Update on Football Setanta

[Bahumat]

BBC NEWS | Business | Setanta loses Premier TV rights

Setanta loses Premier TV rights

Setanta will lose its two packages of games for 2009/10 season
Troubled sports broadcaster Setanta has failed to pay the latest chunk of the £30m it owes the English Premier League, and will now lose the rights.

The League has threatened to sell the rights to the 46 live matches Setanta has for the 2009/2010 season if the broadcaster failed to make the payment.

It will now put the rights out to auction, with offers needed by Monday.

A potential rescue deal, led by a US investor who had proposed buying 51% of Setanta, fell through.

'Regret'

The Premier League said it had "been working with Setanta for some time to help them continue as the broadcaster of 46 UK live matches for the 2009/10 season".

The Premier League, in agreement with Setanta, stipulated that certain contractual requirements had to be met on or before Friday, 19 June, "to allow the preparations for the 2009/10 season to continue unaffected".

The league added: "It is with considerable regret that we announce that Setanta has been unable to meet their obligations. As such the existing licence agreement between us has been terminated with immediate effect."

The Premier League will now go ahead and auction the 46 UK live matches for the 2009/10 season.

'Issues'

Late last week, Access Industries, controlled by the US investor Len Blavatnik, tabled a £20m bid for a 51% share in Setanta.

It had been hoped Access could lead a consortium of investors to provide fresh funding for Setanta.

He and other investors had been carrying out intense "due diligence" - examination of Setanta's books - which was completed on Friday.



Mr Blavatnik had been studying Setanta's books
However Access has now said it was unable to proceed with a deal with Setanta.

"Access believed that this proposal could potentially have secured the future of the broadcaster for its customers, employees and for football, provided certain conditions required to put the business on a long-term viable footing were met," it said.

"Regrettably, despite intensive efforts on all sides over the past few days, and despite significant progress in a number of areas, there remain a number of issues which we have been unable to resolve within the time available.

"We are disappointed not to have been able to make this deal happen. Access remains committed to sports programming and will continue to explore opportunities in this area."

One of those which may be interest in acquiring Setanta's 46 games is Disney-owned sports channel ESPN.

'Bad news'

ESPN would not comment directly on the new situation but said it continued "to be interested in rights where they are available and where they make business sense".

Meanwhile James Pickles, editor of industry newsletter TV Sports Markets, said that until Thursday there were expectations that Setanta would pull though.

"It's bad news for everyone - no one is a winner," he said, adding: "It's a disaster for rights holders."

He said it was bad news for Sky because having a competitor such as Setanta was beneficial to it from an EU regulatory perspective, which prevents one broadcaster owning all Premier League rights.

However Sky would be legally free to bid for one of Setanta's two packages of 23 games.

Last week Setanta reopened its website to new subscribers - having closed it for several days.

Setanta is running at an estimated loss of £100m a year, after missing subscriber targets. The broadcaster has 1.2 million subscribers, 700,000 short of the 1.9million that industry experts believe they need to break even.

 

[Bahumat]

Last week Setanta reopened its website to new subscribers - having closed it for several days.

I can't really see people rushing to subscribe now?

 

[- English -]

I guess the league dont help the situation by pushing them so hard aswell. Sucks though as we have setanta and cba to get sky...

ohwell ill just watch them on my pc for free.

 

[Bugz]

700,000 subs short of breaking even?

Crikey.

It's WAR all over again.

 

[Lamp]

Won't Sky just jump in ?

 

[Bugz]

I can't see Sky being allowed the right to all the games Sentana loses. It's just creating a monopolistic market...

 

[Ch3tan]

They are allowed to buy one of the packages. Setanta have two, the EU regs stated that one broadcaster may not own all the packages. For the 2011/2012 season sky had 5 of the 6 anyway, looks like they could get that extra one a year early.

 

[soze]

I think the games will end up on sky. Maybe ITV could buy them and charge Sky to show them then show them after a delay?

 

[cHodAX]

Job losses inc. My brothers new father-in-law works for the company who handle Setanta's billing services, he is looking down the barrel of redundancy at the moment.

 

[Jeremiah]

I am devastated - Every second game on Setanta was an Everton one last season =(

 

[Shagrat]

I think the games will end up on sky. Maybe ITV could buy them and charge Sky to show them then show them after a delay?

eh?

If ITV buy em, why dont they just show them themselves and cream the money back from hiked up advertising revenue.

 

[soze]

eh?

If ITV buy em, why dont they just show them themselves and cream the money back from hiked up advertising revenue.

Because ITV can't afford the £50 mil needed to buy them i read

 

[Ch3tan]

soze, sky cannot own all the rights, so another broadcaster cannot buy them and re-sell them. They are not allowed. The premier league sell the packages as blocks of live games, and the highlights separately.

