Do Sky own Setanta?

slumped

A friend of mine who is "always right" reckons that Sky own or have a major shareholding in Setanta.

He thinks that this is the case because Sky would have been in trouble with competition authority for having a monopoly on Premiership coverage/golf but now with Setanta there they can still show it, albeit under the Setanta logo.

Also - he thinks the branding for Setanta is very simlar to Skys, esp the older yellow and black box branding?

Anyone got any theories on this???

S

BrianD

Sky don't own Setanta. In addition to the original founders a number of investment companies including Benchmark Capital and Doughty Hanson (owners of TV3). Setanta do have the former head of Sky Sport on board.

Also don't forget Setanta are on other platforms other than Sky - cable, freeview etc as well as channel in the USA and Australia.

Sky were going to lose some of the footie and golf to another channel under competition law. I don't think Sky expected Setanta to pick up two of the football packages that were on offer.

Regarding the on screen branding, I would have thought that the colours were more similar to the BBC's black and yellow. Sky has led the field for so long that I'd imagine that any contenders would emulate the style that has become the 'norm'. My personal view is that on-screen branding has got so generic these days that it's difficult to tell the difference.

dulpit

Also just a quick note - the yellow & black on screen logos for Setanta are their new ones, been there since the golf channel was launched in January...