RCN Cable

The AFL announced today that it had reached a three year deal (2012-2014) with Fox Sports for weekly AFL coverage on FOX Soccer Plus (FSP).  FSP is the subscription channel counterpart to Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel and before that Fox Sports World).  The cost will be $14.99 a month and FSP is available to customers of DirecTV, DISH, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, most Time-Warner and Brighthouse cable systems, Cablevision, Cox, BlueRidge, Bendbroadband, SureWest, FullChannel, Frontier, and RCN cable.  The AFL was unable to come to a deal with ESPN for continued coverage on their outlets.  Coverage will be two live matches per week typically (will vary occasionally) plus all finals live. The AFL Winners weekly highlight show will be available on FSP also. AFANA will post more detailed schedules in the next few days and update all of our TV pages to reflect this change in coverage. (TV pages have been updated)  Canadian TV coverage will remain on TSN2 with one live match per week.  (Addendum: 03/23/12: MHz has confirmed they will continue coverage this season with games on Monday nights at 10:00 PM EDT, repeated on Saturdays at 4:00 AM EDT.  Matches will be edited to 2 hrs and they will not carry the highlights programs ("AFL Winners") this season on Saturdays. Also, FSP on some Time Warner systems which offer the Sports Pass package of channels,  FSP will be just $5.99 -- price may vary slightly in some areas.)

RCN Cable and Setanta Sports announced today (Nov. 26th) that Setanta would be joining the RCN Cable line-up on Nov. 30th, 2008.  Carriage will be on all RCN systems that are "all digital" as channel 549.   This includes the service areas of Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC as well as other cities in the US.   A free preview of Setanta Sports will be available from December 8th through 22nd.   Fans who are customers of RCN can call 1-800-746-4726 or visit http://www.rcn.com to subscribe for $14.95 per month.   RCN has indicated that areas not currently all digital will gain Setanta when they are converted to all digital in near future.   With the addition of RCN, Setanta is now available on at least some of the cable systems of Cox, Comcast, RCN, and AT&T U-verse as well as the satellite services of DirecTV and DISH, the fiber optic Verizon FiOS systems, and the IPTV providers GekTV and NexTV. 

Setanta Says Report Inaccurate

(Updated with info from Setanta and links to original source and subsequent retraction.) [Ed. note: See later post on this.] According to an article in the May 29 "The Morning BRIDGE", a cable industry newsletter published by Media Business Corp., Roger Hall (Setanta Sport CEO) told the newsletter that Setanta Sports will begin a "rolling launch" on RCN cable systems beginning June 1st and on Verizon FiOS fiber optic cable systems in July.   AFANA spoke to a representative of Setanta Sports who indicated the report by The Morning Bridge was inaccurate and the story has since been partially retracted.  We would appreciate if viewers of RCN or FiOS systems call their local office and seek details on whether Setanta will be available in their area and post that info in a comment.