It's closed bidding so it could go to anyone, it depends how much sky are willing to throw at it, they usually outbid everyone with silly money, but that 6th package could end up anywhere -as it is only one season worth of games even the beeb could put a bid in.

 

[kiliarien]

soze, sky cannot own all the rights, so another broadcaster cannot buy them and re-sell them. They are not allowed. The premier league sell the packages as blocks of live games, and the highlights separately.

It's closed bidding so it could go to anyone, it depends how much sky are willing to throw at it, they usually outbid everyone with silly money, but that 6th package could end up anywhere -as it is only one season worth of games even the beeb could put a bid in.

Let Playboy TV buy the rights, finally adverts in between games and halves worth watching.... :wub:

 

[soze]

soze, sky cannot own all the rights, so another broadcaster cannot buy them and re-sell them. They are not allowed. The premier league sell the packages as blocks of live games, and the highlights separately.

It's closed bidding so it could go to anyone, it depends how much sky are willing to throw at it, they usually outbid everyone with silly money, but that 6th package could end up anywhere -as it is only one season worth of games even the beeb could put a bid in.

Yes they can Sky can show the games they just can't own them thats the deal Saltana went to sky with, sky pay to show the games Saltana own. But sky did not want to save the competition.

 

[Ch3tan]

Yes they can Sky can show the games they just can't own them thats the deal Saltana went to sky with, sky pay to show the games Saltana own. But sky did not want to save the competition.

They could only show a portion of the games, the equivalent of one of the two packages setanta owned, and they would not have been able to show them live, that is what I understood.

That is why I am saying that they will not be able to buy them off someone else, because the likely hood is they will bid for one of the packages.

 

[soze]

They could only show a portion of the games, the equivalent of one of the two packages setanta owned, and they would not have been able to show them live, that is what I understood.

That is why I am saying that they will not be able to buy them off someone else, because the likely hood is they will bid for one of the packages.

From how i read it they could not buy the games but could pay to show them live but i might be wrong sorry if I am.

 

[Raven]

Great news! England away games watchable again!

 

[soze]

They have only lost Premiership so far they called me last night and promised they still had SFA while trying to get me to sign up for a year Thats scary 6 SPL clubs could go bust if Saltana fold.

 

[Ch3tan]

They haven't lost that contract yet Raven. They only defaulted on the payment to the premier league.

Also it's not a good thing, job losses, plus the fact that the league probably will not get as much as setanta paid, so the clubs budgets will be fucked (obvisouly this will affect teams outside the top 4 a lot more).

 

[JingleBells]

I'm just hoping they stump up the cash to the BSP teams, we could do with some extra cash

Also, ITV can fuck off with getting these rights, they don't deserve any football, or sport for that matter.

 

[Ch3tan]

JB is right, itv deserve fuck all.

Blue Square Premier on setanta is almost worth the sub money alone, great drama.

 

[Unleashed]

ESPN have bought the last 2 packages, good news as they will be shown on Sky TV.

 

[Ch3tan]

They have not said how much the subscription will be yet -this makes no change from setanta. If you have sky and pay for sports, you will still have to pay extra for the ESPN channels.

"Disney-owned ESPN has won the two packages of games shown on Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings. It says both will be sold through BSkyB."

 

[Ch3tan]

ESPN have bought the last 2 packages, good news as they will be shown on Sky TV.

Really not sure where you got that from at the time, but here is the expected update:

ESPN said in a statement it had "reached an agreement for its coverage to be retailed by Sky to residential and commercial customers", who will pay extra to view the games. ESPN also hopes to make coverage available on other platforms.

Virgin Media confirmed it was in talks with ESPN about a possible deal, while a spokesman for BT said it too was in discussions with ESPN regarding matches for the coming season.




WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU
ESPN's matches will be available on BSkyB
You will pay an extra amount for the ESPN matches
Games likely to be on a new branded ESPN channel - separate from the existing ESPN Classic and ESPN America
ESPN wants it on platforms other than BSkyB, and is in talks with Virgin Media and BT Vision

 

[Litmus]

Doesnt really matter who buys them tbh, they will never be able to compete with sky and will just lose money hand over fist.

 

[Ch3tan]

I hope for one that Virgin give this channel for free to their top package subscribers -they did with setanta. Would be a bit of a piss take to have to pay for the top package, and then pay extra for these games (not that I would, stream ).

You are right though Litmus, Setanta could not attract enough subscribers, with blue square premier, german league, SPL, Golf and various other sports. What can ESPN honestly offer with just 46 games and maybe some US sports thrown in? Would have to be very cheap sub prices to attract anyone.

 

[soze]

I loved NASN on Saltana so im hoping we get more choice on NCAA HandEgg ect as they were all ESPN games anyway.

 

[Jeremiah]

Bye Bye Setanta =(

BBC NEWS | Business | Setanta goes into administration

 

[Ch3tan]

BBC - Mihir Bose: The fallout from Setanta's collapse