England Manager Sacked - A Roundup

As I promised earlier, here is a roundup of how the news media, with particular interest to the sporting news media, is reporting the story.

BBC Sport: McLaren sacked as England Manager.

ESPN Soccernet: McLaren insists, "saddest day of my career".

EuroSport: McLaren sacked.

Fox Soccer Channel: England fires coach McLaren after failure.

CBS Sports: England fire coach McLaren after failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

Setanta Sports News: McLaren takes it on the chin.

Sky Sports: Mac accepts England axe.

SportsNet Canada: McLaren era ends in England

Setanta Sports News launch date confirmed.

Just a few days ago I reported that Setanta Sports News would be added to the BARB figures on November 29th. Now, Digital Spy are reporting that November 29th has been cofirmed by Setanta and Virgin Media as the official launch date for the ITN-produced station.

The channel promises headlines every 20 minutes and will launch on Virgin Media channel 518 and on free-to-air digital satellite. No idea yet about position on the Sky EPG.

This promises to be a major new addition, and the possibility of this channel coming to Freeview remains very strong in my honest opinion. This is the first new sports news channel since EuroSport 2 replaced EuroSport News on the Sky platform. Contray to popular belief, EuroSport News didn't close, and continues to air in Asia and Australia. Indeed the news broadcasts on EuroSport 2 are simply relayed from EuroSport News, with branding changed as required. Perhaps this might cause EuroSport to reconsider bringing EuroSport News back to the UK and European markets, especially since EuroSport 2 is using less and less news coverage these days and providing more programming of its own.

New channels being added to BARB figures

I regularly report on the ratings from BARB, and am always keeping an eye out for information about new channels launching. Well, the AGB Neilsen Media Research site reports on channels that are being added to the BARB ratings in the next couple of months.

Playhouse Disney Plus, which launched on the EPG earlier this week, has been added today, whilst on Monday, Paramount Comedy 2 +1 will be added to BARB. On Wednesday, the Sky Travel channels rebranding will be done, with MTV R being added the following day.

On the 29th November, the eagerly awaited Setanta Sports News will be added, with Sumo TV and SA Direct TV being added on the 1st December and Luxe TV UK on the 3rd December.

As soon as I find any more information on any of this, I will report back.