Sports Rights: English Premier League 2010/1 to 2012/3

DMC

What we know so far of this rights tendering issue....

BBC have won the highlights package a week or so ago.

BSkyB have held onto their 4 packages of 23 matches they have from the present deal.

But the biggest news, just announced...

Setanta has lost one of its two live Premier League TV rights packages.

More details as they come.

Sky Sports now reporting they have the 5th package. That is the maximum they can have, they can't have all 6 packages for themselves.

DMC

Sky's statement...

More Premier League on Sky
BSkyB wins five packages of live Premier League rights
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_4902129,00.html

Following today's announcement by the Premier League, BSkyB confirms that it has been awarded a fifth package of live rights, package C.

Added to the four packages awarded earlier this week (A, B, E and F), Sky will now have 115 exclusively live Premier League matches in each of the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky's Chief Executive, said: "We are very pleased with this result. It gives us certainty for the future and ensures that we can continue to offer our viewers the best live Premier League football."

Vic Wakeling, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: "This is great news for football and for fans. We can offer the big games and a balance of coverage with all 20 clubs live each season - and all in HD. And with new deals for UEFA Champions League and the Football League, plus a range of other games, we can promise over 400 live matches for the next four seasons."

Sky will pay a total of £1,623 million for the five packages for the three-year period of the new agreements.

DMC

Premier League Statement, confirming Setanta have held onto one package.

Premier League statement
http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~1548321,00.html

The Premier League has announced the final two winners of the live UK broadcasting rights for 2010/11 to 2012/13.

The Premier League today concluded the sales and auction process for the next contract of live UK broadcasting rights for transmission in the United Kingdom, running from season 2010/11 to 2012/13.

The 138 matches available for transmission on a technology neutral basis were divided into to six packages of 23 games with BSkyB winning packages and A, B, C, E and F with Setanta retaining package D.

The total value realised for the six packages following a highly regulated sales process and monitored auction is £1.782 billion.

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: "The Barclays Premier League is a fantastic competition. The continued investment in playing talent and facilities made by the clubs is largely down to the revenue generated through the sale of our broadcast rights.

"The live UK rights are the largest contribution to the revenues we distribute centrally to the clubs and this deal gives them the stability to plan and invest in the most important aspect of our business - the football - everything else flows from that.

"I look forward to continuing our good working relationship with BSkyB and Setanta who both provide excellent programming for fans of Premier League football.

"I would also like to thank all of those broadcasters who took part in the bidding process."

DMC

And the Guardian's view....

BSkyB wins Premier League TV rights package back from Setanta

Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 February 2009 16.36 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/06/sportsrights-bskyb

BSkyB today increased its stranglehold on Premier League football by effectively taking from rival Setanta one of the two remaining TV packages to air live games from 2010 to 2013.

Setanta took the remaining package in the auction that netted the Premier League a total of £1.78bn, an increase of about 5% over the current deal, which expires at the end of next season.

Earlier this week Sky paid more than £1bn for four packages of 92 prime live matches, making its total payout £1.62bn for five out of the six available packages.

The two packages auctioned today consist of 23 games each, taking BSkyB's haul to a total of 115 live matches per season from 2010 to 2013, while Setanta paid £159m for the last package. Setanta secured two packages in the last Premier League deal for a total of £392m.

Setanta, whose backers include Benchmark Capital and Goldman Sachs, has invested hundreds of millions of pounds into sports rights to crack the UK pay-TV market, but has recently been dogged by City speculation over its future.

The loss of a package raises questions about Setanta's strategic position in the UK pay-TV market.

"This is a real problem for Setanta, they are not going to have a critical mass of matches to persuade people to subscribe," said one city analyst. "Setanta is going to have to look at its options, such as perhaps a wholesale deal to bundle its matches with Sky Sports – they do have a working relationship jointly selling in pubs."

Setanta was put up for sale last year, and there have been reports of interest from US broadcaster ESPN, but it failed to find a buyer.

BSkyB, the subject of an Ofcom consultation into its "market power" over live Premier League football and Hollywood films, will now have to consider its options.

Under a deal agreed with the European Commission in 2005 following a long-running competition investigation, the live rights to Premier League games must be split between more than one broadcaster.

"For Sky the deal gives them great strategic clout, although the games secured today are less valuable, but it now has to be very careful," said one analyst.

"It can't acquire Setanta and there has to be a sports competitor to BSkyB. Regulators demand it, so it is not in Sky's best interests to see Setanta off. They must have a plan to accommodate them, to shut the door [on Setanta] could see them go into the arms of, say, ESPN, making it potentially an even stronger competitor down the line."

