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

Broadcast Rights Include Coverage of the FA Cup, Community Shield and
England's Senior and Under-21 National Teams from 2008/09 Through 2011/12

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.
SOURCE Setanta Sports

Robert Ryan, Setanta Sports North America, +1-646-274-5281,
Robert.Ryan@setanta.com