Eir Sport 1 (formerly Setanta Ireland) was an Irish

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, 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 network

Eir Sport 2 Eir Sport 2 (stylised as eir Sport 2, formerly Setanta Sports 1) was an Irish pay television channel owned by Setanta Sports Channel Ireland.BT Sport BT Sport is a group of broadcasting of sports events, pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, Warner Bros. Dis ...

to distribute these channels within the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. In November 2015, Irish telecommunications company

Eir In Norse mythology, Eir (Old Norse: , "protection, help, mercy"Orchard (1997:36).) is a goddess or valkyrie associated with medical skill. Eir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; th ...

acquired Setanta Sports. On 5 July 2016, Setanta Ireland was renamed Eir Sport 1. On 15 August 2019, eir Sport and

Virgin Media Sport Virgin Media Sport (formerly TV3 Sport) is a sports production unit at Virgin Media Television in Ireland which produces specialist sports content for its television channels Virgin Media One, Virgin Media Two, and Virgin Media Three. The depa ...

contracted a deal to show

eir Vision Eircom Limited, trading as Eir ( ; stylised eir), is a large fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications company in Ireland. The now privatised company, which is currently incorporated in Jersey, traces its origins to the Ireland's former ...

and eir Sport 1 on

Virgin Media Ireland Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Global's telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the country. As of 31 December 2014, the company offers broadband internet, digital television and ...

. On 13 August 2020, eir Sport 1 was removed from Virgin Media Ireland, as eir refused to pay the contracted distribution license fee.

History

*Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to Irish expatriates *The Setanta Ireland channel launched in August 2004 as a free bonus channel on the UPC platform (previously Cablelink, then

ntl NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications L ...

) in the Republic of Ireland. It was also immediately available as a pay TV channel on

Sky Ireland Sky Ireland Limited is a subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky and supplies television, internet and telephony services in Ireland. Its corporate headquarters are in Dublin which were opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 18 January 2013. Sky Ireland e ...

, and was followed by the establishment of a full network of sports channels in the UK. *On 5 July 2016 the Setanta Sports brand was replaced in Ireland by EirSport, following the sale of Setanta's irish channels to

. *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, Dublin 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 Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

, 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.

Closure

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 28 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.

Programming

In Ireland, Eir Sport 1 broadcasts

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

Setanta Sports Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of I ...

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

(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. In 2012 Setanta had the Irish rights to cover all of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

's home games live in the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage featured 48 teams: the 7 automatic qualifiers, the 31 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losing teams from the Champions League play-off round. The teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, a ...

. 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 *

Republic of Ireland women's national football team ) , Association = Women's Football Association of Ireland , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , Coach = Vera Pauw , Captain = Katie McCabe , Most caps = Emma Byrne (134) , Top scorer = Olivia ...

Republic of Ireland national under-21 football team The Republic of Ireland national under-21 football team, is the national under-21 football team of the Republic of Ireland and is controlled by the Football Association of Ireland. The team played its first match in 1978 and has competed in the U ...

League of Ireland Cup The League of Ireland Cup ( ga, Corn Sraithe na hÉireann), also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', is an annual knockout competition in men's football in the Republic of Ireland. It is contested by League of Ireland clubs and invited c ...

* Magazine shows including Champions League Magazine, Serie A highlights, Ligue 1 Highlights and Goalissimo * Pre-Season friendlies featuring Premier League Teams * Classic

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

;Golf *Masters Tournament *Open Championship *Royal Trophy live from Asia – 3 days in December *Golf Channel Content including the Feherty show, Big Break Ireland and Being John Daly *Golf Central from Golf Channel ;Rugby *Irish Schools Rugby *Six Nations - highlights *National Rugby League *In Touch – weekly rugby highlights ;North American sports *NFL *NBA *NHL *NCCA football & basketball *NHL Tonight – Magazine show *NASCAR ;Horseracing *Over 50 days of live racing from various UK meetings *Mark your card – weekly horse racing show ;Tennis *Roland Garros *Wimbledon ;Other *

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

2012 & 2016 *World Rally Championship - Rally Preview and Highlights *Sundry MMA events including cage contender *Boxing Magazine shows *Sundry Athletic Shows including the Great North Run *Irish Sports Documentaries commissioned for Setanta *

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic Games, Olympic tradition contested by sportsperson, athletes from European nations and several European Olympic Committees#Notes, transcontinental countries. The Games were ...

;GAA * Allianz Leagues - live * GAA Championship - deferred coverage * GAA Club Championship - live

Ownership

see

Eir Sport Eir Sport (stylised as eir Sport; formerly Setanta Sports) was a group of Irish television sports channels operated by Eircom Sport Limited, a subsidiary of Eir. In December 2015, Eir purchased original Setanta Sports operations in the Republic ...

Eir Sport 1 HD

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 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. SETANTAHDNEW

Other programming

Setanta's major in-house programme was ''The Sports Show'' (formerly ''The Hub'') which aired sports highlights and news three times daily across 2009 and 2010. A previous version of the programme called ''The Hub'' ran from 2005-09. Setanta also simulcast the radio show Off The Ball from

Newstalk Newstalk (formerly NewsTalk 106) is a national independent radio station in Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Bauer Media Audio Ireland, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Autho ...

Setanta Sports Cup

Setanta was the sponsor of the

, an annual soccer tournament which featured teams from the

and

Irish Football League Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

from 2005-14.

Availability

As of 5 July 2016 in the

, 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 on Eir TV,

and

Vodafone TV Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vodafo ...

. Eir Sport offers commercial venues in Ireland programming of sports such as

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

(soccer),

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

BT Sport deal

On 24 June 2013, Eir Sport (previously Setanta Sports) announced that it had struck a 3-year deal with

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of broadcasting of sports events, pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, Warner Bros. Dis ...

to carry the BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

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,

Europe was added to the pack. BT Sport Europe was introduced to broadcast the BT Sport's live

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

matches. The deal ran until 2019, when Sky TV took over BT's distribution rights in Ireland, bundling BT's channels with that of

Premier Sports Viaplay Sports and Premier Sports are a group of pay television sports channels owned by Viaplay Group. Viaplay Sports holds exclusive live UK and Republic of Ireland TV rights to La Liga, Scottish League Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League, NHL and ...

to produce the Sky Sports Extra bundle, only available in Ireland.

Closure

Eir announced on 19 May 2021 that eir Sport 1 would close before the end of 2021. Eir also announced that

eir Sport 2 Eir Sport 2 (stylised as eir Sport 2, formerly Setanta Sports 1) was an Irish pay television channel owned by Setanta Sports Channel Ireland.Eir Sport Eir Sport (stylised as eir Sport; formerly Setanta Sports) was a group of Irish television sports channels operated by Eircom Sport Limited, a subsidiary of Eir. In December 2015, Eir purchased original Setanta Sports operations in the Republic ...

Eir Sport 2 Eir Sport 2 (stylised as eir Sport 2, formerly Setanta Sports 1) was an Irish pay television channel owned by Setanta Sports Channel Ireland.Sports mass media in Ireland Television channels and stations established in 2004 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2021 2004 establishments in Ireland 2021 disestablishments in Ireland Defunct television channels Association football on Irish television