In 2007 Setanta, alongside BT, Virgin Media and Top Up TV, filed a joint submission to media regulator Ofcom accusing BSkyB of running a "vicious circle" of control of content such as Hollywood blockbusters and Premier League football that crushes competition in the pay-TV market.

Last week, it was announced that the BBC had paid £173m over three years to secure the future of Match of the Day by retaining the rights to domestic highlights. The figure was a modest increase on the amount it previously paid, but includes extra internet rights.

Last year Setanta and ITV paid £425m between them to secure the rights to the FA Cup and England internationals from BSkyB and the BBC. Setanta also extended its relationship with the Scottish Premier League, taking its existing deal to 2014 for £125m in the face of competition from Sky.

Following the completion of the auction, Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "The live UK rights are the largest contribution to the revenues we distribute centrally to the clubs, and this deal gives them the stability to plan and invest in the most important aspect of our business – the football – everything else flows from that."

ESPN is also believed to have been involved in the bidding process.

Mossy Monk

Opens the way for ESPN to take over Setanta? The price would be considerably lower now.

icdg

Could well be a way for ESPN to enter the UK alright. They already have dealings with Setanta through their buy-out of NASN/ESPN America.

If ESPN does acquire Setanta however, don't expect to see Setanta Ireland last very long, ESPN would be likely to regard it as rather non-core.

mjsmyth

Could setanta Ireland stand on its own? Could it just buy Irish rights for football, rugby, tiddlywinks and so on? Or is Ireland too small a market to support its own sports channel on satellite and dtt?

When Sky buy the rights, do their rights specifically include Ireland or are they just for the UK and as an aside, Ireland?


mj

DMC

These are UK rights, Ireland rights to be decided. But they normally mirror what occurs in the UK, with the exception of the 3pm Saturday matches.

Thats normally, unless Setanta have something up their sleeves. More like if they can find the 2c that fell down into the couch.

icdg

mjsmyth wrote: »

Could setanta Ireland stand on its own? Could it just buy Irish rights for football, rugby, tiddlywinks and so on? Or is Ireland too small a market to support its own sports channel on satellite and dtt?

mj

When Setanta Sports originally launched as a channel it just covered Ireland (anyone remember the original red and black blocky logo?). But it was never really more than a trial run for the UK business and while I have no figures, I imagine it is being heavily cross-subsidised by the UK business. Setanta only earns direct subscriptions from satellite customers (not sure what the terms of its carriage deal with NTL are) and the advertising revenue cannot be that great.

This is all very well for an Irish broadcaster who might see it as public service or brand building. But I cannot see an American broadcaster being so interested in it.

redout

If Setanta dont bid for Ireland rights then I reckon we will going without lads. RTE and TV3 in the current climate certainly wont be bidding. It will be a shame if we lose the saturday 3pm games. The EU made a bollox of this by allowing a single broadcater to have 5 of the 6 packages. It should have been limited to a max of 3 per broadcaster. Competeition my arse if Sky are now going to show 115 of the 138 live games per season.

Mossy Monk

I will guarantee you that Setanta will retain the 3pm rights.

snaps

Its extremely expensive for us the consumer, having to have 2 subs to watch the FAPL. Might as well all go to Sky, then at least we wouldnt have to have a second sub.

Mossy Monk

If ART get the rights for the middle east then I guess that would be a viable alternative.

200motels

icdg wrote: »

Could well be a way for ESPN to enter the UK alright. They already have dealings with Setanta through their buy-out of NASN/ESPN America.

If ESPN does acquire Setanta however, don't expect to see Setanta Ireland last very long, ESPN would be likely to regard it as rather non-core.

Sky beats Setanta in rights deal

Irish pay TV broadcaster Setanta has retained the right to show 23 games on Saturday evenings in Britain from August 2010, outbidding the Walt Disney-owned ESPN, but it has lost its coverage of Monday night games to satellite rival BSkyB. The spotlight now switches to the auction of international rights, including those for Ireland.

