North American Sports Network

[Gampern]

Da es hier ja doch einige gibt, die US-Sport interessiert:

NASN ist vermutlich im Laufe des Jahres 2005 in Österreich über UPC Telekabel zu empfangen. Wenn Sie weitere Informationen erhalten wollen oder einfach überprüfen möchten, ob Sie Zugang zum Kabelnetz von UPC Telekabel haben, gehen Sie bitte zu www.upc.at oder rufen Sie die folgende Hotline-Nummer an: (+43) 01960/ 60600 (Ortstarif). Dort wird über die Vergabe der Sendeplätze und den Zeitpunkt der Einspeisung entschieden.

S: http://www.nasn.de/...

Für Leute, die nicht im UPC Versorgungsgebiet wohnen:

Setanta acquires N American sports network

By Tim Burt in London

FT June 8 2005

Setanta Sports, the Irish TV production and content group, will today announce a multi-million dollar buy-out of the North American Sports Network (NASN), the international channel that broadcasts baseball, NFL football, basketball and Nascar racing outside the US.

The Dublin-based company, which already holds TV rights to the Scottish Premier League, is acquiring control of the NASN from Vulcan European Media, the US venture capital firm ultimately controlled by Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft.

Financial terms of the deal are not expected to be disclosed. But NASN - shown mainly on BSkyB, Europe's largest pay-TV operator - has been valued by industry analysts at close to $50m.

As part of a two-stage transaction, Setanta is acquiring outright control of NASN, in which it already has a 30 per cent stake, and then re-selling a 50 per cent holding to Benchmark Capital Europe, the Anglo-US private equity group.

It is the first major European media investment by Benchmark Capital since it recruited Ynon Kreiz, a business partner of US media entrepreneur Haim Saban, this year.

Setanta and Benchmark Capital have drawn up aggressive investment plans to expand NASN, which competes for audience share with Eurosport, a wholly owned subsidiary of TF1 of France, and international stations operated by ESPN, the world's largest sports network.

Leonard Ryan, joint chief executive of Setanta, has earmarked countries such as Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands for increased distribution of the sports channel.

"Our plan is to roll out the channel in Europe and Asia, where we detect a growing audience for American football, baseball and other sports," said one executive involved in the transaction.

The deal coincides with the expansion of multi-channel television in Europe, where the transition from analogue transmissions to digital networks is releasing broadcasting "spectrum" for new niche channels.

NASN is thought to be the fastest-growing channel for Setanta, which co-founded the 24-hour TV station with Mr Allen's Vulcan European Media in 2002.

Die rot markierte Textstelle lässt zumindest einwenig auf eine Distribution über SAT hoffen.