 | |
| Country | Ireland |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Ireland Northern Ireland |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled to16:9576i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Eir |
| History | |
| Launched | August 2004 |
| Closed | 30 June 2021; 3 years ago (2021-06-30)(Northern Ireland) 28 October 2021(Ireland)[1][2] |
| Replaced by | Premier Sports |
| Former names | Setanta Sports Ireland Setanta Ireland |
| Links | |
| Website | www.eirsport.ie |
Eir Sport 1 (formerlySetanta Ireland) was an Irishpay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages inIreland, while it is available upon direct subscription to the Eir Sport package on other networks across Ireland. Its former sister channel is the subscription based networkEir Sport 2.
In June 2013, Setanta Sports signed a long-term agreement withBT Sport to distribute these channels within theRepublic of Ireland. In November 2015, Irish telecommunications companyEir acquired Setanta Sports.[3] On 5 July 2016, Setanta Ireland was renamed Eir Sport 1.
On 15 August 2019, eir Sport andVirgin Media Sport contracted a deal to showVirgin Media Sport oneir Vision and eir Sport 1 onVirgin Media Ireland.[4] On 13 August 2020, eir Sport 1 was removed from Virgin Media Ireland, as eir refused to pay the contracted distribution license fee.[5]
Eir announced on 19 May 2021 that all of their sports channels would close before the end of the year. Eir Sport 1 shut down in Northern Ireland on the 30 June and so did X1 and X2. Eir Sport 2 closed on 20 July. Eir Sport 1 closed on 28 October, marking an end to the Eir Sport channels.[1][2]
In Ireland, Eir Sport 1 broadcastLeague of Ireland,Setanta Sports Cup,Premier League (ROI only), 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.[6]
In 2012 Setanta had the Irish rights to cover all ofLiverpool's home games live in the2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.
In August 2013, Setanta Ireland started showing Premier League Highlights for the first time. The new showPremier 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.
Republic of Ireland women's national football teamRepublic of Ireland national under-21 football teamLeague of Ireland
Setanta Sports CupLeague of Ireland Cup
Magazine shows including Champions League Magazine, Serie A highlights, Ligue 1 Highlights and Goalissimo Pre-Season friendlies featuring Premier League Teams
ClassicPremier League Allianz Leagues - live GAA Championship - deferred coverage GAA Club Championship - liveseeEir Sport.
Eir Sport 1 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 asSetanta HD.[7][8]
The former company Setanta had previously hoped to have ahigh-definition channel launched by August 2008, in time for the2008–09 Premier League season.[9]
Setanta's major in-house programme wasThe Sports Show (formerlyThe Hub) which aired sports highlights and news three times daily across 2009 and 2010. A previous version of the programme calledThe Hub ran from 2005-09. Setanta also simulcast the radio show Off The Ball fromNewstalk.
Setanta was the sponsor of theSetanta Sports Cup, an annual soccer tournament which featured teams from theLeague of Ireland andIrish Football League from 2005-14.
As of 5 July 2016 in theRepublic of Ireland, the Eir Sport Package is available for free to any Eir broadband customer. This includes the BT Sport package. Additionally, since 1 August 2016, the Eir Sport Package is available onEir TV,Sky Ireland andVodafone TV.[10][11] Eir Sport offers commercial venues in Ireland programming of sports such asfootball (soccer),Gaelic football,hurling,golf,cricket,rugby union andrugby league andboxing.
On 24 June 2013, Eir Sport (previously Setanta Sports) announced that it had struck a 3-year deal withBT Sport to carry the BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 andESPN 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 liveUEFA Champions League andUEFA Europa League matches. The deal ran until 2019, whenSky TV took over BT's distribution rights in Ireland, bundling BT's channels with that ofPremier Sports to produce the Sky Sports Extra bundle, only available in Ireland.
Eir announced on 19 May 2021 that eir Sport 1 would close before the end of 2021. Eir also announced thateir Sport 2 will close on 20 July 2021.[12]