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Virgin Media and Setanta Sports are reportedly in talks to launch a rival channel to Sky Sports News.
The move follows the removal of Sky Sports News from the Virgin Media platform after carriage negotiations for Sky's basic channels between BSkyB and Virgin broke down.
According to industry sources, discussions are in the early stages, but are going on at "a senior level."
Virgin Media has said it wants to build Virgin Sports as a separate brand, and without Sky Sports News, the company needs to ally with an established partner to make that happen.
Setanta currently has the rights to 46 Premiership matches for the next season and has recently launched a golf channel. Setanta already supplies Bravo, owned by Virgin Media, with coverage of Italian football.
Virgin also owns the online download rights to the next three season’s worth of near-live Premiership matches.
