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The Lowdown: Sport On TopTV

Written by TVSA Team from the blog News on 30 Apr 2010
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If you're a true sports fundi and can afford over R500 bucks a month, you'd be mad not to get DStv. The SuperSport coverage of world sports is truly unrivalled by any broadcaster on the planet.

We're assuming you're reading this article because you can't afford R500 a month on sports telly, however, and are looking for other options. You've come to the right place.

TopTV - which launches on Saturday 1 May - is never going to rival DStv in the sports market but at least they do have some sport as part of their offering. And by "some", we mean "not much".

There are only three dedicated sports channels in the TopTV stable, two of which are on the Variety package (for an explanation of the packages and their pricing, read this article: The Dummies' Guide to TopTV).

The Kids & Music bouquet has one extreme sports channel, Fuel TV, which is an X-Sports sort of deal - a lotta wild and crazy guys doing wild and crazy stuff. It's an extra channel - not something the majority of people would fork out extra cash for.

The Variety bouquet is the only one that comes standard with all subscriptions, so if you get TopTV you will be getting your sport, no matter what. It has two dedicated sport channels: EuroSport News and Setanta Africa.

EuroSport News is simply a news channel. It features European and international sports news and is continually updated every 30 minutes. Useful for a quick fix.

Which leaves Setanta Sports as the sole major sports provider on TopTV. If it ain't on Setanta, you ain't getting it. For now at least - a premium sports channel called Top Sport was supposed to launch, but is not yet ready to do so. It's on hold for now.

So what does Setanta offer? The money question. Right there. A lot of male minds will be made up on whether to subscribe to TopTV over the next few paragraphs. We'll tread carefully.

Soccer

The staple diet of the channel is football. There are live soccer games from three leagues: The Scottish Premier League, the Eredivisie (Dutch League) and the J League (Japanese League).

English premiership games played by Aston Villa, Manchester City and Tottenham will be aired via a delayed broadcast 24 hours later, meaning no live premiership games will be shown.

The reason those three clubs are featured is because all of them have club channels on Setanta: Aston Villa TV, Manchester City TV and Tottenham TV. The club channels feature exclusive interviews with players, highlights and archives.

Rounding out the football lineup is a variety of magazine shows, including the World Sports Show and the African Soccer Show.

Rugby

In rugby union, Setanta Africa recently covered the Magner's Celtic League featuring the best club sides from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Rugby union is not a staple feature yet, however.

Setanta also covers rugby league in the form of Australia's NRL, which is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. Matches are shown live.

Kickboxing

Founded in 1999, It's ShowTime is the most famous Kickboxing/MMA/K-1 organisation in Europe and one of the most active in the World. Setanta Africa brings you live events throughout 2010.

Euroleague Basketball

Europe's elite basketball tournament from the Euroleague. The competition was founded in 1957 and is the most important club basketball competition in Europe. Setanta Africa airs live matches from each round, including the final four.

Superleague Formula

Live coverage from the Superleague Formula "The Beautiful Race: Football at 300 km/h". Each racing team is associated with a famous football club competing in 12 races, from April to November 2010.

DTM – German Touring Cars

The DTM is one of the world's highest quality and most popular touring car series. Setanta Africa airs all 10 races, from May to October.



So that's what you get on Setanta. The channel comes as part of the Variety package on TopTV, which is the cheapest package at R99 per month.

The bonus is that you still get the free channels, meaning you can add live Bafana Bafana games courtesy of the SABC and UEFA football from e.tv to give yourself some pretty comprehensive soccer options.

You'll also be able to watch the FIFA World Cup in digital quality, because your SABC feed will be routing via satellite if you watch it through TopTV.

Is the sport worth a subscription to TopTV? That depends on your sporting taste. For R99 per month, however, it's not bad - especially seeing as the Variety bouquet comes with 23 other channels.

It's certainly a lot better than relying on the free channels for your sport.



5 Comments

ThatDude
30 Apr 2010 20:01

im excited!dstv im sure regrets increasing the premium price

FK
30 Apr 2010 20:08

This does not bother me that much.  I hardly switch on to supersport.  TopTv, you are almost there.  A little bit from you, then you have a subscriber.

dorothy777
01 May 2010 00:36

FK please don't forget we have to hook up when Bigbrother Africa starts.Tread carefully. I don't want to loose a friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FK
01 May 2010 18:45

lol dorothy!!! Where have you been hiding yourself\-o?  How is 9ija?  You've been very scares, hey, good to hear from you.  Are we having another BBA this year?  When?  Please ensure that 9ija is represented by another village girl now-o.

hellmot
14 Aug 2012 19:59

Does anyone know how to send proposals for a sports show to toptv?


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