Commercial TV news provider ITN is to produce Setanta Sports News when it goes on air later this year. The channel, backed by Setanta Sports and Virgin Media, will be made available to the cablenet’s 3 million digital TV subscribers. 56 new editorial and production positions will be created at ITN’s headquarters in Central London.
Michael O’Rourke, co-founder of Setanta Sports, said he was confident ITN would bring its expertise in rolling news to Setanta Sports News. “This channel will sit well alongside our other range of sports channels and club TV channels and also delivers on a long held ambition to launch a sports news channel.”
ITN was brought on board after sports production house TWI pulled out of the project. There had been suggestions that Virgin had been talking to ITN about a rolling news channel. Earlier this year, Virgin lost both Sky News and Sky Sports News as part of a carriage fee dispute.
