| Eir Sport 1 | |
| Launch Date: | August 2004 |
| Closed Date: | (Northern Ireland) 28 October 2021 (Ireland) |
| Replaced By: | Premier Sports |
| Picture Format: | 1080i HDTV |
| Owner: | Eir |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Area: | Ireland Northern Ireland |
| Former Names: | Setanta Sports Ireland Setanta Ireland |
| Availability Note: | (at time of closure) |
| Website: | www.eirsport.ie |
Eir Sport 1 (formerly Setanta Ireland) was an Irish pay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in Ireland, 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.
In June 2013, Setanta Sports signed a long-term agreement with BT Sport to distribute these channels within the Republic of Ireland. In November 2015, Irish telecommunications company Eir acquired Setanta Sports.[1] On 5 July 2016, Setanta Ireland was renamed Eir Sport 1.
On 15 August 2019, eir Sport and Virgin Media Sport contracted a deal to show Virgin Media Sport on eir Vision and eir Sport 1 on Virgin Media Ireland.[2] On 13 August 2020, eir Sport 1 was removed from Virgin Media Ireland, as eir refused to pay the contracted distribution license fee.[3]
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.[4] [5]
In Ireland, Eir Sport 1 broadcast League 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 of Liverpool's home games live in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.
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.
see Eir 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 as Setanta HD.[7] [8]
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.[9]
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.
Setanta was the sponsor of the Setanta Sports Cup, an annual soccer tournament which featured teams from the League of Ireland and Irish Football League from 2005-14.
As of 5 July 2016 in the Republic 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 on Eir TV, Sky Ireland and Vodafone TV.[10] [11] Eir Sport offers commercial venues in Ireland programming of sports such as football (soccer), Gaelic football, hurling, golf, cricket, rugby union and rugby league and boxing.
On 24 June 2013, Eir Sport (previously Setanta Sports) announced that it had struck a 3-year deal with BT Sport to carry the BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN 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 live UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League 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 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 that eir Sport 2 will close on 20 July 2021.[12]