Fox Soccer Plus (formerly Setanta Sports) is an American

sports channel Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming. The first spor ...

dedicated to

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

. Launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previ ...

to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

, it was rebranded on March 1, 2010, as a spin-off of the now-defunct

Fox Soccer Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by Fox Corporation, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australia ...

after its owner

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

acquired the channel and its coverage rights from Setanta in January 2010.Fox Soccer Plus Kicks Off As Premium, HD Channel On March 1
''Multichannel News'' January 11, 2010 Despite the September 2013 replacement of Fox Soccer with

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...

, Fox Soccer Plus remains operational, although in recent years, the channel has lost many of its key events that had carried over from Fox Soccer Channel.

History

Launched on April 26, 2005, by Setanta Sports, which is based in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, the channel had the rights to delayed

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

and Chelsea matches on MUTV and Chelsea TV, which were shown in segments within the channel. Any given broadcaster can only gain access to a maximum of two club channels under the current Premier League international TV rights. As of July 27, 2009 the ownership structure of Setanta Sports North America Limited changed. Setanta Sports North America Limited was owned by Sabloss. Both Setanta Sports Channel Ireland Limited and Setanta Sports North America Limited were licensed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. On January 27, 2010, Setanta Sports announced that they had reached an agreement with

Fox Soccer Channel Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by Fox Corporation, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian r ...

to transfer rights to select programming (soccer and rugby) that would be effective as of March 1. In addition, Setanta Sports announced that they would "cease" broadcasting the channel in the US and Caribbean on February 28, 2010. The channel was rebranded from Setanta Sports to Fox Soccer Plus on March 1, 2010, at 12:00 a.m. EST.

Coverage rights

Soccer

With the loss of many of its marquee properties, very limited content remained on the channel. As of 2019, Fox Soccer Plus's soccer programming consists of replays of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

games shown on Fox or FS1, replays of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

events (although some events from lower level FIFA competitions that Fox holds the rights to are sometimes shown live) and occasionally, games from the

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

, Italy's

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de P ...

, the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

, and the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary national soccer league compe ...

Rugby League

Fox Soccer Plus continues to air rugby league content from Australia and England. Currently, Fox Soccer Plus airs three of Australia's

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

games per round, all three State of Origin games (often shown live on FS2 first), all playoff games, and the NRL Grand Final. With the exception of the Origin games, the broadcast source is

Fox League Fox League is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to screening rugby league (both domestic and international) matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited and is available throughout Australia on Fo ...

, which shares the basic video feed from

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

but inserts its own graphics and commentators, meaning that Fox Soccer Plus viewers do not have the option of the announcers and production values of Nine.

Australian Rules Football

Fox Soccer Plus typically carries four regular-season

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...

matches each week, with three of those shown live and one being a replay of the one game a week shown live first on FS2; all playoffs and the Grand Final are carried, along with preseason matches and the AFL Women's league. Fox Soccer Plus coverage comes from both Fox Footy and the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

. With America-born

Mason Cox Mason Cox (born March 14, 1991) is an American-Australian professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Playing as a ruckman and key forward, he first played Austr ...

playing in the league, most matches featuring Collingwood, Cox's current team, tend to be shown.

Former

As Setanta Sports

=Soccer

= *Shared live rights with

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

and

of the Barclays

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 Fo ...

. Matches were broadcast on Saturdays at 10am ET (a second live match aired on Setanta Xtra and was rebroadcast on the main channel later that day), Sundays at 8:30am and first-choice of any mid-week matches. Matches from the Saturday 10am ET timeslot that were not originally shown live on ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel were shown on tape delay in the evening on Setanta Sports. *Shared live rights with

ESPN360 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (w ...

of live Carling Cup football. *Shared live rights with

of the

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 competi ...

(Setanta also had some matches delayed to later that night or the following day). *Shared live rights with

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

, League One and League Two matches, including play-offs. *Live Euro 2012 qualifiers. Others aired on tape delay either later on in the day, or a few days later if the live broadcast was on

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...

. *Live French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

football. *Live

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

football. *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

matches. The delayed matches consisted of

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

matches which aired live at designated bars/restaurants on Setanta Premium. On the rare occasion where neither

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

nor Rangers are on, the game aired live. *Live international football, including friendlies and

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

qualification matches. *Highlights shows for most of the leagues Setanta broadcasts.

