Ultra Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Source The sports pay-television operator Setanta may be forced to call in administrators this week after an emergency board meeting on Saturday failed to reach a decision about the company’s future. The broadcaster, which showed England’s World Cup qualifying match in Kazakhstan on Saturday, is struggling to pay its annual £200m rights bill for FA Cup, England and Premiership games. Deloitte has now been lined up to act as the administrator to Setanta and media analysts warned last night that it may survive for only a matter of days. On Saturday it emerged that Setanta had failed to pay £3m to the Scottish Premier League, the last instalment for rights payments on last season’s games. The failure to pay such a relatively small sum in terms of football rights payments only served to heighten concerns over the viability of the company and its finances. Setanta has been hit hard by rapidly rising cost of television rights for football games both domestically and internationally and a failure to grow its 3 million customer base rapidly enough. In recent months the company has taken on new management, Sir Robin Miller, the veteran media executive, was parachuted in as Setanta’s chairman in a desperate effort to turn the company around. However, the appointment has so far failed to find a solution for the company’s woes despite appealing to shareholders including Doughty Hanson and Goldman Sachs for £100m in fresh equity and trying to negotiate a reduction in the cost of its TV rights agreements. Like ITV Digital before it, Setanta hasn't been able to sustain a large enough customer base, particularly in summer months. The recession hasn't done it any favours either. It looks like Uncle Rupert's seen off another competitor..
Matt Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 :scarf: :scarf: :banana: :banana: If only they could take ITV with them.
Ultra Posted 8 June 2009 Author Posted 8 June 2009 :scarf: :scarf: :banana: :banana: If only they could take ITV with them.
TrickyTrev Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Rumour going round is that the reason the Haye fight is off is because he wasn't going to get paid!
Matt Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 And people without Sky miss out again. Nice one. In my case people with Sky miss out, I never had Setanta. It's not as if Setanta was free and available to all for free, you still had to pay a fee for it. (I understand some got it free somehow, but on a whole you had to pay a subscription)
TrickyTrev Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 In my case people with Sky miss out, I never had Setanta. It's not as if Setanta was free and available to all for free, you still had to pay a fee for it. (I understand some got it free somehow, but on a whole you had to pay a subscription) No one wants competition in sports coverage between two paid for TV channels. It doesn't bring down the cost of watching football it just adds to it.
Shrenchel Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Brilliant. Good. Yeah it's a fook awful company but can't see how it's a good thing. Increases Sky's monopoly on football. The non-league, Scottish football and lower league teams who rely on televised cup games for a pay-day are gunna suffer. Premier League are laughing still.
davieG Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 No one wants competition in sports coverage between two paid for TV channels. It doesn't bring down the cost of watching football it just adds to it. As I've said time and time again Yeah it's a fook awful company but can't see how it's a good thing.Increases Sky's monopoly on football. The non-league, Scottish football and lower league teams who rely on televised cup games for a pay-day are gunna suffer. Premier League are laughing still. You should lay the blame at the feet of the football administrators they demand the high prices and agree the broadcasters.
Katy Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 In my case people with Sky miss out, I never had Setanta. It's not as if Setanta was free and available to all for free, you still had to pay a fee for it. (I understand some got it free somehow, but on a whole you had to pay a subscription) You can have Sky Sports though and that's my point. I cannot afford Sky plus I live in a house that is prohibited from having Sky (so I'm told) so having Freeview and then paying £10.99 for Setanta so I can watch football is my only way of accessing live sport.
Sir Fynwy Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 I got rid of Sky this year and didn't bother with setanta because I'd rather watch no sport than pay the inflated prices. As the EU stated that Sky cannot have all of the Premiership packages it may lead to BBC or ITV getting a chance to broadcast the package setanta had but more likely it'll go to virgin and remain a paid service.
lou Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Cant see how a lot of people losing their jobs can be a good thing either!
Shrenchel Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Cant see how a lot of people losing their jobs can be a good thing either! They're probably immigrants.
DB11 Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 They're probably immigrants. Why the fook would that matter in anything?
Katy Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Cant see how a lot of people losing their jobs can be a good thing either! Above everything else, yes. Why the fook would that matter in anything? I think he was being was being facetious
Shrenchel Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 A lack of jobs at poorly run Scottish football broadcasters might be the key in getting them to all fook off back to Yugoslavia.
Ultra Posted 8 June 2009 Author Posted 8 June 2009 Setanta's demise is not good news for the Premier League. It will only widen the gap between the big four and the rest.
Shrenchel Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Setanta's demise is not good news for the Premier League. It will only widen the gap between the big four and the rest. I don't really see how? They'd lost half their rights, they only had the 23 Saturday 5.15pm games left and most of the time they just seemed to televise whatever big four club was left after Sky had picked their games anyway.
Sir Fynwy Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 A lack of jobs at poorly run Scottish football broadcasters might be the key in getting them to all fook off back to Yugoslavia. Setanta is a poorly run Irish company.
Shrenchel Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 I meant in the sense that they broadcast Scottish football but brilliant, two birds, one stone.
MarkDeVries Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Setanta is shit, I hope it goes bust. I just got it for free for 3 months and it's a poor man's sky sports.
Matt Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 Setanta is shit, I hope it goes bust.I just got it for free for 3 months and it's a poor man's sky sports. From the coverage i've seen it's marginally better than ITV, and who would pay a subscription for that?
Katy Posted 8 June 2009 Posted 8 June 2009 From the coverage i've seen it's marginally better than ITV, and who would pay a subscription for that? I would, because it shows football that isn't on ITV. Plus I can turn the sound off and watch the actual game instead of getting pissed off with the irritating commentators they have. Plus they show the odd PSG game, a massive plus for me.
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