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Cape Town – TopTV has made a sudden decision to add a new sport channel, Setanta Action, to their channel line-up.
The struggling pay-TV operator, whose lack of sports channels and premium sports programming has been cited as one reason for the operator's languishing state, announced the addition of an action sports channel, Setanta Action, early on Friday.
According to TopTV, the channel from the Setanta Sports stable, will start broadcasting from Friday 2 November on channel 202.
While TopTV kept TV critics in the dark about the upcoming channel, it now says in a statement that Setanta Action is "a new 24/7 sports action channel with a particular focus on combat sports".
Programming includes mixed martial arts
The statement continues to state that "programming will also include wrestling, action series, action magazine format shows that feature fitness and exercise, judo, taekwondo, karate and other extreme sports".
"The increasingly popular mixed martial arts (MMA) sporting code is considered to be one of the world's fastest growing sports, with new organisations springing up around the world, including here in South Africa," Kelly Butler, the CEO of Setanta Africa is quoted within the statement issued by TopTV.
"The decision to launch a channel dedicated to action sports has resulted from the enthusiastic response to the MMA and kickboxing content that has been screened on the Setanta Africa channel, which is also available on the TopTV platform," Kelly said.
Setanta Action will try and target a predominantly young male audience, aged 18 to 34.
In the statement, Ian Woodrow who is the vice president of channels at TopTV, also weighs in: "While our sports offering is limited in terms of mainstream sports, we have targeted various niche channels with a specific audience in mind, and these are performing very well for TopTV.
"As such, we are delighted to welcome the Setanta Action channel to our sports mix that includes Setanta Africa, Fuel TV (an extreme sports channel), Eurosport News and MUTV (the 24-hour football channel of Manchester United). We are confident that its focus on mixed martial arts, kickboxing and boxing will attract a new audience of viewers to TopTV," Woodrow said.
The struggling pay-TV operator, whose lack of sports channels and premium sports programming has been cited as one reason for the operator's languishing state, announced the addition of an action sports channel, Setanta Action, early on Friday.
According to TopTV, the channel from the Setanta Sports stable, will start broadcasting from Friday 2 November on channel 202.
While TopTV kept TV critics in the dark about the upcoming channel, it now says in a statement that Setanta Action is "a new 24/7 sports action channel with a particular focus on combat sports".
Programming includes mixed martial arts
The statement continues to state that "programming will also include wrestling, action series, action magazine format shows that feature fitness and exercise, judo, taekwondo, karate and other extreme sports".
"The increasingly popular mixed martial arts (MMA) sporting code is considered to be one of the world's fastest growing sports, with new organisations springing up around the world, including here in South Africa," Kelly Butler, the CEO of Setanta Africa is quoted within the statement issued by TopTV.
"The decision to launch a channel dedicated to action sports has resulted from the enthusiastic response to the MMA and kickboxing content that has been screened on the Setanta Africa channel, which is also available on the TopTV platform," Kelly said.
Setanta Action will try and target a predominantly young male audience, aged 18 to 34.
In the statement, Ian Woodrow who is the vice president of channels at TopTV, also weighs in: "While our sports offering is limited in terms of mainstream sports, we have targeted various niche channels with a specific audience in mind, and these are performing very well for TopTV.
"As such, we are delighted to welcome the Setanta Action channel to our sports mix that includes Setanta Africa, Fuel TV (an extreme sports channel), Eurosport News and MUTV (the 24-hour football channel of Manchester United). We are confident that its focus on mixed martial arts, kickboxing and boxing will attract a new audience of viewers to TopTV," Woodrow said.