In this section »

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CIARÁN HANCOCK, Business Affairs Correspondent

IRISH PAY TV broadcaster Setanta Sports was dealt a blow yesterday when the English Premier League announced that from the 2010/11 season the Dublin-based broadcaster would retain just one of the two packages of live UK rights that it currently holds.
Setanta has retained the right to show 23 games on Saturday evenings in Britain from August 2010 but has lost its coverage of Monday night games to satellite rival BSkyB.
Setanta will pay £159 million for its package, which will cover three seasons. In 2006, the Irish broadcaster broke Sky’s monopoly on live Premier League rights by paying £392 million for exclusive coverage of 46 matches.
The Premier League confirmed yesterday that Sky had won rights to five of the six packages of live games that were auctioned among broadcasters.
Sky is paying £1.623 billion for 115 matches, which includes all the top matches. Under EU rules, Sky is prevented from owning more than five of the six packages.
In total, the Premier League secured £1.782 billion for its live rights in the UK, 5 per cent more than its previous three-year deal.
In a statement, Niall Cogley, chief executive of Setanta Sports Ireland, said: “While it is obviously disappointing that our UK business has lost one of its packages, they will be buoyed by the fact that they beat stiff international competition to regain rights.”
ESPN, which is owned by Walt Disney, said it bid for the rights and was disappointed to lose out.
Setanta, which was founded by Irishmen Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke, will be disappointed to have lost out to Sky on one of its rights packages. Securing them three years ago provided Setanta with a platform to build its premium subscriber base to its current level of 1.5 million and prompted some analysts to value the company at £1 billion.
Maintaining these customers will be more challenging with a diminished portfolio of Premier League games, although Setanta does hold rights to live FA Cup and England matches.
It is understood Setanta will raise the £159 million from current shareholders, which include private equity firms Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital.
The spotlight now switches to the auction of international rights, including those for Ireland. In 2006, Sky and Setanta were awarded “mirror” rights for Ireland, with the Dublin-based group also getting the nod to show 33 live games here on Saturday afternoons.
About £30 million was paid by Sky and Setanta for the Irish rights in 2006. Tender documents for Ireland are expected to be circulated in the coming weeks.
“It is important to realise that the Premier League tender in Ireland has not yet begun and that we are hopeful of being able to retain our current portfolio of 79 live matches,” Mr Cogley said.
This would indicate that Setanta will seek to win the Irish rights for Monday night games, which have been awarded to Sky in the UK. With 580,000 subscribers here, Sky is expected to make a concerted effort to win the Irish rights to the five packs it has won for the British market.

byte

The Irish rights battle would be interesting. I wonder if the likes of RTÉ or TV3 will proffer a bid or two?

Badabing

I would think RTE will make a big bid for the highlights again and the status quo will remain with Setanta keeping 3pm games. Tv3 won't bid as they have Champions League and Uefa cup for the next 3-4 years.

iseegirls

Kinda dissapointing that Sky once again have the majority of the games. I think there should have been a rule allowing only max of 4 packages be bought by the same company.

And people who are happy that Sky have bought most of them, well what about when they're hiking up their subscription prices again to cover their costs. At least with Setanta Sports - sum of us had the great option of watching it free thru Setanta Sports Ireland thru NTL etc.... Wonder will they continue that after next year when it comes into effect.

Also - with Sky buying the 5th package means less matches being showed from the lower Leagues - and so giving more money to the big clubs, and nothing to the smaller clubs. I'd love Setanta to buy the Championship and league 1-2 coverage actually, along withe BBC who have 10 live matches i think. They have an extremely brilliant coverage of the conference games already.

Badabing

iseegirls wrote: »

Kinda dissapointing that Sky once again have the majority of the games. I think there should have been a rule allowing only max of 4 packages be bought by the same company.

And people who are happy that Sky have bought most of them, well what about when they're hiking up their subscription prices again to cover their costs. At least with Setanta Sports - sum of us had the great option of watching it free thru Setanta Sports Ireland thru NTL etc.... Wonder will they continue that after next year when it comes into effect.

Also - with Sky buying the 5th package means less matches being showed from the lower Leagues - and so giving more money to the big clubs, and nothing to the smaller clubs. I'd love Setanta to buy the Championship and league 1-2 coverage actually, along withe BBC who have 10 live matches i think. They have an extremely brilliant coverage of the conference games already.

All the major rights are tied up untill at least 2012-13 so nothing much will change for a couple of years.

Mossy Monk

iseegirls wrote: »

Also - with Sky buying the 5th package means less matches being showed from the lower Leagues - and so giving more money to the big clubs, and nothing to the smaller clubs. I'd love Setanta to buy the Championship and league 1-2 coverage actually, along withe BBC who have 10 live matches i think. They have an extremely brilliant coverage of the conference games already.

Thats a good point. Championship coverage on a Monday will be affected in some way. I too would like to see Setanta get Championship coverage when the rights next become available.

Koloman

Interesting piece here about some sort of sub-licensing agreement they might do. Anyone heard of this before? I doubt Sky would allow it?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a146210/setanta-seeks-gbp159m-in-new-funding.html

DMC

Yes, a similar arrangement occurred in the last World Cup, when the BBC sub-licensed their games to be shown on UKTV G2 (now Dave) But as that was a nice arrangement with a channel that the BBC part owns, what pipe is Setanta smoking if they think Sky are going to sublet some of their games??

