Fox Soccer Plus (formerly Setanta Sports) is an American

sports channel Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and terrestrial and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programmi ...

dedicated to

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and rugby league football. Launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, it was rebranded on March 1, 2010, as a spin-off of the now-defunct Fox Soccer after its owner

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

acquired the channel and its coverage rights from Setanta in January 2010.Fox Soccer Plus Kicks Off As Premium, HD Channel On March 1
''Multichannel News'' January 11, 2010 Despite the September 2013 replacement of Fox Soccer with FXX, Fox Soccer Plus remains operational, although in recent years, the channel has lost many of its key events that had carried over from the Fox Soccer Channel.

History

Launched on April 26, 2005, by Setanta Sports, which is based in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, the channel had the rights to delayed

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

and Chelsea matches on MUTV and Chelsea TV, which were shown in segments within the channel. Any given broadcaster can only gain access to a maximum of two club channels under the current Premier League international TV rights. As of July 27, 2009 the ownership structure of Setanta Sports North America Limited changed. Setanta Sports North America Limited was owned by Sabloss. Both Setanta Sports Channel Ireland Limited and Setanta Sports North America Limited were licensed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. On January 27, 2010, Setanta Sports announced that they had reached an agreement with

Fox Soccer Channel Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australia ...

to transfer rights to select programming (soccer and rugby) that would be effective as of March 1. In addition, Setanta Sports announced that they would "cease" broadcasting the channel in the U.S. and Caribbean on February 28, 2010. The channel was rebranded from Setanta Sports to Fox Soccer Plus on March 1, 2010, at 12:00 a.m. EST.

Coverage rights

Soccer

With the loss of many of its marquee properties, very limited content remained on the channel. As of 2019, Fox Soccer Plus's soccer programming consists of replays of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

games shown on Fox or FS1, replays of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

events (although some events from lower level FIFA competitions that Fox holds the rights to are sometimes shown live) and occasionally, games from the

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

, Italy's

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

, the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

, the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

, and the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

Rugby League

Fox Soccer Plus continues to air rugby league content from Australia and England. Currently, Fox Soccer Plus airs three of Australia's National Rugby League games per round, all three State of Origin games (often shown live on FS2 first), all playoff games, and the NRL Grand Final. With the exception of the Origin games, the broadcast source is Fox League, which shares the basic video feed from

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

but inserts its own graphics and commentators, meaning that Fox Soccer Plus viewers do not have the option of the announcers and production values of Nine.

Australian Rules Football

Fox Soccer Plus typically carries four regular-season

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

matches each week, with three of those shown live and one being a replay of the one game a week shown live first on FS2; all playoffs and the Grand Final are carried, along with preseason matches and the AFL Women's league. Fox Soccer Plus coverage comes from both Fox Footy and the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

. With American-born Mason Cox playing in the league, most matches featuring Collingwood, Cox's current team, tend to be shown.

Former

As Setanta Sports

=Soccer

= *Shared live rights with

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

and

of the Barclays

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. Matches were broadcast on Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET (a second live match aired on Setanta Xtra and was rebroadcast on the main channel later that day), Sundays at 8:30 a.m. and first-choice of any mid-week matches. Matches from the Saturday 10 a.m. ET timeslot that were not originally shown live on ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel were shown on tape delay in the evening on Setanta Sports. *Shared live rights with ESPN360 of live

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. *Shared live rights with

of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

(Setanta also had some matches delayed to later that night or the following day). *Shared live rights with ESPN360 of

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

, League One and League Two matches, including playoffs. *Live Euro 2012 qualifiers. Others aired on tape delay either later on in the day, or a few days later if the live broadcast was on

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

. *Live French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

. *Live

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

. *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

matches. The delayed matches consisted of

Old Firm The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...

matches which aired live at designated bars/restaurants on Setanta Premium. On the rare occasion where neither

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

nor Rangers are on, the game aired live. *Live international soccer, including friendlies and

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

qualification matches. *Highlights shows for most of the leagues Setanta broadcasts.

