SPL Setanta cash shock

The Irish Examiner reports that Setants Sports is to begin a detailed strategic review of its services, ahead of it losing half of its current live English Premiership football transmission rights next year.

The Irish-founded broadcaster recently lost out to rival BSkyB in the bidding war for live English broadcast rights for Premier League football for the three seasons between autumn 2010 and summer 2013.

As a result, it will only have one live Premiership slot — Saturday evening matches — rather than two, after the end of next season.

Even with the bidding for the Irish television transmission rights still to come Setanta is now set to look at the most effective way to progress as a business.

It is understood to be looking at a new pricing mechanism — given that its chief product, Premiership football, will be lessened in the British market — and the possibility of switching its income stream from a subscription base to via the sale of transmission content to other broadcasters.

Meanwhile, it is understood that reports of a ‘missed payment’ of £10 million (e11.24m) from Setanta to the Football Association (FA) in England is not a sign of monetary troubles at the company. The reported amount deals with money owed by Setanta relating to the continuation of its current three-year deal to transmit live FA Cup fixtures in England.

Both Setanta and ITV — with whom it shares the transmission rights — are currently renegotiating the deal with the FA, which is what is holding up the payments.

Setanta declined to comment on the matter, yesterday. However, a source close to the company suggested that the non-payment of the fee does not mean that the company is debt-ridden.

Meanwhile, Setanta is likely to be bidding against the likes of Sky, TV3 and RTÉ when the Premiership broadcasting rights for Irish television for the 2010-2013 seasons come up for tender next month.

 

Premier League: | Football | The Guardian

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Personally i think you're worng about Sky not wanting us back. Last year, they made a couple of the Celtic champion league games available on Sky One, thats much bigger exposure then just being on Sky Sports or Setanta for that matter.

in the long term, we need to play down South, however unlikely that is. but it'll be the only way we'll be able to complete on players etc.

 

What * me off with setanta,

i've been trying to e-mail them to cancel my subcription for the last 3 weeks, because my freeview box has packed up, but my e-mails just seem to get blocked and sent back to me.

i've just had them on the phone as i've cancelled my Direct debit, explained my situation, and they want me to pay £30 for a new box and they will reduce my payments to £8.50 for 12 months... Err No Thanks after reading all this.

 

What worries me big time as a fan in exile is that Setanta is the ONLY way I can watch games live on TV here in Australia. I (and every other diehard Celt) will struggle to watch anything other than the big games as they happen without having to pay the huge costs of channel67, which I'm not a huge fan of.

There may be hope in Fox sports here but I'd rather stick with the reliablity of Setanta.

 

ffs does anyone want to help us out ffs? we get * all and * all the time no matter what and it * me off, well i say * them they signed a contract and should honour it

 

I've heard rumours of a possible takeover bid from ESPN on setanta.

 

since sky made it clear a while ago they werent fussed about the spl, i dont reckon they will make us an offer to show the SPL on tv as nearly as good as the one we get now with setanta, even if we have to renegotiate it. i think its in our interests to help and keep setanta viable, cos the tv money has to come from somewhere.

if setanta goes bust then it doesnt matter how much it says they are supposed to pay us in a contract, cos we wont be getting anything from them at all!! so if we need to do this to keep them afloat then so be it. no point in being short sighted in this

 

If that happens it will give me the excuse to cancel Setanta as Scott Booth must be the worst commentater going

 

This looks like the SPL are going to get into a * contest now with Setanta but the bottom line is that if the cash isn't there or they want to call the bluff of the SPL, there's not really a lot anyone can do.

Sure it could go to court but that would take time and who knows what would happen in the interim.

I'm of the opinion that Sky will come in and "cherry pick" and make some derisory offer for CL games, live Cup games and OF games or something along those lines. If we're in the situation where Setanta can't meet their commitments then the SPL won't really have much choice but to accept an offer from Sky. I honestly couldn't see FOX or ESPN coming in with a comprehensive deal for the season, but I'd like to be proved wrong on that.

Celtic and Rangers won't suffer to the point where either will bleed. Well certainly not Celtic, but a lot of the smaller clubs will be literally crapping themselves at this news!

 

Update on this Setanta fiasco.

Seems new upper management have been brought in and they're both trying to find further funding while at the same time still trying to negotiate down their existing commitments.