As for the point on Football League coverage, that deal between Sky and the BBC is done from next season until the end of 2011/12. 10 games and the Carling Cup doesn't sound like a lot, but its live terrestrial coverage that the lower leagues will crave. And think of the extended Match of the Day coverage. The Football League never had it so good.*




*Well, maybe except for that mad time in the 90's when some ITV regions went it alone and did live soccer. Granada and Yorkshire TV certainly did it for a few seasons.

Mossy Monk

DMC wrote: »

And think of the extended Match of the Day coverage. The Football League never had it so good.[/SIZE]

Will the Premier League and Football League both be shown on MOTD? Can't see the Football League liking the idea of being tagged on at the end of the Premiership highlights.

snaps

iseegirls wrote: »

with Sky buying the 5th package means less matches being showed from the lower Leagues - and so giving more money to the big clubs, and nothing to the smaller clubs. I'd love Setanta to buy the Championship and league 1-2 coverage actually, along withe BBC who have 10 live matches i think. They have an extremely brilliant coverage of the conference games already.

Would agree, Some of the matches ive seen this season from lower leagues have been very entertaining (No over paid hairband & glove wearing, diving players) and it pumps money into them.

Only thing is, there isnt much interest in it. Look at what happened to Ondigital in the UK when they went bust because of having the rights to the football league?

afatbollix

ss ireland only started to make a profit last november.. i think they got something like 20% viewership a week or two ago with one of there live matches...

they have been told they must make a profit this year.. ( for teh first time!!)

i dont think the uk channel is making them much eather...

they also have channels in north america, canada ( not making there buck yet) africa (paying for its self) and austrilia ( i think its making money at the mo.....


it will be interesting if espn make a offer now.... they could do with a cash bump up for new shows i think....

iseegirls

DMC wrote: »

As for the point on Football League coverage, that deal between Sky and the BBC is done from next season until the end of 2011/12. 10 games and the Carling Cup doesn't sound like a lot, but its live terrestrial coverage that the lower leagues will crave. And think of the extended Match of the Day coverage. The Football League never had it so good.*

There is no chance the football league highlights will be added to Match of The day. This would really drag the show out - and i don't think Shearer, Lawro and Hanson don't really have an interest in the likes of plymouth etc . ..

Think BBC will put highlights on a Sunday morning, maybe after Something For the Weekend at 11.30 on BBC2, and then another highlights show on a Monday night. I hope they treat the highlights better than ITV anyway - at the moment it's nearly 25mins for 1 match, and then the rest of the goals squeezed into the rest of the hour.

DMC

iseegirls wrote: »

There is no chance the football league highlights will be added to Match of The day

Just to clarify, when I said "extended", I meant an extension of the Match of the Day brand to cover the Football League.

Hope that clears things up

DMC

Setanta really didn't expect to only have one package....

Setanta reaches out for more live matches

• Pay-TV firm seeks urgent Premier League meeting
• Analyst predicts 'mass defections' by subscribers

Owen Gibson
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 February 2009 22.18 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/10/setanta-tv-rights-premier-league-sky

Setanta is believed to be seeking an urgent meeting with the Premier League in the hope it will help broker a deal to regain the rights it lost in last week's record-breaking TV auction. The Irish company won only one package for the rights to broadcast the Premier League between 2010 and 2013, cutting in half its current output. That would restrict coverage to 23 matches on Saturday evenings, which analysts believe may not be enough to sustain subscriber numbers and could plunge the loss-making channel further into the red.

The talks will revolve around trying to re-secure the Monday night package, which Sky won last week, but those close to the process believe that such a manoeuvre would be "virtually impossible". The auction process is heavily regulated by an independent scrutineer under a compromise agreement with the European Commission.

The six-year agreement, signed in 2005, allowed the Premier League to continue to auction its domestic rights collectively so long as its live matches were sold to more than one broadcaster. Last Friday, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, unveiled the new domestic rights deal, which will bring in £1.782bn between 2010 and 2013.

Should Setanta be unsuccessful in securing a reverse of the auction, the state of the channel's funding is bound to come under increased scrutiny. Last night the media research group Enders Analysis questioned whether Setanta could survive in its current form. It calculated that Sky had ended up with five packages after resolving to maintain the level of investment that has proved mutually beneficial for the pay-TV giant and the Premier League over the past 17 years.

