Eir Sport 1 is an Irish pay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in Ireland, while it is available upon direct subscription to the Eir Sport package on other networks across Ireland. Its sister channel is the subscription based network Eir Sport 2. In June 2013, Setanta Sports signed a long-term agreement with BT Sport to distribute these channels within the Republic of Ireland. In November 2015, Irish telecommunications company Eir acquired Setanta Sports. On 5 July 2016, Setanta Ireland was renamed Eir Sport 1. On 15 August 2019, eir Sport and Virgin Media Sport contracted a deal to show Virgin Media Sport on eir Vision and eir Sport 1 on Virgin Media Ireland.
History
As of 5 July 2016 the Setanta Sports brand has been replaced by Eir Sport operated by Eir.
Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to Irish expatriates
Setanta Ireland launched in August 2004 initially on the UPC platform in the Republic of Ireland.
Setanta Ireland's CEO is Michael O'Rourke, who was one of the original company founders. He took over following the departure of Colin Morgan in late 2012. Niall Cogley was the CEO prior to that.
The company's production headquarters is in Broadcasting House, Princes Street South, Dubln 2, Ireland.
Senior positions include Brendan Higgins CFO, Brian Quinn Marketing Director, Trevor Twamley Advertising Sales Director, Graham Byrne Head of commercial premises
The name 'Setanta', comes from the name of the ancient Irish Warrior 'Setanta' from Ulster who frequently played the oldest known field sport, hurling, and who was later given the name 'Cúchulainn' as described in the ancient Irish texts of the 'Annals of Ulster'
Setanta acquired the Premier League highlights rights for the Republic of Ireland in August 2013, taking over from RTÉ. In July 2016, it was announced that they had lost these rights to Sky Sports Ireland with effect from the 2016/17 Premier League season.
Programming
In Ireland, Eir Sport 1 broadcasts League of Ireland, Setanta Sports Cup, Premier League, Allianz Leagues GAA, F1, The Masters, The Open Championship, Europa League, Champions League, Roland Garros, Live Horseracing and Golf Channel programming. For a brief period from June 2011, Setanta Ireland experimented with music programming and Irish films as part of its line-up. In 2012 Setanta had the Irish rights to cover all of Liverpool's home games live in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage. In August 2013, Setanta Ireland started showing Premier League Highlights for the first time. The new show Premier League Central took over from RTÉ who had previously held the rights. The show goes out on Saturday and Sunday nights and is hosted by Connor Morris. In June 2013, Setanta Ireland added the newly formed UK sports broadcaster BT Sport to its platform for Republic of Ireland sports fans. This resulted in the Setanta Sports pack in the ROI containing six channels; Setanta Ireland, Setanta 1, BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe & ESPN. All programming available on the Eir Sport pack can found below. ;Football
Irish Sports Documentaries commissioned for Setanta
European Games
;GAA
Allianz Leagues
GAA Championship - deferred coverage
Ownership
see Eir Sport.
Eir Sport HD
Eir Sport HD is a high definition simulcast of Eir Sport 1. The channel was the first ever Irish owned HD channel in the Republic of Ireland. It launched on 23 November 2010 then known as Setanta HD. The former company Setanta had previously hoped to have a high-definition channel launched by August 2008, in time for the 2008–09 Premier League season.
On 24 June 2013, Eir Sport announced that it has struck a 3-year deal with BT Sport to carry the BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN channels as part of the Setanta pack in the Republic of Ireland. The HD feeds of these channels are also available at no extra cost. In September 2015, BT Sport Europe was added to the pack. BT Sport Europe was introduced to broadcast the BT Sport's live UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches.
