New Setanta Contract

Okay, here's the straight dope on the new Setanta Sports contract with the Premiership. Setanta have picked up the exclusive rights to the premier fixtures that used to be on Pay Per View. That means, as Dave said a while back, FSC will continue to broadcast up to three matches on a Saturday starting at 10 a.m. live and one at 11 a.m. live on Sunday. But at least one match - perhaps as many as two - featuring the premier teams (Chelski, ManYoo, Arse, Liverpool) will be exclusively on the new Setanta satellite service. My hunch is that little will change - I never ponied up for the pay games anyway - but if you want to see United vs. Liverpool, for example, you'll be left with two options: switch to the dish and get Setanta or go down the pub.

One more detail for the new season: Steven Cohen confirmed that Fox Football Friday has been cancelled and there will be no Friday night preview of the weekend's matches on FSC. My hunch is that they'll stay with the lame Soccer Saturday show with Max Bretos that they started last season, maybe as a lead-in to the Saturday 10 a.m. game. Steven did say that he and Nick would perhaps feature on a Tuesday night show on FSC, which sounds suspiciously like a Premiership wrap-up show.

More details later....