Setanta Loses Premier TV Rights in England
According to BBC News, Setanta has lost the English TV rights to the Premiership after failing to pay the latest installment of 30 million pounds. There was a deal in place that was to rescue the ailing broadcaster, purchasing 51% of the company. US investor Len Blavatnik with Access Industries was said to have been trying to wrangle a deal with Setanta but as of Friday negotiations had fallen apart and there were no other suitors knocking on Setanta’s door.
Setanta had rights to 46 live matches for the upcoming premiership season. Those games will now be put onto an auction with the deadline coming on Monday. Sky Sports and ESPN seem to be expressing the most interest.
The BBC is also reporting that Sky is most interested in the Monday night games where ESPN is more interested in the Saturday games.
Setanta is said to be operating with losses of £100M. The BBC reports that the company has 1.2 million subscribers, 700,000 short of the 1.9 million that industry experts believe they need to break even.
As of Sunday the Setanta web site was still up and running. The US version of Setanta had this message.
As has been widely reported in various media channels, Setanta Sports has today had its agreement to broadcast 46 Barclays Premier League matches in the UK terminated.
This development does not affect our channels and other services in the US.
Setanta Sports in the US is a separate operation that has separate agreement to show the Barclay’s Premier League. Our channels and other services in the US continue to broadcast and our subscribers can still enjoy our programming including the Lions Tour of South Africa and the UEFA U21 European Championship.
New customers are welcome to subscribe to watch some of the world’s best soccer and rugby either by contacting our cable and satellite partners or online at www.setanta.com.
We thank you for your continued interest in Setanta Sports and look forward to bringing you a wealth of sport over the coming months and years.
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