Since Setanta have pulled some of the live Premier League matches away from Sky the chance to watch some English football has been a big selling point for the Irish broadcast company.

Add to those 46 English Premier League matches the 60 live Scottish Premier League games and the Blue Square Premier (formerly the Conference) Setanta on the Freeview platform looks like a good deal for only £9.99 a month. Or does it?

When the decision came to stop Sky having the exclusive rights to all the English Premier League football there was some rejoicing. Many felt Sky cost too much for the monthly subscription and with a pay-per-view system for extra football matches costs rose.

Setanta acquired the rights for the old pay-per-view games for the 2007-2008 season (those usually played on a Saturday evening) and began to promote those games during the summer.

For Sky subscribers this has meant an extra cost. Setanta only runs on a monthly subscription. To watch all those extra football matches would cost more than the old season ticket for the pay-per-view games on Sky.

Then there’s Freeview, the digital channels for non-satellite or cable subscribers. Setanta have a monthly subscription lower than the satellite or cable prices but the viewer has a lot less to view.

Despite the mass promotion of EPL, SPL, various European football leagues, NRL, AFL, PGA Golf, NASCAR and various other American sports what the Freeview viewer gets is only one of the 9 Setanta Sports channels. A channel that only runs from 1200 to 0300.

That means a distinct lack of what Setanta are actually promoting. Setanta on Freeview has been designed purely for the English and Scottish football. The extra sports, although at times covered live, are mostly reduced to brief highlight shows.

The broadband subscription to Setanta, cheaper than the Freeview subscription, has more to offer with 3 channels, although even that has some sports which can’t be broadcast online.

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