Setanta Golf
Encyclopedia
Setanta Golf was a television channel from Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...

 dedicated to the sport of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

.

Broadcasting

The channel was available in the UK on Sky Digital
Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)
Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...

 channel 429, Tiscali TV channel 557 and Virgin Media channel 543. It was a premium channel on Sky but included on Virgin's XL pack. In the Republic of Ireland it was available on UPC Ireland
UPC Ireland
UPC Ireland is Liberty Global Europe's telecommunications operation in Ireland. UPC Ireland is the largest digital cable television provider within the Republic of Ireland. As of September 2010 the company offers broadband internet, digital television and digital telephony to over 531,000 customers...

 and Sky Digital.

Content

From its launch, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 based PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 was the mainstay of Setanta Golf's programming schedule. The channel also included coverage of the over 50s Champions Tour
Champions Tour
The Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.The Senior PGA Championship, founded in...

. Other programs included The Big Break
The Big Break
The Big Break is the Golf Channel's reality television program. The show's premise is to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events on certain tours. The series debuted on October 6, 2003, and has become very popular. As of November 2011, Big Break is in its 16th...

 and Highway 18
Highway 18 (TV series)
Highway 18 is an American reality television game show that premiered on Golf Channel on July 22, 2008. Set in Florida, the series is hosted by Keri Murphy. The show features five teams of twosomes racing against each other in a series of challenges to complete a "Clubhouse Challenge" allowing them...

 from The Golf Channel
The Golf Channel
Golf Channel, known as The Golf Channel before the July 2008 dropping of The, is an American cable television network with coverage focused on the game of golf. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, the American headquarters and studio are currently located in Orlando, Florida...

, and Shell's Wonderful World of Golf
Shell's Wonderful World of Golf
Shell's Wonderful World of Golf was a televised series of golf matches began in the 1960s. The program was sponsored by Shell Oil. It was a part of the tradition of "challenge matches" between pairs of professional golfers, which were the earliest form of professional golf competition, but have now...

. Many programming hours were also taken up with advertising features, mainly for JJB Sports
JJB Sports
JJB Sports plc is a United Kingdom sports retailer. It currently operates 251 stores in the UK and Ireland.- History :The sportshop chain was founded in 1971, when ex-footballer Dave Whelan acquired a single sports shop in Wigan. The original store was established by JJ Broughton in the early...

 licensed Slazenger
Slazenger
Slazenger is a British sports equipment brand name sold throughout the world, involving a variety of sporting categories namely cricket, tennis and hockey...

 and Nike products.

PGA Tour coverage started with the first two tournaments from Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 and included all the regular season tournaments except for the majors
Men's major golf championships
The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the Major Championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf...

, for which the rights are held by BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...

 and Sky
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

.

Demise

Having run into financial difficulties, on 23 June 2009, Setanta ceased broadcasting all its channels in the United Kingdom.
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