View Full Version : North American Sports Network!
Yay! :clap: Full story from DigitalSpy:
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Setanta is to launch a new 24-hour premium channel featuring American and Canadian sports, it was announced today.
The broadcaster, which already operates two pay-per-view sport screens on Sky Digital, will launch the "North American Sports Network" (NASN) in partnership with Vulcan European Media on December 1st.
NASN has signed programming contracts with Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL) and US networks ESPN, Fox and CBS Sports, which will contribute to a sporting lineup of baseball, American football, basketball and ice hockey, as well as "the top sports news and talk shows." A spokesman for NASN added that original programming would be produced in London.
The channel promises to broadcast a minimum of fifteen live games per week, particularly centred in peak slots on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
The network says that its primary target audience is the half million Americans and Canadians living or working in the UK and Ireland, but also expects a following from nationals who have an interest or participate in the sports.
Subscription will be a hefty £9.99 (€14.99)per month. NASN will initially be available via Sky Digital in the UK and Ireland, but hopes to extend to cable networks in "the first half of 2003."
£9.99 a month :eek:
No thanks! Pay enough as it is! :p
I don't think it's a bad price if you're a fan and don't like watching highlights on Ch 4
Originally posted by camaj
I don't think it's a bad price if you're a fan and don't like watching highlights on Ch 4
I think I'd rather stick with my free MLB coverage on C5 instead :p
Bit pricey but if you wanna watch Baseball now even if just highlights you have to stay up until the small hours of the morning.
I might look into this package as i miss the US Sports since my parents moved from the US
I could be tempted with this too... £9.99 is not bad as it sounds like they will have a number of the sports related shows as well as live games and highlights.
I'll reserve my final judgement until I see the line-up though!
ed rooney
30-10-2002, 09:30
Bugger, this could end my resistance to Sky. :oh-hum:
According to www.digitalspy.co.uk the channel will launch with a two week freeview:
New premium channel 'The North American Sports Network' will launch on December 5th with a two-week freeview for Sky Digital customers.
As reported last month, the 24-hour station will target the half million Americans and Canadians living or working in the UK/Eire with a schedule composed of baseball, American football, basketball and ice hockey, as well as sports news and talk shows.
Available on channel 420, NASN will cost £9.99 / €14.99 as part of a 12-month subscription, or £12.99 / €19.99 per month otherwise.
I'll subscribe during the baseball season,anything's got to be better than listening to Gould on C5.
Now available on Sky Digital channel 420.
Some live NHL on at the moment.
The coverage is 'interesting'. It looks like they've just taken the live feed straight from the local WB affiliate channel. When they go to ad breaks we get to see them cueing up replays and cleaning the ice. Shame the first game is :zzz: .
I wonder if anyone can help me .....I subscribed to NASN(sports channel) yesterday online........and in the info it says i should receive the channel within 24hrs ...but guess what, no joy.........if anybody has subscribed to this channel....how long did it take before you received it?:help:
NicolaUK
25-06-2003, 16:24
Ours was turned on in about a day, have you tried calling them?
Mine was turned on in about 6 hours.
Just to let you people know....i rang them this morning.......they didnt have my details at all (so much for the internet)...anyway its now all sorted!.Thanks for your help.:clap:
Watch Around The Horn platty if only for Woody Paige,the man is
:nuts:.
Originally posted by kjn6371
Watch Around The Horn platty if only for Woody Paige,the man is
:nuts:.
Totally agree....i saw this show this evening......i'ts mad!!!..i couldnt imagine a uk version though!!! :lol:
There's some really good shows. I like Around The Horn (Woody is a legend) and Pardon The Interruption especially but also good are Rome is Burning, The Sports Reporters and The Life.
A lot of the shows on NASN are shown barely half an hour after they go out in the US so they are bang up to date.
EDIT - for those who may be interested in this channel they are having a freeview weekend next weekend (4th to 7th July).
