SETANTA ON BRINK

redout

02/05/2009
THE FA's mega £425million television deal with ITV and Setanta is in danger of collapsing.


Soho Square chiefs are worried after Setanta were late with a £10m payment in March.


And it is understood that the Irish satellite TV company - who screen Premier League, FA Cup and England matches - are seeking to defer next month's instalment.


An FA insider declared: "We are waiting with bated breath. If they missed a scheduled payment that would be the end of the TV deal."


Setanta are trying to raise more money through private equity firms and it has been reported the company are negotiating with Premier League bosses to try and delay this month's £60m payment under the terms of their separate £392m deal.


Setanta director of sport Trevor East admitted he has been in discussions with the FA but insisted: "There is no question of us defaulting on payments.


"We have been talking to the FA for some time and we're very pleased with how those talks are progressing.


"They've been extremely understanding and very helpful.


"We are having positive discussions with all our rights partners as we move forward with a restructured business plan."


Any collapse of the deal would be a major embarrassment to the FA, who chose ITV and Setanta in the money-spinning rights auction ahead of established partners BBC and Sky.


Setanta, which has 1.2million subscribers, is trying to raise upto £100m this month.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/288512/SETANTA-ON-BRINK.html

Mitch Connor

With them losing a half of their premiership games from the 2010/11 season, they could be in massive trouble.

herbieflowers

is this the end of Pat Dolan? Snap him up RTE, squeeze him in between Dunphy and Giles.

Mr.Nice Guy

herbieflowers wrote: »

is this the end of Pat Dolan? Snap him up RTE, squeeze him in between Dunphy and Giles.

LOL don't give them any ideas. The puppet Mourinho would be better than Pat.

DSB

Hopefully Sky Sports soon follow.

OPENROAD

My Setanta renewal is up for renewal mid May, they were offering special monthly rates but these were tied into six and twelve month contracts, might hold off on renewal now.

redout

Setanta are advertising more football than ever next season with 79 Prem games. I presume that must include saturday 3pm's. How do they have more than this season as they have the same package still ?

Highsider

The sooner the better

That_Guy

Lol at Setanta. Really don't like their coverage at all.

weemcd

Hope this means the likes of BBC could get the occasional premiership game, would be good to see actual domestic football on terrestrial tv during the day, instead of just the highlights that night.

Headshot

i hope setanta go bust anyway and love to see a couple of PL matches on bbc .bbc hd ftw

That_Guy

Wonder if RTE could get the odd one too like a season or two ago.

A Dub in Glasgo

Setanta have appalling customer service and do sneaky changes to their T&C's and on that basis alone good riddance to a terrible company.

Badabing

I think Setants Ireland is a great channel and have lots of good content, sport matters is very good as is their Magners League output.They have a live Premier League game at 3pm every week and usually a 5.30 game aswell it's a great channel and their a Irish success story. They took over the Spl contract when it was dying of death and provide excellent coverage imo.

That_Guy

Have you ever watched Setanta's version of Sky's Soccer Saturday? It's completely rubbish.

They look like they've rounded up random punters off the street to come in and "analyse" a match.

Unearthly

DSB wrote: »

Hopefully Sky Sports soon follow.

I love how people who support prem teams as their main team have thanked this post.

I really do come across some odd stuff on the internet.

Headshot

Unearthly wrote: »

I love how people who support prem teams as their main team have thanked this post.

I really do come across some odd stuff on the internet.

1+

its laughable alright

JerryHandbag

I dunno how many times Ive seen a match on setanta this year and the commentary feed has been about 5 seconds ahead of the footage, really annoying and ruins the game :mad:
Would love if all the football went back onto Sky, would save me 20 quid a month!:rolleyes:

DSB

Unearthly wrote: »

I love how people who support prem teams as their main team have thanked this post.

I really do come across some odd stuff on the internet.

Haha yeah thats a bit mad alright.

leninbenjamin

Badabing wrote: »

I think Setants Ireland is a great channel and have lots of good content, sport matters is very good as is their Magners League output.They have a live Premier League game at 3pm every week and usually a 5.30 game aswell it's a great channel and their a Irish success story. They took over the Spl contract when it was dying of death and provide excellent coverage imo.

I dunno about that. Setanta really had a golden opportunity methinks. Sky's coverage has gotten stale, boring and is alienating a lot of fans. If Setanta got the TV bit right they could have very easily won over a lot of subscribers slowly but surely. Instead they spent all their money on the product and just made a cheap knock off of Sky for the rest...

they wont last long. It's not just the football, they have a load of MBUs they are paying for that just aren't getting used. I think they could be gone very very soon, as there is no way people will invest in them given the dominance of Sky in their market.

Latchy

That_Guy wrote: »

They look like they've rounded up random punters off the street to come in and "analyse" a match.