Of Setanta, Enders said: "We must therefore envisage mass subscriber defections, with every 100,000 subscribers now worth approximately £10m on in annual revenues. Today, Setanta reaches about 1.5 million direct subscribers, slightly short of its required break-even total [estimated at around 1.7-1.8m at current prices]. With live Premier League football such a jewel in its crown, the fear is that Setanta could easily lose upwards of a third of its current subscriber base. At the very least it has to review its entire business plan and survival cannot be taken for granted."

But Setanta will hope to persuade its backers that it has a viable business, even with fewer Premier League matches. "That said, it may also be the case that many diehard sports fans will still want Setanta even with a reduced Premier League offering," Enders added. "As a result the net benefit of reduced rights payments and subscriber numbers may actually prove positive."

Setanta paid £159m for its package of 23 games, a significant reduction on its existing deal. However, the 20% reduction on it existing outlay on the Saturday evening package will reduce its cost base. It is believed that its strategy of trying to secure a discount on the £355m it paid for 46 matches under the existing deal backfired when Sky won the fifth of six packages on offer. Setanta had hoped to retain two but pay less.

Setanta is believed to be examining a number of options, including the possibility of persuading BSkyB to sub-licence the fifth package of Monday night matches back to the broadcaster. Although the two rivals co-operate on selling matches to pubs, a deal that also covers home subscribers is seen as unlikely – partly because it may fall foul of competition rules.

A spokesman for Setanta dismissed suggestions that the business is in trouble. "Following the outcome of the Premier League rights auction there is understandable speculation about the future of the business," he said. "But Setanta retain the right to show 46 Premier League games per season until the end of 2009–10, along with a host of other top-class sport including international football, the FA Cup, golf, boxing, Indian Premier League cricket and Guinness Premiership rugby."

snaps

you have to feel sorry for them really, Just shows that sky are ruling the roost!

iseegirls

The FA Cup and internationals might keep subscribers with Setanta along with the 1 package of premiership games, but you'll just have to wait and see really.

i agree with snaps and i really feel sorry for them - but they did try to lower their price compared to what they paid 3 years ago.

Do people not remember that Sky brought along "premiership plus" when they had all access to the games before Setanta stepped in. Now that was ridiculous - asking people to pay i think 8 euro to see a match - that included TV advertisements! i hope they don't bring that back, now that they have more games.

DMC

I'm pretty sure that Sky couldn't bring back "Prem Plus" as this was part of the format of the deal before it was changed with EU competition rules in mind in 2005.

Anyhoo..

More speculation on Setanta's long term future.


Setanta denies it faces a crisis but sports braced for decline in rights value

• Appeal for Premier League help unlikely to succeed
• Boxing, rugby and the FA need a rival bidder to Sky

Owen Gibson
The Guardian, Thursday 12 February 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/12/setanta-television-rights-premier-league

A raft of major sports including football, boxing and rugby face an uncertain financial future after it emerged that the pay-TV broadcaster Setanta is likely to be forced into drastically scaling back its ambitions.

The company is engaged in a wide–ranging strategic review in the wake of last week's Premier League rights auction, when it retained only one package of 23 live games from 2010. While seeking to play down speculation of a crisis, Setanta insiders yesterday conceded that it will have to cut costs severely and downsize if it is unable to regain the rights to the Premier League games it has lost.

That, in turn, will lead its investors to question their continuing funding of the business. And it would leave those sports yet to negotiate long-term contracts without any competition in the market.

As revealed by the Guardian yesterday, Setanta has approached the Premier League to discuss the possibility of reclaiming or sublicensing the Monday night matches it will lose from 2010. It is also poised to make fresh representations to the media regulator Ofcom and the European Commission, arguing that the process put in place to stimulate competition and choice in the marketplace has failed because Sky remains the dominant player. But those close to the process say its chances of success are slim.

BSkyB, which paid £1.62bn for 115 live games per season from 2010, would be wary of sublicensing the games to Setanta and such a deal would probably break competition rules in any case, while the Premier League will steadfastly refuse to unpick its carefully agreed deal with the European authorities.

Setanta may have more joy going down the regulatory route, but that is likely to take years rather than months. Ofcom is currently engaged in a review of the pay-TV market and last year said it was open to examining whether new constraints should be placed on the auction process, but that it would only do so once other proposed avenues had been exhausted.

Setanta's single package from last week's record-breaking £1.782bn deal for live domestic Premier League rights means that from 2010 it will pay £159m over three years compared to the £392m invested under the current deal, but will screen half as many matches. With 23 live games per season, fewer than one a week, it will find it hard to retain subscribers.

The broadcaster, which looked like a serious player when it paid £392m for Premier League rights under the current deal and a further £150m to the FA for FA Cup matches and England internationals, would have to scale back drastically. Setanta has retained an investment bank to raise new finance and is in talks with its private equity backers.