Talk about bringing a thread back from the dead ....anyway, interesting news about NASN and Setanta....if you are an NASN subscriber be prepared for your subs to go up, from Feb 1st Setanta will be available for all NASN subscribers ??? the bad news, subs go up from MAR 1st to £14 :( ...this is a rundown from Digital spy forums ...
from Feb 1st, NASN is part of Setanta
(the recent buyout of NASN other investors must come effective from then)
effective from tomorrow, Setanta Sports subscribers get NASN included in their £14 Setanta Sports Pack
from Feb 8th, NASN subscribers will get the Setanta Sports 5 channels :
everyday : Setanta Ireland
(with certain live sport blocked as other broadcasters have UK rights)
weekends : Setanta Sports 1 & 2
weekdays : Celtic & Rangers TV
new subscribers won't be able to just sub to NASN, Celtic or Rangers as standalone channels.
Now the bad news. From March billing, NASN subscribers will see their sub increase from £10.99 to £14. I understand that contracts need to give a month's notice for increases so I expect a letter must be in the post soon.
I expect that alot of NASN subscribers have no interest in football (which is what Setanta is based around) so these subscribers won't be too happy see their sub increase
Roughneck
01-02-2006, 13:12
Well thats my NASN cancelled.
NicolaUK
01-02-2006, 13:17
Well thats my NASN cancelled.
Ditto.
I dont see any reason why you just cant have NASN :thinking: , if you want it......i'm in the same boat as you guys...i get NASN just for the Baseball!! , i'm not interested in scottish football :shrug: ....mind you i already subscribe to MLB.TV so i might just cancel NASN myself .... :(
Hopefully ESPN will launch their station over here eventually at a far lower subscription rate than NASN was! Always had a £4.99 limit in my head for what I'd pay - anything more is just excessive IMO.
NicolaUK
01-02-2006, 13:48
Hopefully ESPN will launch their station over here eventually at a far lower subscription rate than NASN was! Always had a £4.99 limit in my head for what I'd pay - anything more is just excessive IMO.
I thought ESPN had already been announced? Or maybe I presumed it would form part of the Sky HD lineup :nuts:
I thought ESPN had already been announced? Or maybe I presumed it would form part of the Sky HD lineup :nuts:
ESPN on SKY HD ....where do i sign up???? .... :nuts:
si2k2000
01-02-2006, 14:12
I think ESPN Classic Sports is coming out this year. May pave the way to get the other ESPN Channels.
NicolaUK
01-02-2006, 14:19
ESPN on SKY HD ....where do i sign up???? .... :nuts:
It's bound to happen isn't it? All that lovely ready made HD content :nuts:
ESPN on Sky in HD would be very tempting, I only subscribed to NASN for one month, and that was all because I really wanted to see one game and whilst I enjoyed the channel even £9 was out of my price range, at £14 they'll have no subscribers left!!
Well that's my NASN cancelled aswell. They tried to tell me that it was good value at £14 as I would be getting Scottish and Italian football aswell...Yeah right. I just told them that they had priced themselves out of the market.
I would rather put the money towards paying for a (legit) ESPN service (the proper US service, not the ESPN classic) when the NFL season starts up again in August.
Kevin.
This is really bad news :(
I've been an NASN subscriber since day 1, but like everyone else I have absolutely no interest in Scottish or Italian football, so I'm really torn now.
On one hand the principle of being forced to pay extra for crap I don't want means my first instinct is to cancel, but....
...on the other hand it's only £3 a month more, and in the grand scheme of things it's nothing to most people - it's only 1 pint a month!
I'll have to have a think about it and decide sometime in the next month.
One thought though - maybe if enough people either cancel or threaten to cancel they will change their minds and offer NASN as a standalone again. At the end of the day Setanta getting £10.99 for one channel is way better than getting nothing at all.
Here's hoping!!
PockyMonster
01-02-2006, 20:14
haha i bet they thought it was a genius marketing move, and now a massive chunk of their subscriber base is going to leave.
i still can't believe its 2006 and we don't have any form of "real" ESPN over here..
haha i bet they thought it was a genius marketing move, and now a massive chunk of their subscriber base is going to leave.
i still can't believe its 2006 and we don't have any form of "real" ESPN over here..
Not that funny really - if enough people leave it won't be viable, so first they will cut the levels of content which will cause even more people to leave, and eventually cut the channel completely which is definitely not good news.
One thought though - maybe if enough people either cancel or threaten to cancel they will change their minds and offer NASN as a standalone again. At the end of the day Setanta getting £10.99 for one channel is way better than getting nothing at all.
