FA Cup games and England internationals as well as other underage and mickey mouse tournaments organised by the FA.

At the moment there are 23 FA Cup games plus replays shown by both BBC and Sky but now that will increase to 41 from Setanta and ITV with ITV having first pick in each round of the FA Cup.

For Irish viewers the games will not be shown on Setanta Sports Ireland, only on their digital platform in a bid no doubt to attract extra subscribers, somehow I don't think this will work for them, they'd be better off using the Rugby World Cup as bait to get extra Irish viewers.

This deal though does seem a tad excessive and at the moment it's not clear what the situation will be reagrding England home qualifiers.
 
The FA statement seems to have cleared things up, England qualifiers will also be live on ITV as well as away England friendlies, not sure how that works if I'm honest, thought for away matches that deals were struck between individual broadcasters in the host country. Also looks like Setanta won't be showing the FA Cup final either, bit of a **** deal for them if that's the case, same as their champions league coverage here with no semi finals or final, guess they'll take what they can get at this stage.
 
Government legislation means that terestrial (free) TV has to have matches such as the FA Cup final.

In other news however, it's a kick in the teeth for football fans with ITV and Sentanta getting the rights; To have Sentanta, first you need to pay for Sky Sports then you have to pay the extra £10 p/a for the 2 crappy channels. And after all that their coverage is pretty poor. And we all know what happened to Football last time ITV stuck their noses in; Remember the On Digital fiasco?

I'd sooner the FA cup on Prem plus then either of those two.
 
I cant stand Andy f***ING Townsend..... ITV is **** when it comes to football would rather watch it without the sound on...
 
This is utter ****, I know how it will be with the ITV, they won't show a single lower team because they won't respect the glory of the cup. Plus they screwed county over the ITV digital fiasco

BM
 
Unfortunately, has been that way since 91, not sure about 87 though. And they have the next one as well. I'd love to see someone like Sky set up a specific terrestrial channel to enable them to get events like the football and rugby world cup because their coverage of both sports is so far ahead of anything that the BBC or ITV have to offer.
 
Unfortunately, has been that way since 91, not sure about 87 though. And they have the next one as well. I'd love to see someone like Sky set up a specific terrestrial channel to enable them to get events like the football and rugby world cup because their coverage of both sports is so far ahead of anything that the BBC or ITV have to offer.
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Does it give the game more coverage though as ITV is free?
 
That's a common myth; we still have to pay a TV lisence in order to watch ITV, so it still costs £15 p/m.
 
That's a common myth; we still have to pay a TV lisence in order to watch ITV, so it still costs £15 p/m.
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True, nothings free. More people can afford the tv licence than sky's 20 something quid add-on for skysports package ontop of the standard subscription plus a tv licence, so the coverage must be higher. More people = more money, so the RWC and FA stays with them or am I wrong?. I wish I could simply pay what I watch. One match one standard price.
 

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