Random punters who watched the match might have as much an insight as any of the so called panel experts but that's a seperate matter .

themont85

Setanta Ireland would be a major loss. Look at what they show, 3pm Epl games, Magners League, Lots of Uefa cup football and a little Gaa. Then count all the minority stuff like sport matters, school cups in rugby, basketball, soccer even...RTE wouldn't show this stuff. And most of all its free to most in this country through NTL/Chorus. Its kind of like ESPN in the States which is free with cable, SI would be a major loss imo.

Setanta 1 and all those club tv channels, wouldn't be a loss.

noodler

Being honest. I would probbaly only know Jeff Steling and a bunch of the other Soccer Saturday crowd (Bar Le Tissier, Merson and Phim Thompson obviously) from watching them year in year out on Sky.

I doubt I knew who Charlie Nicholas or Kamara was before that.

Pro. F

herbieflowers wrote: »

is this the end of Pat Dolan? Snap him up RTE, squeeze him in between Dunphy and Giles.

That would be class. Him and Dunphy would batter each other.

LuckyLloyd

themont85 wrote: »

Setanta Ireland would be a major loss. Look at what they show, 3pm Epl games, Magners League, Lots of Uefa cup football and a little Gaa. Then count all the minority stuff like sport matters, school cups in rugby, basketball, soccer even...RTE wouldn't show this stuff. And most of all its free to most in this country through NTL/Chorus. Its kind of like ESPN in the States which is free with cable, SI would be a major loss imo.

Setanta 1 and all those club tv channels, wouldn't be a loss.

Fully agree. Seriously lads, there are things in the sporting spectrum other than football.

callaway92

where will UFC go if Setanta is gone :0

Guy:Incognito

DSB wrote: »

Hopefully Sky Sports soon follow.

Yeah, sure the league will just carry on as is regardless of no money coming in.

redout

callaway92 wrote: »

where will UFC go if Setanta is gone :0

Back to Sky one would presume.

DSB

Stekelly wrote: »

Yeah, sure the league will just carry on as is regardless of no money coming in.

It would be better if the league DIDN'T carry on as it is, in my opinion. Too much football on TV is a very bad thing.

anonymous_joe

DSB wrote: »

It would be better if the league DIDN'T carry on as it is, in my opinion. Too much football on TV is a very bad thing.

So's all the clubs going bankrupt without tv money.

DSB

anonymous_joe wrote: »

So's all the clubs going bankrupt without tv money.

They wouldn't really go bankrupt, they'd just have to stop paying players unrealistic amounts of money, I mean there'd be an adjusting period where the league would suffer, but its better for the game of football as a whole. Obviously it isn't better for the individual clubs, and the league as a whole though, so it will never happen. A game on a Sunday, and one on the Monday, was perfect, before Sky and Setanta teamed up to bastardise the game. With usually 6 or 7 live Premiership games a weekend.

leninbenjamin

DSB wrote: »

before Sky and Setanta teamed up to bastardise the game.

don't be so naive. the TV companies can only show the product that is sold to them. It was a commercial decision by the Premier League to televise so many matches, that means my beloved club and everyone elses beloved club (excluding of course the the Eircom 'Real Football' League fans ) is responsible for bastardising the game.

ShooterSF

DSB wrote: »

They wouldn't really go bankrupt, they'd just have to stop paying players unrealistic amounts of money, I mean there'd be an adjusting period where the league would suffer, but its better for the game of football as a whole. Obviously it isn't better for the individual clubs, and the league as a whole though, so it will never happen. A game on a Sunday, and one on the Monday, was perfect, before Sky and Setanta teamed up to bastardise the game. With usually 6 or 7 live Premiership games a weekend.

So it wouldn't be better for the clubs (less income) or the players (less income) or the fans (cost more to see all the games they see now). So eh who would it be better for?

DSB

leninbenjamin wrote: »

don't be so naive. the TV companies can only show the product that is sold to them. It was a commercial decision by the Premier League to televise so many matches, that means my beloved club and everyone elses beloved club (excluding of course the the Eircom 'Real Football' League fans ) is responsible for bastardising the game.

Definitely, most football clubs are run by people who don't really care too much at all about the fans or the history of that club, and those that do value that are forced to do the same as those, or be left far behind.

ShooterSF wrote: »

So it wouldn't be better for the clubs (less income) or the players (less income) or the fans (cost more to see all the games they see now). So eh who would it be better for?

It would definitely be better for the matchgoing fans of the club, who are the 1s every club should be putting first and foremost, and it would be better for the game as a sport in general.

CHD

If Setanta go bust its a huge loss for sport, nevermind Soccer.

tony1kenobi

noodler wrote: »

Being honest. I would probbaly only know Jeff Steling and a bunch of the other Soccer Saturday crowd (Bar Le Tissier, Merson and Phim Thompson obviously) from watching them year in year out on Sky.

I doubt I knew who Charlie Nicholas or Kamara was before that.

