Setanta Sports Announce New Rights Deal With England´s Football Association

NEW ORLEANS, May. 20 /PRNewswire/ --

NEW ORLEANS, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Setanta Sports today announced at the NCTA's Cable Show (Booth ES 73) a new four-year broadcasting rights agreement to televise programming from The Football Association (FA), England's governing body for soccer.

Under the new agreement, which runs from the 2008/09 through 2011/12 seasons, Setanta Sports will select exclusive matches to televise on their channel in order to bring U.S. soccer fans live match telecasts from the FA Cup, the world's oldest knockout club competition. Setanta will also broadcast the famous FA Cup Final played each year in May at Wembley Stadium.

The new deal for the U.S. market starts in August this year with the season opening FA Community Shield, an annual match between the FA Cup holders (Portsmouth) and The Barclays Premier League title holders (Manchester United) that kicks off the English soccer season. In addition, the agreement includes a selection of live and exclusive home matches involving the England team as they seek qualification to the 2010 FIFA World Cup under new coach Fabio Capello.

The two leading soccer broadcasters, Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel, have agreed to a formula under which games will be selected for each network to run exclusively. In addition to live matches, both channels will have rights to ancillary FA programming, including preview and review shows, archive matches and magazine programs.

In an additional deal, Setanta has secured all of the rights in Canada where the service launched in the summer of last year.

Roger Hall, Managing Director, Setanta Sports International, commented "It's fantastic to be adding The FA Cup and England internationals to our growing portfolio of key soccer and rugby rights in the North America. As a domestic rights partner of the FA back in the UK we will be producing our own coverage of live games to beam into homes in North America."

About Setanta Sports (www.setanta.com)

Setanta Sports operates the only dedicated International sports channel in the North America. In 2006, the 24-hour, digital pay TV network aired more than 1,000 live events, including European and International soccer, world- class rugby and other sports programming designed to meet the growing demands of international sports fans. Setanta Sports is owned by Dublin-based Setanta Sports Holdings, a leading international pay television broadcaster and the number two sports broadcaster in the United Kingdom, providing top sports leagues and events to more than 100 million digital television homes globally and to commercial venues in six countries. In North America, Setanta Sports is currently available to subscribers via DIRECTV, Dish Network, as well as in commercial settings such as sports bars and pubs nationwide. Setanta Sports has a series of additional North American distribution deals expected for 2008.