Insiders concede talks about the future of the business are continuing and that reshaping it as a "low-cost, low-*investment" player is the most likely option. Meanwhile, it is understood that serious divisions emerged among the Setanta board as their bidding strategy was discussed. Some of the investors, believing that the two packages of rights could be retained at a discount, were unwilling to sanction a blockbuster bid.

But the company's executives, several of whom formerly worked at Sky, wanted to be more aggressive. The real problem, said insiders, was that it was impossible to compete with the scale and depth of resources available to Sky.

Setanta currently has 1.5 million premium subscribers, paying up to £12.99 per month, but that figure is likely to plummet once it loses half its Premier League games. Analysts estimate it needs around 1.9 million subscribers to break even with its current cost base. Such is the importance of Premier League football in driving take-up that, without it, investors will be reluctant to fund rights deals in other sports as their chances of emerging with a profit dwindle.

As well as the Premier League and FA deals, Setanta has invested heavily in Premiership rugby, PGA Tour golf and high–profile boxing. If Setanta withdrew from the market, it would leave most sports contemplating smaller deals next time around. In its 2007 accounts, the most recent year for which figures are available, Setanta noted a £666.5m commitment to rights fees going forward.

The FA will also be keeping a close eye on proceedings. In 2007, it trumpeted a 42% rise in TV revenues after freezing the BBC and Sky out of the bidding process for the FA Cup and home England games. But with ITV's coverage the object of derision and Setanta's future unclear, the wisdom of that decision is bound to come under renewed scrutiny. The FA relies on TV revenues for a large part of its income and would be unlikely to command a similar figure if it had to return to the market.

Setanta's investors include venture capitalists Balderton Capital and Doughty Hanson and investment bank Goldman Sachs. Joint founders Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan also retain a stake and it recently emerged that the Russian oligarch Len Blavatnik has a 3% share through his company Access Industries.

Carlow52

Looks like it could be game over
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090504/tbs-sports-broadcaster-setanta-on-the-ro-327c223.html

I know its a Uk site.........

The future of the troubled sports broadcaster Setanta could be decided within weeks. Skip related content


The company needs to find £100m if it is to stay afloat.

Setanta has payments of tens of millions of pounds to make to various sports bodies over the next month, including the PremierLeague and FA.

Koloman

Carlow52 wrote: »

Looks like it could be game over
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090504/tbs-sports-broadcaster-setanta-on-the-ro-327c223.html

I know its a Uk site.........

The future of the troubled sports broadcaster Setanta could be decided within weeks. Skip related content


The company needs to find £100m if it is to stay afloat.

Setanta has payments of tens of millions of pounds to make to various sports bodies over the next month, including the PremierLeague and FA.

But look at the source of this article! A certain Mr Murdoch owned news channel.

They would say that now wouldn't they?!

I think Setanta will survive, just!

afatbollix

dosent sound good allright... espn will buy it out for a euro....

anyone what to take bets :P

DMC

Owen Gibson in The Guardian has been a huge source of info on this story...

Setanta has a month to save itself from ruin

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/04/setanta-sports-rights-broadcasting

• Setanta needs to renegotiate key contracts and find investment
• Company faces collapse within next month if it fails to do so

Owen Gibson
The Guardian, Monday 4 May 2009

The long-term future of troubled sports broadcaster Setanta is likely to be decided within the next month, with the company facing collapse if it fails to renegotiate key contracts and bring in new investment.

A new senior management team, installed to try to secure a future for the broadcaster, has until shortly after this month's FA Cup final – which it will broadcast live under the first year of its £150m contract with the FA – to do so.

As revealed by the Guardian in February after Setanta lost half of the Premier League live matches it holds under its current deal, precipitating a crisis of confidence among its investors, the ambitious Irish pay-TV broadcaster has been battling on three interlinked fronts to survive.

The new chairman, Sir Robin Miller, the former Emap chief executive, has been parachuted in to bring renewed focus to ongoing attempts to raise up to £100m from investors, restructure its existing contracts with rights holders to save money and agree on a revised business plan that could offer a viable way forward.

Recent attention has focused on renegotiations with rights holders including the Premier League, FA, Scottish Premier League, golf's PGA Tour and Premier Rugby, which have assumed increased urgency as various key payments have loomed. Although its last £10m fee to the FA was late, it has been keen to stress that it has not defaulted on any payments.

This week, it will meet Scottish Premier League officials to continue negotiations over a reduction in its existing contract and a new £125m deal due to start in 2010.

Some of its rights holders, including the US PGA Tour, are believed to have been open to redrawing the terms of their contracts. But the Premier League and the FA, while happy to talk with Setanta, are insisting their deals are honoured in full.