=Rugby Union

= *

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...

. *Live

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

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 it ...

club competition of England. *Live Pro14, rugby union clubs of Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. *Live

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

, rugby union club cup competition for 6 top European nations. *Live

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

, rugby union clubs of, then, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. (Teams from Argentina and Japan added in later years) *Live IRB Sevens Rugby. *Live

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premi ...

, rugby union club cup competition for South Africa. * Six Nations rugby union competition on tape delay *Summer and fall internationals, a mixture of live and tape delayed *Live Tri-Nations, international Southern Hemisphere rugby union competition.

=Other Events

= *Selected live

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

events; delayed GAA Championship matches. *Tape delayed A1GP - Auto racing; "world cup of motorsport" *Same-day tape delayed

Superleague Formula Superleague Formula was an open wheel single seater motor racing formula, which started in 2008, at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. The league introduced team sponsorship by association football clubs. It used the slogan 'The Beautiful ...

- Auto racing; fusion of soccer (football) and motorsport

As Fox Soccer Plus

Fox Soccer Plus' coverage of Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

and France's

ended in May 2012, after coverage of both moved to BeIN Sport starting with the 2012–2013 season. Fox Soccer Plus also had German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

coverage until 2020 when

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 ...

assumed the rights. Fox Soccer Plus formerly held rights to all major properties in the

SANZAAR SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby; previously known as SANZAR) is the body which oversees Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union. SANZAAR meets annually and is composed of the CEOs fro ...

countries—the Tri Nations involving the national teams of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia;

, involving franchises from each of these countries; South Africa's

; and New Zealand's

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tek ...

. However, in 2011, Fox Soccer Plus lost broadcasting rights for Super Rugby and Tri Nations to

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

. Fox Soccer Plus no longer has any rights to rugby union, previously the channel had rights to the Europe-wide

, the English Premiership and the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Af ...

in the Celtic nations and Italy (although RaboDirect Pro 12 League matches were non-existent in Fox Soccer Plus' schedule for the first six weeks of the season).

Availability and other services

Fox Soccer Plus is available nationally on

and

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling ...

, and regionally on Verizon FiOS,Fox Soccer Plus Set to Launch March 1 with DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS
''Fox Soccer Plus Press Release'' February 26, 2010

Charter Spectrum Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company. The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these ser ...

,Bright House adds HD channels to lineup
''Daytona Beach News-Journal'' June 15, 2010

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its e ...

, AT&T Uverse, and several streaming services. When the channel was known as Setanta Sports, it offered the Setanta Sports Xtra channel at no extra charge to DirecTV customers in case two live events need to be aired simultaneously.

High Definition

Fox Soccer Plus's

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcas ...

HD feed is available nationally on DirecTV (part-time),DIRECTV and its Television Partners Offer More World-Class Soccer Than Ever Before
DirecTV Press Release August 10, 2010 and regionally on Charter Spectrum, AT&T U-verse,AT&T U-verse Launches Fox Soccer Plus HD
''Multichannel News'' February 21, 2011 and

Former services

Setanta Premium

As a part of Setanta Sports, Setanta Premium was available only to select commercial subscribers for Pay-Per-View events while most are broadcast delayed on the full-time channel. *

Championship and League events. *

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

. *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

. *

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

in rugby union. * Euro 2008 qualifiers, international soccer matches. *

FIFA World Cup Qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

, international soccer matches. *

and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

matches This service charged customers a cover charge of $10–$20 per head, depending on the match.

Setanta Broadband

During its existence as Setanta Sports, Setanta also offered a broadband subscription service, Setanta Broadband, which allowed customers with a high speed internet connection to view some of the Setanta Sports channel content on their computers and includes access to pay-per-view events. Portuguese Liga soccer was available and

matches were also broadcast starting the 2007–08 season on Setanta Broadband. Broadband customers did not receive

matches as of July 2008, due to the league's new distribution deal with aussiesport.tv.

References

External links

*
Interview with Setanta Sports about their DISH Network announcement
{{Association football on television Fox Sports Television channels and stations established in 2005 Soccer on United States television English-language television stations in the United States Sports television networks in the United States