Eleven Sports’ recent acquisition of the USPGA Championship, La Liga and Serie A has seen the Andrea Radrizzani owned network emerge as a genuine player in the Irish sports market.
Eleven will make its official launch into the Irish market next month and will show all four rounds of the PGA Championship live and free of charge through a seven-day trial of its digital over-the-top (OTT) service.
Eir Sport’s acquisition of the PRO14, the Champions Cup opening its games to free-to-air television and Virgin Media’s decision to launch a brand new Irish sports channel as part of the rebrand of TV3 has further scattered the broadcasting landscape in Ireland and here we have a look at what broadcasting rights each channel owns as well as how much it’s going to cost the Irish sporting fan on a monthly basis.
Sky Sports
Sports:
159 Premier League games, over 500 games from domestic and international football, and every practice, qualifying and race live throughout the Formula 1 season.
Plus, live coverage from the Open Championship and Masters Tournament, live Boxing and NFL, and every England Home international.
- Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022 qualifying matches
- UEFA Nations League
- Premier League – 126 live games per season (packages A, C, D, E and G) until 2019
- English Football League – 112 live matches per-season, plus live play-off matches and final until 2019
- EFL Cup – 15 live matches per season until 2024
- Major League Soccer
- EFL Trophy
- Scottish Professional Football League – 30 live matches per season until 2020.
- Scottish Cup – 9 live matches including Final until 2018
- Northern Ireland Football League Cup
- NIFL Premiership – Up to 5 live matches until 2022
- GAA: Sky Sports have retained rights to 20 games, 14 of them exclusive, including two All-Ireland football quarter-finals. They will, as previously, broadcast the All-Ireland hurling and football semi-finals and finals on a simulcast basis with RTÉ.
- Sevens World Series
- The Rugby Championship and SANZAAR Tests
- All-Ireland League
- Top 14
- Super Rugby
Mitre 10 Cup
Currie Cup - Test match and ODI cricket in England and Wales
- ICC Cricket World Cup
- Indian Premier League
- ATP Tennis – Amazon from 2019
- The Open Championship – Live until 2021
- US Open – Live until 2019
- US PGA Tour events
- European Tour events
- 2018 Ryder Cup
- Formula One: All races live on Sky Sports F1 until 2024
- Matchroom Sport: 20 shows a year live on Sky Sports until 2021
- Athletics World Cup: Live on Sky Sports in 2018
- PDC World Darts Championship: Live on Sky Sports until 2025[69]
- Premier League: Live on Sky Sports until 2025
- Grand Slam of Darts: Live on Sky Sports until 2025
- World Matchplay: Live on Sky Sports until 2025
- World Grand Prix: Live on Sky Sports until 2025
- World Cup of Darts Live on Sky Sports until 2025
- NFL: Regular season, Monday Night Football, NFL International Series, playoffs and Super Bowl live on Sky Sports until 2019
Cost: Sky are currently running a 6 months half price Sky Sports offer: Sky Sports €20 extra pm for 6 months, then standard price (currently €40 extra pm) unless you cancel giving at least 31 days’ notice. Replaces existing Sky TV offers. Allow 24 hours for activation. Can also choose between seven dedicated channels so you only pay for what you want to watch.
RTE
Sports:
- FIFA World Cup: All Matches Live until 2022
- Republic of Ireland national football team – All competitive Internationals
- League of Ireland: Highlights and Matches Live
- First choice of UEFA Champions League matches on Tuesday nights for the next three years
- FAI Cup: RTÉ Sport show 1 Second Round Match Live, 1 Third Round Match Live, 1 Quarter-Finals Match Live, 2 Semi-finals Matches Live, Final Live
- Confederations Cup:
- FAI Women’s Cup
- GAA: RTÉ television has retained access to 31 senior championship games each year including all provincial hurling and football finals, both All-Ireland hurling and two All-Ireland football quarter-finals, and the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals in both football and hurling.
- Autumn rugby Internationals – All Ireland home games until 2021.
- Women’s Six Nations Championship
- Six Nations Under 20s Championship
- Irish Open: RTÉ Sport & Sky Sports
- European Athletics Championships
- European Athletics Indoor Championships
- Irish National Indoor Championships
- Irish National Track & Field Championships
- Irish Grand National
- Galway Races
- Leopardstown Festival
- Punchestown
- Irish Derby
- Fairyhouse
- All-Ireland Senior Football Championship – Up to 31 games exclusively, including all Provincial Finals & two All-Ireland Quarter-Finals. All-Ireland Semi-Finals & All-Ireland Final shown on a simulcast basis with Sky.
