Waiting impatiently for US coverage

Setanta coverage:Salvation, it seems, is very nearly at hand for those armchair golf fans reliant on the cable networks who have been denied the opportunity to watch live US Tour action on the dedicated Setanta Golf channel in recent weeks, but most pertinently last weekend when Padraig Harrington was in contention up to the final round in the Nissan Open.

Although households with satellite dishes in Ireland have been able to upgrade to receive Setanta Golf without any difficulty, viewers who rely on cable operators NTL and Chorus (who have a combined 592,200 television customers, with the company shortly due to rebrand as UPC Ireland) have had to endure frustration as live coverage remained out-of-bounds while negotiations between the broadcaster and the cable operators were taking place.

"We expect to carry the channel and should be making an announcement shortly - however, while discussions are currently ongoing, we cannot comment further on the matter until these conclude," said a spokesperson for UPC Ireland.

Setanta Sports has an exclusive six-year deal with the PGA Tour in the United States for live transmission in Britain and Ireland of all regular events on the tour, including the Players Championship in May. The Irish pay-TV broadcaster gained exclusive coverage of the PGA Tour and Champions Tour at the expense of Sky Sports for six years up to 2012 in a deal estimated at €150 million.

Sky Sports, who had broadcast the US Tour exclusively since 1993, lost out on the PGA Tour rights to Setanta, but retained the rights to the US Open and US PGA, as well as the world golf championship events, the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup.

The British Open and the US Masters are shown on terrestrial television.

However, a significant number of golf fans here have been left without access to the new Setanta Golf channel because there was no swift conclusion to negotiations between Setanta and cable operators NTL and Chorus.

Although deals were struck with cable operators in Britain, and those with satellite dishes in Ireland have experienced no problems in upgrading to the dedicated golf channel, cable customers in Ireland (a hugely significant number in terms of viewing power) have been left without their fix of live televised golf from the States.

Setanta Golf came on stream on January 8th last, but, over a month into the new season, cable viewers have been denied the opportunity to acquire the new channel. But Mark Mohan, the commercial director of Setanta Sports, is hopeful that cable viewers will soon have access to the golf station.

"It looks like there will be a fruitful outcome," he remarked of negotiations, adding, however, that the date of implementation is "at their (the cable operators') discretion".

This week's Accenture Matchplay, which is part of the world golf championship series of tournaments, is live on Sky Sports, but, for armchair golf fans dependent on the cable operators, the resolution to the impasse can't come quickly enough. Next week's Honda Classic, which was won by Harrington in 2005, will be exclusively live on Setanta Golf.