Troubled Setanta loses rights to 46 key games
Jun 23 2009 By The Journal
US broadcaster ESPN has bought the rights to the 46 Premier League games in the 2009/10 season that were to have been shown by Setanta.
Troubled Setanta is fighting for survival after losing the key games for next season last Friday when it failed to meet a deadline for a £10m payment to the league.
The Premier League last night awarded the package of games shown on Saturday afternoon and Monday evenings to Disney-owned ESPN ahead of rivals BSkyB, which had been expected to win the rights to show some of the games, and digital pay TV service TopUp TV.
Setanta still holds the rights to other major sporting fixtures including the FA Cup, some England matches, the Scottish Premier League (SPL), US PGA golf and from 2010, Guinness Premiership rugby.
The firm’s woes could cause a headache for other sporting bodies as a fall into administration might trigger a fire sale of its other broadcasting deals. It is also feared the loss of the Premier League games will cause Setanta subscribers to migrate to other providers.
The Irish broadcaster has around 1.2 million subscribers, but this is below the 1.9 million it needs to break even and it is currently thought to be running at a loss of nearly £100m a year.
It was left unable to pay the Premier League following the collapse of a potential rescue deal with US tycoon Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries.
The deal, which was thought to be worth £20m, would have seen Access Industries buy a 51% stake in the broadcaster, but it failed to go ahead after "a number of issues" were not resolved in time.
Setanta, which employs around 430 people as well as 700 call centre contract workers, temporarily suspended new subscriptions earlier this month, prompting fears over the future of the business.