The next £10m instalment to the FA is due next month, with a payment of around £35m due to the Premier League immediately following the end of the season.

Both governing bodies are convinced they could bring in replacement rights holders that would match the amount still owed by Setanta under their existing deals. The FA deal was structured so Setanta paid a significant sum up front, and ITV would be obliged to pick up England's friendlies at £2m apiece under the terms of the contract.

But for both, the demise of Setanta would significantly reduce competition in the market next time they come to sell their rights. For the FA in particular, which replaced the BBC and Sky with Setanta and ITV under the new deal, it would raise awkward questions. The impact on the finances of other sports could be more dramatic.Setanta's business plan, already considered ambitious by some analysts, was thrown into disarray by its failure to retain the rights to 23 of the 46 Premier League matches per season that it shows under its existing £392m contract.

An attempt to reduce the amount it pays by a fifth dramatically backfired as it narrowly missed out to BSkyB, which had already secured four of the six packages on offer from the start of the 2010-11 season.

That left shareholders including Doughty Hanson, Goldman Sachs and Balderton Capital, which have collectively poured hundreds of millions of pounds into the company as it attempted to challenge Sky, with doubts over whether they could continue to support the business and reasonably expect to see a return.

The company also looked for fresh external investors but, unsurprisingly given the current economic climate, is understood to have been left largely relying on its existing shareholders.

Setanta executives continue to hope that a radically redrawn business plan, with a more modest rights investment burden and a renewed focus on its position on the Freeview platform, will persuade them to keep faith with the business and agree a new funding round.

Foggy43

From reading the BBC business report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8032371.stm I agree with the last paragraph. It is what I have experienced in the UK. Lots of people have gone down or as it is end of season, going down this route.

afatbollix

i heard the fa told them that they have to pay up this week...

any one have 75 million down the back of there couch for poor old setanta :P

DMC

The Daily Telegraph has taken up the baton on this one... neatly summarised by Digital Spy

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a155060/setanta-under-threat-after-late-payments.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/motherwell/5253295/Motherwell-manager-Mark-McGhee-issues-warning-over-Setanta-proposals.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/5268483/Setanta-seeks-concessions-to-save-business.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/5281486/Fears-grow-for-Setantas-future.html

AugustusMaximus

This could be very interesting.

If ESPN does buy Setanta at a reduced rate, will they keep bidding for rights to the likes of GAA ?

could we see GAA on sky sports ?

Mossy Monk

I doubt it but who knows.

bk

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

If ESPN does buy Setanta at a reduced rate, will they keep bidding for rights to the likes of GAA ?

could we see GAA on sky sports ?

The GAA Championships will only be on Sentata/Sky if the channel is available nationally for free *

GAA policy.

* This could happen if Setanta end up free on the new DTT platform.

snaps

iseegirls wrote: »

Do people not remember that Sky brought along "premiership plus" when they had all access to the games before Setanta stepped in. Now that was ridiculous - asking people to pay i think 8 euro to see a match - that included TV advertisements! i hope they don't bring that back, now that they have more games.

When sky had prem plus you could buy a season ticket for 75€ a season, that wasnt bad value, compared to a setanta sub of €22 a month now.

AugustusMaximus

bk wrote: »

The GAA Championships will only be on Sentata/Sky if the channel is available nationally for free *

GAA policy.

* This could happen if Setanta end up free on the new DTT platform.

Was referring to the UK rights only.

icdg

I doubt there will be any GAA on Sky Sports any time soon. Lets look at the main rights Setanta Ireland has and what might happen to them:

What'll definitely be picked up by others:
* 3pm Premier League games - likely to be picked by RTÉ, with Sky picking up the rest of Setanta's Premier League rights for a song.

What's likely to be, if the price is right:
* GAA National Leagues - might be picked up by TG4.
* Magners League - might be picked up by Sky, but they'd need to find room for it which I'm not sure they would. Could be reduced to highlights on Sky or RTÉ.
* Formula 1 - doubt it will be picked up by any channel. Now that the Two Eddies are gone RTÉ will probably not have as great an interest in picking it up. There might be an outside chance of TV3 taking it though, but it is an expensive sport to cover properly and I can't see them putting the effort in.

What most likely won't be:
* Scottish Premier League - can't see any takers for ROI rights for these.
* Schools Rugby - unlikely to find a home on any channel.
* Indian Cricket - very very unlikely to have any sort of coverage anywhere else.

It would also be a pity to lose the excellent Special 1 TV.

bk

icdg wrote: »

* Magners League - might be picked up by Sky, but they'd need to find room for it which I'm not sure they would. Could be reduced to highlights on Sky or RTÉ.

