Setanta Sports have announced the signing of Ronan Rafferty and Dominik Holyer to their new dedicated golf channel, Setanta Golf, that goes on air on January 8th, 2007.
They will join former European tour player and respected BBC television commentator Ken Brown, the latter having previously committed to Setanta Sports. Brown will actually perform a dual role in that he will continue to work for the BBC in conjunction with his new duties.
Rafferty and Holyer are highly regarded in golfing and broadcasting circles and will provide top-class commentary, analysis and insider views on over 40 PGA Tour events that will be broadcast on the channel next year.
Live coverage will include The Players Championship, the play-offs for the FedEx Cup and the Tour Championship. Setanta has promised a regular diet of guests "offering analysis and insight" to feature as part of the programming.
Setanta Golf will be available throughout the day, seven days a week. Those looking to purchase just the golf channels will not be able to do so as it comes as part of a package; the Setanta Sports Ireland package.
The addition of Setanta Golf means there will be nine channels available on the Setanta Sports pack on the Sky platform in the Ireland. These include Setanta Ireland , Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2, NASN, Racing UK, Racing World, Celtic TV, Rangers TV and Setanta Golf.
Cable operators will also have versions of the Setanta Sports pack available. When contacted yesterday, NTL was unable to confirm whether they would charge an additional fee for the golf channels. As things stand, the Setanta Ireland channel is free to NTL subscribers but the additional channels listed above require a monthly premium.
A spokesperson for NTL confirmed: "We are currently in negotiation with regard to the golf channels and should be in a position to announce our position in the next two weeks."
The signatures of Holyer and Rafferty represents another coup for Setanta who has not along beaten Sky Sports to the rights for the American golf but enticed two of the satellite broadcasters regular contributors to change companies.
Rafferty is set to become a regular analyst on Setanta Golf. The former Ryder Cup and European number one and Order of Merit winner (1989) played on tour for 20 years and is much more garrulous having swapped his clubs for the microphone. The Warrenpoint native embraced the professional game after a stellar amateur career that saw him play Walker Cup as a 17-year-old.
Holyer will present PGA Tour coverage and lead studio discussion. He has enjoyed a distinguished broadcasting career beginning in BBC Radio before moving to Sky Sports in 1995. He has worked on live broadcasts of many sports. One of his first golfing experiences was to interview European captain Seve Ballesteros after Europe's Ryder Cup victory at Valderrama in 1997.
Setanta Sports operates 10 channels in 10 countries. Founded in 1992, it provides top sport to more than 50 million digital homes worldwide and to 1,500 commercial venues. It operates more sports channels than any other broadcaster in Britain and Ireland and from next August, will show more live football than any other channel, showing 78 English Premiership matches.
