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Setanta have announced a deal for Virgin Media to carry content from six of its channels, including 46 live English Premiership games, on its cable network. This tie up is a significant boost to Setanta's reach. The Irish sports broadcaster is eager to raise its subscriber based from about 250,000 to the target of 1m it set for 2008. Virgin is believed to be paying Setanta a wholesale price of £2.50 per subscriber per month while offering the games free to anyone willing to subscribe to its £38.50 a month premium package. The fee Setanta is receiving is substantially less than the £9.99 it takes per Sky and Freeview customer. However, it still an important step to building a profitable business given the £392m it paid for Premiership live rights over three years, plus the £150m it has paid to show FA Cup games from 2008-9. For its part Virgin has been under pressure after a spat with Sky, in which Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports were withdrawn from Virgin Media after a row over pricing. That prompred some 40,000 customers to switch from Virgin to its satellite rival.
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