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Killester's Kieran O'Brien and Kevin Folan of Moycullen in the men's Superleague quarter-final last month. ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
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Back on air: Setanta to show national basketball cup finals

Basketball Ireland welcomed an agreement with the sports channel to broadcast live coverage of the games for the next three years.

IRISH BASKETBALL HAS received a welcome boost as it was announced today that Setanta Sports will broadcast the National Cup finals.

RTÉ revealed last month that they would be axing next month’s games from their schedule after 25 years of coverage and uncertainty surrounded whether they would be shown on television.

However, Setanta has signed a three-year deal with Basketball Ireland to broadcast the men’s and women’s Superleague National Cup finals while there is still a possibility that they could screen the National League finals.

There will also be a magazine show starting next season.

This year sees UL Eagles feature in both finals – the men’s team take on UCC Demons and DCU Mercy face them in the women’s final on Friday, February 3.

This is a tremendous day for the sport,” Basketball Ireland secretary general Bernard O’Byrne said on their website.

“I applaud Setanta Sports’ vision in recognising that basketball is one of our national games and is played by tens of thousands of people who are involved in Basketball in every community across the 32 counties of Ireland.”

Setanta CEO Colin Morgan added: “Setanta are delighted to broadcast the finals. Basketball is an incredibly popular sport in Ireland with huge participation levels among men and women so it would have been a shame if the finals were not televised.”

Listen to Bernard O’Byrne speak to Newstalk earlier today

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