FanSection Blog

Setanta Sports just launched a new live and on-demand sports streaming service for US customers.  Setanta, which carries all sorts of European sports from the English Premier League soccer to rugby, cricket, and boxing, had previously had some of it’s content available online, but not in a TV-like expeirence.  The new subscription service which will be $14.99 per month or $149 per year is supposed to be much better and very similar to the MLB.tv service - it uses the same underlying technology.  NewTeeVee has a decent video of a demo of the service from the NAB Show earlier this week.

The EPL is becoming increasing popular in the US which could lead to significant subscription sales for Setanta.  For example, of the over 500k fans in our Manchester United application, only 25% or so are actually in the UK.  The same goes for Liverpool.  The vast majority of the “fans” are in the US and as a result, represent a prime target for Setanta.  We hae self-proclaimed fans that are completely unable to watch EPL games without taking long lunches to Irish pubs.  With the launch of i-Setanta in the US, those same fans can now slack off and watch the games at work.  It should be interesting to see if this news impacts ESPN360 at all since it currently carries EPL and Champions League matches.