Setanta's plans suffer hitch

One More Thing:Setanta Sports makes its long-awaited debut this weekend as a live broadcaster of English Premiership football.

Having paid £392 million (€580 million) for live rights to 46 games a season, thereby breaking Sky's monopoly, it is crucial that the Dublin-based station gets off to a winning start.

Setanta's plans to play in the big league have received a setback, however, with the news that it has pulled the launch of its proposed 24-hour, rolling sports news service.

TWI, the sports-content production arm of IMG Media, has pulled out of the project, forcing Setanta and Virgin Media, owners of the former NTL cable TV business in the UK, to pull the plug on the end-September launch.

Setanta and Virgin have been running a costly advertising programme to promote the new service. TW1, which produces cricket coverage for Sky, said terms could not be agreed with Setanta and Virgin.

Setanta Sports News was designed as a rival to Sky's long- running sports news service and was being launched to complement Setanta's other pay channels, covering live football and golf.

A row over fees means that Sky's channel is blacked out on the Virgin platform in the UK and the TV operator had hoped that Setanta's new channel would fill the void.

Setanta and Virgin are now seeking a new partner and say they hope to launch the service before the end of the year.