I could see Sky potentially adding an extra sports channel. Plenty of space on sat and would give them a nice excuse to raise prices.

icdg wrote: »

* Formula 1 - doubt it will be picked up by any channel. Now that the Two Eddies are gone RTÉ will probably not have as great an interest in picking it up. There might be an outside chance of TV3 taking it though, but it is an expensive sport to cover properly and I can't see them putting the effort in.

Now that it is back on the BBC, with fantastic coverage and no ads, and the BBC free on sat, I can't see any reason for anybody else to pick it up, maybe RTE or TV3 if that got it for almost free.

Everything else I agree with you.

Koloman

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

This could be very interesting.

If ESPN does buy Setanta at a reduced rate, will they keep bidding for rights to the likes of GAA ?

could we see GAA on sky sports ?

Hell would freeze over before we would see GAA on Sky Sports! Why would they be interested? For all the big GAA fans in the UK?! I don't think so.

themont85

Koloman wrote: »

Hell would freeze over before we would see GAA on Sky Sports! Why would they be interested? For all the big GAA fans in the UK?! I don't think so.

Sky actually used to show Championship highlights every week before Setanta came along.

I reckon there is a niche for a Setanta Ireland, buying crap EPL games at inflated prices was stupid tbh and Setanta 1 wasted the budget on it. They tried to go from been small to huge too quickly. In the UK they should have tried to gain a solid share of the market with something niche like Eurosport did as freeview before Sky put a stop to that. The prevailing feeling in Britain is they don't trust Setanta and like Sky(despite the fact they moan about it), look at the reaction when they got England games rather than Sky, those pesky Irish stealing our football!

Setanta to their credit have developed a niche in Britain with UFC fans enjoying more coverage than ever, next year(if they still operate) they will have Guinness Premiership rugby which will give them a following. They should have imo gone for this first rather than the big plunge into a saturated market. Here SI has a bit of a following with all the Magners and half decent soccer on basic cable, they must be pulling a small profit there at least because its operated for 5 years now nearly.

Sky i think want Setanta to continue. They are small fry competition who bought bad rights and haven't affected their market negatively(prices are the same and subscribers too). In fact we are beginning to see and i think Sky realised that with Setanta there they can pick and choose rights to save money without losing custom. They get the biggest EPL and CL while Setanta get the FA Cup, who is going to switch for that? They gave up some GP rugby but have the cream in the Lions and Heineken Cup. I personally think we have a oligopoly which the European Commision handed out.

bk

Koloman wrote: »

Hell would freeze over before we would see GAA on Sky Sports! Why would they be interested? For all the big GAA fans in the UK?! I don't think so.

Are you kidding, they would jump at the chance. I've heard they had already approached the GAA but got rebuffed.

Basically if they got the rights, many more people would sign up for Sky and Sky sports in Ireland. It would help them greatly solidify their position in Ireland. Obviously Sky wouldn't pay premiership soccer level costs, but rather costs that reflect the size of the Irish market.

If Sky did get the rights to the GAA, I expect they would create a new channels Sky Sports Ireland for it.

Fortunately I don't think most in the GAA would ever agree to this. They will only allow it to be a free, national channel. But that could become Setanta on DTT.

themont85 wrote: »

I personally think we have a oligopoly which the European Commision handed out.

I agree totally, if your a sports fan you pay double now.

iseegirls

I really hope Setanta stay around - Setanta ireland has been great the past while - showing loads of Premiership football and SPL etc . .. all available on NTL without paying a subscription.

AugustusMaximus

Koloman wrote: »

Hell would freeze over before we would see GAA on Sky Sports! Why would they be interested? For all the big GAA fans in the UK?! I don't think so.

And why were Setanta so interested in the fans in the UK ? Surely Setanta were buying the English rights for a good reason. In fact, Sky actually did have Gaelic Games on Sky Sports in the past, in the form of a weekly highlights programme. THink it was called "Clash".

The fact on the matter is that during the summer months, Sky Sports is very lights on live sport on Sunday afternoons. No rugby or soccer. All they really have is cricket.


On the Indian Premier League. I can see Sky def going for this. It won't be long before the English players will be playing in it and if they do, then it will mean that the very best players from every country in the world will be playing in it. It would be mad for Sky to turn it down.

Mossy Monk

Are the English players not already playing in it?

AugustusMaximus

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Are the English players not already playing in it?

Looks as if I'm behind the times. The collapse of the deal with Alan Stanford must have forced the hand of the ECB.

This surely will get Sky to buy the rights if Setanta goes bankrupt. Would be madness not to.