Cost: €160 p.a. as part of the TV License fee.
TV3/Virgin Media
Sports:
- Champions League: Exclusive rights to Wednesday night’s games, they will also share 16 of the Tuesday night matches with RTÉ.
- UEFA Europa League
- UEFA Super Cup
- UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers (not involving Ireland) and fixtures from the inaugural UEFA Nations League that begins in September
- Six Nations Championship
- Nine live Heineken Champions Cup rugby games
- Cheltenham Festival
Epsom Derby
Aintree Hurdle
Aintree Grand National - UFC (deferred)
Costs:
Virgin TV customers – Free
Virgin Broadband – €10/*Free for the first two months
customers
Virgin Mobile – €10/*Free for the first two months
customers
Non Virgin Media – €20
customers
Note: Champions Cup rugby and Six Nations will be both be broadcast live and free-to-air on Virgin Media One.
Eir Sport
Sports:
- Allianz Football League – Live: Up to three games on Saturday nights.
- Allianz Hurling League – Live: Up to three games on Saturday nights.
- All-Ireland Club Senior Football Championship – Live: up to 30 matches
- All-Ireland Club Senior Hurling Championship – Live: up to 30 matches
- Republic of Ireland national football team: Home friendly games live
- Women’s soccer and U21 internationals
- Copa América
- UEFA Champions League will continue to be broadcast on the eir sport pack as part of an ongoing arrangement with BT Sport. Thursday night’s UEFA Europa League games are also part of the deal.
- League of Ireland
- League of Ireland Cup
- Premier League highlights
- FA Cup
- Scottish Challenge Cup
- Rugby World Cup – Live all 48 matches
- World Rugby Sevens Series
- World Rugby Under 20 Championship
- Schools Rugby
- 152 Guinness PRO14 Games
- Gallagher Premiership Rugby
- UFC (deferred)
- US Masters golf
- Boxing
- KSW MMA
- Wimbledon
French Open - Irish Cricket Team
- Formula One – Live: Coverage of all Practice, Qualifying & Races until the end of the 2018 season
- GP2
- NASCAR
Cost: MONTHLY
Early Bird Offer
€1.00 per month for first 3 months
7 Channels (incl eir sport and BT Sport Channels)
5 HD Channels
Access to all our live content
No annual contract
No connection fee
2 Month Min Term
Savings of up to €79!
€27.50 per month at end of offer
ANNUAL
€245
Annual payment
7 Channels
5 HD Channels
Convenient one-off payment
Access to all our live content
No connection fee
Savings of €85
Note: The eir Sport pack, consisting of seven channels including BT Sport, is currently free to all eir broadband customers.
However, Virgin Media removed the eir Sport pack from its services last year.
TG4 Sport
Sports:
- All-Ireland Senior Football Championship – Highlights: Monday night programme
- All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship – Highlights: Monday night programme
- All-Ireland Minor Football Championship – Live: All-Ireland Semi-Finals & Final exclusively
- All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship – Live: All-Ireland Semi-Finals & Final exclusively
- Allianz Football League – Live: Up to three games on Sunday afternoons. (Two live and one deferred)
Highlights: Monday night programme - Allianz Hurling League – Live: Up to three games on Sunday afternoons. (One live and one deferred)
Highlights: Monday night programme - All-Ireland Club Senior Football Championship – Live: Sunday afternoon games
- All-Ireland Club Senior Hurling Championship – Live: Sunday afternoon games
- All-Ireland Senior Ladies’ Football Championship
- All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship
- All-Ireland Under-21 Hurling Championship
- Guinness PRO14 – 21 games across the regular season.
- European Rugby Champions Cup – Highlights
- European Rugby Challenge Cup – Highlights: (Irish Teams highlights)
- Irish National Amateur Boxing Championships
- European Amateur Boxing Championships
- Motorsport Ireland
- Tour de France
Vuelta a España
Cost: €160 p.a. as part of the TV License fee.
BT Sport
Sports:
- Champions League
- Europa League
- Premier League – 42 Live Matches
- FA Cup
- Scottish League Cup
- European Rugby Champions Cup – Live: up to 34 matches live, including 2 quarter-finals, 1 semi-final and the final
- European Rugby Challenge Cup – Live: up to 34 matches live, including 2 quarter-finals, 1 semi-final and the final
- UFC – until 2018
- Cage Warriors
- MotoGP
- World Rally Championship
- NBA
Cost:
ELEVEN Sports
Sports:
- PGA Championship
- La Liga
- Serie A
- Eredivisie
- Chinese Super League
- Swedish Allsvenskan
Cost: To be determined