Champagne Charlie is a legend.....and Kamara was the very successful lead singer of the Commodores........

Savman

Never liked Setanta but when you're watching your own team, who cares?
The only winner here is Rupert Murdoch btw.

ShooterSF

DSB wrote: »

It would definitely be better for the matchgoing fans of the club, who are the 1s every club should be putting first and foremost, and it would be better for the game as a sport in general.

It's one thing putting match going fans first ( I agree with that, they pump a lot of money into the club) but to do so whilst giving the finger to a lot of your fans who can't get to games is hardly good spirited is it now? It would also drive the prices of tickets up as more fans tried to go to games. So poor fans especially of smaller stadium clubs would be left out in your utopia.

DSB

ShooterSF wrote: »

It's one thing putting match going fans first ( I agree with that, they pump a lot of money into the club) but to do so whilst giving the finger to a lot of your fans who can't get to games is hardly good spirited is it now? It would also drive the prices of tickets up as more fans tried to go to games. So poor fans especially of smaller stadium clubs would be left out in your utopia.

Its not giving the finger to other fans, I'm not talking about eradicating football from TV at all, football on TV is a good thing, but 6 or 7 Premiership games on TV a weekend, is too much and ruins the sport, the days where you'd have 2 or 3 games on a weekend, and if you wanted to watch the rest you'd tune into Match Of The Day on a Saturday evening for the highlights were perfect.

chopperbyrne

I really don't want Setanta to go bust.

Their UFC coverage is excellent and Sky would inevitably start charging for numbered UFCs if they got the rights again.

Setanta Ireland is a great channel and NASN is good too.

Yes their pundits and overall presentation for their football coverage is poor, but it's still a welcome change from "If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all." attitude of Sky pundits.

Setantas golf coverage is also quite good and they have a good racing channel.

ShooterSF

DSB wrote: »

Its not giving the finger to other fans, I'm not talking about eradicating football from TV at all, football on TV is a good thing, but 6 or 7 Premiership games on TV a weekend, is too much and ruins the sport, the days where you'd have 2 or 3 games on a weekend, and if you wanted to watch the rest you'd tune into Match Of The Day on a Saturday evening for the highlights were perfect.

Maybe for you. I like to get in as many hours of football as I can watch at the weekend. Nobody forces you to watch 6 or 7 games and MOTD is still there along with Football First for highlights. In the current situation both you and I can get what we want from our weekend footie fix. Changing it so only you have the "perfect" weekend is hardly an improvement.

DSB

ShooterSF wrote: »

Maybe for you. I like to get in as many hours of football as I can watch at the weekend. Nobody forces you to watch 6 or 7 games and MOTD is still there along with Football First for highlights. In the current situation both you and I can get what we want from our weekend footie fix. Changing it so only you have the "perfect" weekend is hardly an improvement.

But it isn't for me, as you said yourself, I can just not watch, its for the good of the sport. The Premiership should be looking to emulate German football as much as possible instead of trying to turn the league into the new WWE.

Sir Gallagher

DSB wrote: »

But it isn't for me, as you said yourself, I can just not watch, its for the good of the sport. The Premiership should be looking to emulate German football as much as possible instead of trying to turn the league into the new WWE.

Ah come off it, the premier league is just about the highest standard of football you're gonna get in the world and the money coming in from tv companys and sponsorship has helped get it there. It's necassary for progress i feel and for somebody who doesn't live in england i'm delighted there's as much coverage as possible.

I'd be gutted if Setanta went under their punditry is abysmal but i don't care once i get to see the match.

Charlie

Long live the days of Prem Plus.

jesus_thats_gre

Charlie wrote: »

Long live the days of Prem Plus.

One off fee of 80 euro - beats the **** out of 22.50 a month.

Headshot

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

One off fee of 80 euro - beats the **** out of 22.50 a month.

and couldnt you buy the matches individually ?

Sir Gallagher

I suppose on the upside, i will take great pleasure having Pat Dolan, Brian Little, Lou Macari, and that stocking of a presenter(the one with the tragic hair) out of my life for good.

A Dub in Glasgo

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

One off fee of 80 euro - beats the **** out of 22.50 a month.

You had to subscribe to Sky Sports to get that

Charlie

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

You had to subscribe to Sky Sports to get that

And.

It was a far superior product.

fish fingers

Charlie wrote: »

And.

It was a far superior product.

Ya, I miss the old George Graham stare.
They always had to stand up aswell when they were discussing the match

A Dub in Glasgo

Charlie wrote: »

And.

It was a far superior product.

It may have been a far superior product but it did not just cost €80; it cost €80 on top of the Sky Subscription and the Sky Sports subscription.

As far as I can see, Setanta went downhill fast once it jumped with both feet into the EPL product. The beauty of Setanta is people did not have to subscribe to Sky or Sky Sports to get sport.