=Rugby Union

= *

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

. *Live Guinness Premiership,

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club competition of England. *Live Pro14, rugby union clubs of Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. *Live

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

, rugby union club cup competition for 6 top European nations. *Live

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

, rugby union clubs of, then, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. (Teams from Argentina and Japan added in later years) *Live IRB Sevens Rugby. *Live

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

, rugby union club cup competition for South Africa. * Six Nations rugby union competition on tape delay *Summer and fall internationals, a mixture of live and tape delayed *Live Tri-Nations, international Southern Hemisphere rugby union competition.

=Other Events

= *Selected live

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

events; delayed GAA Championship matches. *Tape delayed A1GP - Auto racing; "world cup of motorsport" *Same-day tape delayed

Superleague Formula Superleague Formula was an Open wheel car, open wheel single seater Formula racing, motor racing formula, which started in 2008, at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. The league introduced team sponsorship by association football clubs. It u ...

- Auto racing; fusion of soccer and motorsport

As Fox Soccer Plus

Fox Soccer Plus' coverage of Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and France's

ended in May 2012, after coverage of both moved to

BeIN Sport beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and it ...

starting with the 2012–2013 season. Fox Soccer Plus also had German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

coverage until 2020 when

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

assumed the rights. Fox Soccer Plus formerly held rights to all major properties in the SANZAAR countries—the Tri Nations involving the national teams of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia;

, involving franchises from each of these countries; South Africa's

; and New Zealand's

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Teknologi Mara, a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia * Institute for Information, Tel ...

. However, in 2011, Fox Soccer Plus lost broadcasting rights for Super Rugby and Tri Nations to

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

. Fox Soccer Plus no longer has any rights to rugby union, previously the channel had rights to the Europe-wide

, the English Premiership and the Pro12 in the Celtic nations and Italy (although RaboDirect Pro 12 League matches were non-existent in Fox Soccer Plus' schedule for the first six weeks of the season).

Availability and other services

Fox Soccer Plus is available nationally on

and

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

, and regionally on Verizon FiOS,Fox Soccer Plus Set to Launch March 1 with DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS
''Fox Soccer Plus Press Release'' February 26, 2010 Charter Spectrum,Bright House adds HD channels to lineup
''Daytona Beach News-Journal'' June 15, 2010

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

, AT&T Uverse, and several streaming services. When the channel was known as Setanta Sports, it offered the Setanta Sports Xtra channel at no extra charge to DirecTV customers in case two live events need to be aired simultaneously.

High Definition

Fox Soccer Plus's

720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...

HD feed is available nationally on DirecTV,DIRECTV and its Television Partners Offer More World-Class Soccer Than Ever Before
DirecTV Press Release August 10, 2010 and regionally on Charter Spectrum, AT&T U-verse,AT&T U-verse Launches Fox Soccer Plus HD
''Multichannel News'' February 21, 2011 and

Former services

Setanta Premium

As a part of Setanta Sports, Setanta Premium was available only to select commercial subscribers for Pay-Per-View events while most are broadcast delayed on the full-time channel. *

Championship and League events. *

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

. *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

. *

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

in rugby union. * Euro 2008 qualifiers, international soccer matches. *

FIFA World Cup Qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

, international soccer matches. *

and

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

matches. This service charged customers a cover charge of $10–$20 per head, depending on the match.

Setanta Broadband

During its existence as Setanta Sports, Setanta also offered a broadband subscription service, Setanta Broadband, which allowed customers with a high speed internet connection to view some of the Setanta Sports channel content on their computers and includes access to pay-per-view events. Portuguese Liga soccer was available and

matches were also broadcast starting the 2007–08 season on Setanta Broadband. Broadband customers did not receive

matches as of July 2008, due to the league's new distribution deal with aussiesport.tv.

References

External links

*
Interview with Setanta Sports about their DISH Network announcement
{{Association football on television Fox Sports Television channels and stations established in 2005 Soccer on United States television English-language television stations in the United States Sports television networks in the United States