Here's hoping!!
My thoughts exactly. For every 10 customers that cancel at £11/month, they have to keep almost 40 customers at the new £14 price just to break even.
It doesn't really seem logical to turn away people who are willing to pay something. They will lose money if any more than 22% of their current subscribers cancel, and there do appear to be a lot of people cancelling.
Kevin.
do you not think that this has something to do when they lost some of the espn content back in early december (obviously because of money) they are trying to get back the additional they had to pay. If it isn't, its a great piece of research into their customer base - who thought people who like US sports are bound to like scottish/irish/european football and will be glad to pay an additional £3 (which isn't that much but its the principle).
I gave up my subscription some time ago as could not really justify the cost.
But this is even worse they will lose loads more people.
Setanta seem to be completely stupid as its the same as when they stopped selling Rangers and Celtic TV standalone.
Agree with the comment earlier that £5 or £6 is a fair price as I'm sure I read that is what the NASN subscribers in Germany and Netherlands are paying, around EUR10 pm.
At £14 a month it is now a similar price to the Sky Sports channels where you get a lot more for your money and £10 of the subscription covers your Sky+ cost so the marginal cost is very low.
I guess they will try and pick up some of the new Premiership packages (as Sky cant buy them all) and then charge around £20pm, but with very few customers.
Looks like they are struggling as they have not used their PPV channels on Sky for over a year now, and seem unable to get anything for them.
I can see their idea of PPV Scottish football via TopUpTV being a flop.
I gave up my subscription some time ago as could not really justify the cost.
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Agree with the comment earlier that £5 or £6 is a fair price as I'm sure I read that is what the NASN subscribers in Germany and Netherlands are paying, around EUR10 pm.
At £14 a month it is now a similar price to the Sky Sports channels where you get a lot more for your money and £10 of the subscription covers your Sky+ cost so the marginal cost is very low.
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I personally think that £10.99 is not an unreasonable amount to pay for the content we have been getting. I also have the full Sky Sports package but I watch NASN at least twice as much as all the Sky Sports channels combined.
If they were to lose the ESPN shows after the 31st March (the end of the current short-term deal they struck in December) then the fees would not be justifiable, but with the likes of ATH, PTI and Rome is Burning amongst others I am more than happy to pay the current £10.99.
Tony Soprano
02-02-2006, 15:15
i like watching my baseball via my subscription on MLB.com TV. It's ideal for me as I can watch the games when I want to.
i'd been a long-time subscriber up until the end of the last baseball season. looking at this i don't think i'll be taking up a subscription this season though. i'll probably sign up for mlb.tv instead (or ask my friend to point his isight camera at his tv!).
NicolaUK
10-03-2006, 19:51
Just received a phone call from them offering to freeze the price for the next 6 months with option to cancel when I want so I said ok.
They are also going to put NASN programming onto the Setanta sport channels. ESPN is still in negotiation.
Just received a phone call from them offering to freeze the price for the next 6 months with option to cancel when I want so I said ok.
They are also going to put NASN programming onto the Setanta sport channels. ESPN is still in negotiation.
Nicola - what did you do to get them to offer you that deal??
NicolaUK
11-03-2006, 18:00
Nothing, they just rang and said my cancel date was approaching and would I like to keep it for 6 months at the frozen price :shrug:
NASN and Major League Baseball (MLB) have reached a groundbreaking five-year, pan-European broadcast deal, beginning with the 2006 season.
The first of its kind for MLB in Europe, the agreement provides NASN with exclusive rights to televise more than 275 games each season, from Spring Training in March through the playoffs and World Series in October. NASN’s live coverage of MLB will consist of up to 10 regular season games each week, as well as the entire playoffs and World Series.
The deal covers all forms of television, including high-definition (HDTV) and IPTV rights. It also provides NASN with additional premier content rights. Among these are the All-Star game, All-Star Weekend events such as the Home Run Derby and MLB’s flagship highlight programme, This Week in Baseball.
:clap: great no more of that prat Jonny Gould rambling on in the studio whilst the game is in progress or switching over and talking over Jon and Joe.
Does this mean that they have sorted out the contract with ESPN ?
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