Crisis talks to rescue Setanta TV - Times Online

They're meeting with the SPL on Thursday. I guess by Friday we'll know more about the extent of the problem and what solutions (if any) have been reached.

 

You know... there's been a lot of gossip over here on that very subject... it just hasn't clicked for me until you brought it up. This is because over here people have only been speaking of the prospect of an EPL game or two being on ESPN (largest American sports channel by miles and miles) rather than being only available on Fox Soccer Channel (let's just say it's not the largest sports channel over here). If it goes through than it would definitely have an impact on the whole SPL situation, though. Fingers crossed.

 

Looks increasingly likely that the bumper Setanta deal will be "trimmed"

If the choice is Setanta going bust and no TV deal, or agreeing to reduce the terms (monetary and/or length) of the recently agreed deal it looks as though the SPL will go with the latter.

SPL Open Minded Over Deal (from The Herald )

 

Heard about this a while ago.

I don't see how they can force that upon us? They signed a contract.

No doubt the SPL will roll over though.

 

I think its a case of bye bye Setanta.

 

Yeah, I had heard it a while ago as well, but that link is from tomorrows Herald so it looks as though the meeting is tomorrow.

I'd imagine Setanta have requested the meeting to tell the SPL they can't afford to meet the terms of the agreement and they can either agree to re-negotiate the contract or run the risk of getting nothing if the company goes bust. It's all a game of poker at this stage.

 

To be fair I don't see the SPL have any other choice but to accept what Setantaput in front of them. No-one wants this to go to court and if the money isn't there then unless an agreement is reached the lawyers will be the only ones making any money out of this.

The SPL can try and play as much hardball as they like but Setanta know that their (SPL) options are limited as there isn't a line of broadcasters waving deals around. We have Setanta and that's basically it.

I woulnd't be surprised if they deal was trimmed back by around 30 - 40% at least and it could be more and cut back to a three year deal, but that's not the real bottom line. The problem lies in whether Setanta will have the means to meet their renegotiated payments, never mind any existing payments! One of their directors has been quoted as saying that everyone has been terrific in allowing them to delay payments and that their is no chance of Setanta defaulting on any payments but just two weeks ago they went cap in hand to Doughty Hanson for another £100 million. The signs were that they'd get it but I haven't seen any confirmation of that yet.

Regardless of whether any new deal with Setanta is agreed or not, if Setanta do go bust (which isn't a very far fetched notion), then the SPL will grab the first deal that comes their way and they'll be in no position to negotiate over price!

 

Those are the real issues FTB.

The SPL will take what they can get, they've no other option, it's as simple as that.

Companies that are experiencing financial difficulties are often in a worse state than the media realise, so even if they re-negotiate the terms of all their contracts there is no guarantee that would be enough to see them survive.

 

Good post. It's very easy to sit back and say 'well we had a deal and we're getting every penny' but that simply will not work. By the looks of it, Setanta have totally overestimated the value of their subscriptions and overreached themselves.

They lost one of their Prem deals but even the one they are left with (Monday night) is not a very good slot. You never get the big guns against each other its more often than not a one sided match against a diddy team.

I'd like to hope that someone is smart enough at Hampden to send out some feelers towards SKY or the BBC in the event that Setanta does go belly up.

I disagree with anyone that says SKY wouldn't be interested btw. I think they would welcome the return of the SPL to its channels. I'm not saying it would be a huge deal moneywise but Celtic and Rangers are still decent box office.

 

Sentanta can get * in my opinion. They don't show Celtic games live here anyways. I bought Sentanta a year ago after seeing a ad on a preview weekend about the SPL and thought "* yeah, no more streaming and losing the game half way through, let me get this for 15 dollars a month". To date they have not shown A SINGLE * CELTIC GAME LIVE. They show them the following tuesday or wenesday. I remember our trip to Ibrox in December and the EPL was off, they * showed bullshit rugby (rugby is a nice sport, but literally it has no following in the states) over the OF game.

Neverminding the money situation but I do hope ESPN get the Sentanta package. They have many channels here and I don't think they are so short sided as to not show an odd OF game live.

I've heard rumors that if they get Sentanta, Espn Classic will become ESPN Soccer.

 

Oh and this saturday instead of the OF they are showing Leeds vs. Millwall first leg, which should be a interesting game but come the * on!!!!!