blonde poker forum

bbc

Setanta faces administration "within days" unless backers provide more funds to pay £30m it owes to the English Premier League, reports suggest.

The broadcaster has already failed to pay the Scottish Premier League £3m it owes in television rights money.

Setanta, which also shows cricket, golf and rugby union, has about 1.2 million subscribers, but is losing up to £100m a year, analysts say.

Deloitte is set to step in to run the firm if it goes into administration.

The rights to show the English Premier League - and the subscribers that this pulls in - lie at the heart of Setanta's business model.

But the firm had only about 60% of the subscribers it needed to break even, said Professor Chris Brady of the BPP Business School.

"They have predicated the whole thing on getting those subscribers. The problem is they are taking on Goliath in BSkyB," he told the BBC.

Not only did Setanta have only a small percentage of televised Premier League games, but they tended to be "weaker" matches, he added.

There had also been problems with customer service, Professor Brady told the BBC.

Setanta's viability was cast into doubt earlier this year when it lost the rights to show 46 live Premier League matches from 2010/2011.

In future it will show only 23 games per season, compared with BSkyB's 115, with industry observers saying that thousands of customers would give up their subscriptions.

It is expected that a rival broadcaster - perhaps ESPN - would buy up its Premier League football rights.

But the worsening economy has led observers to suggest that the rights to 46 games which Setanta holds for next season, the final year of its current contract, would not be worth as much as they had been.

There are also doubts about whether the Premier League could match the £159m Setanta paid for the right to screen 23 Premier League games each season from 2010-11.

A shared deal with ITV saw them secure rights for England and FA Cup matches for £425m - and it is likely another firm would buy up these rights.

I really hope they fail bigtime, a right bag'o'shite they are. Let sky have the lot.

Their picture quality is very poor, they employ Graham Poll and they're down with ITV in terms of commentary standards.
As it is only a month to month contract there isn't much to keep you from cancelling for June and July and then rejoin in August with one of their discounted joining offers.
Hopefully Sky will be allowed to pick up all the premiership games and BBC take the England games off their hands.
I don't want to lose Racing UK though.

I thought about posting this article yesterday, but I thought only finance geeks like Tighty would be interested.

It's basically the same story written for private equity chaps.

Oh noes, where will Charlotte Jackson go?

Right about here I think...

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=42202.345

Cancelled my subscription on Saturday, they didn't go for the usual thing of trying to make you stay. Sky aren't allowed all packages, could we see BBC or itv pick up a package on the cheap?

+1

-1

Have a think about the people who work for them. I wouldn't wish any company to go under.

Will also put at least 3 SPL clubs into administration.

FYP.

In a long history of dumb moves the one to  knock back Sky, attempt to launch SPL TV, & eventually sign up with Setanta was the worst. All forced by the numpty 10 to try and screw more money out of the big 2.

(http://www.offresonance.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/double-facepalm.jpg)

Incorrect. Aberdeen were for the Sky deal aswell.

Were they?

OK then 1/2 an apology to Aberdeen, but they still jumped in with the Numpty 9 to continue forcing Scottish football down the wrong road.

rod meant aberdeen and rangers when he said big 2

why will this put spl clubs into admin? I'm completely clueless about any deal that was done with setanta, didn't even know there was one

   If Setanta go busto what will happen to ESPN america?I presume that wiil go as well.With Ch5 scrapping it's mlb/nfl/nba/nhl coverage what become of us insomiacs.Surely someone will pick the up on the cheap,weren't there rumours of the BBC being offered NFL for nothing?just because the yanks saw gridiron as an emerging market with a view to eventually having a franchise in London.

p.s I already miss Johnny/Josh but most of all Mike Carlson.

Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers all voted to go with Sky but as the other 9 voted Setanta all the clubs were forced to go with the majority.


Sky and Setanta both came in with deals of the same value but Setanta were offering more money up front so the smaller clubs were keen to get the cash tied up. I believe Sky were offering the same money but spread over a longer period of time.

It says in that bbc link that Setanta's TV money make up around 33% of the total income for some of the smaller clubs so without that they'll be really struggling.

yeah we had a similar situation in Holland where a big new network going into admin really cost the clubs...

very uncool.....then again RUK might become a bit cheaper now that I don't need to take Setanta with it.

This is actually a good point, spend many an evening with baseball on in the background. With Setanta gone, will it be available on the standard sky sports package?

Sultana Sports are currant` ly having problems raisin the required subscriptions................  ;shame;

rangers n celtic should just take a year out, play a few exibition matches on top of european matches and move to any league in england, prem, champ, L1, L2 for season 2010/11.  ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods; ;pokergods;

didn't sky take years to make a profit? if they were entering into this market surely they would realise that it wouldn't just fall into their laps.

i think its the credit crunch, better businesses than setanta have been caught short id imagine

Fair point, I reckon it was..but as a stand alone channel (which is the most likely option according to the RUK people in the RP today) they won't have the numbers to keep going.

Hopefully Disney will keep it going,either as part of the sky package or go back to a standalone channel as it was before setanta came along.

ESPN is waiting in the wings apparently, hoping for some cut price deal. If Setanta goes I reckon ESPN will snap up whatever's left for a 5'er.

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/09/06/23/SOCCER_Premier_League_ESPN.html&TEAMHD=soccer

They paid more than I thought they would though.

The SPL have binned Setanta now as well. Hopefully ESPN will come in for these rights to.

Don't hold your breath on that, ESPN currently don't hold rights to the NHL in the USA due to it not being a big enough market for them. They might see the SPL in a similar way.

£159m for 23 matches per season for 3 seasons? 

Jeez, there's too much money in the world

No longer on the brink. 200 people lose jobs at a very bad time.
Hope Racing UK doesn't become ultra expensive now.

RUK have said they will be going back to old prices before Setanta. they will be charging £20 per month as a stand alone chanel
they have not ruled out the possibility that they may become part of another package,

20£ a month?..sigh...very uncool.

yeah £20 is a bit stiff after paying £13 with footie and other chanels. watched the interview by head of RUK ,he did say there is a hardcore ruk viewers who will pay the £20,so they will survive,then added but we dont rule out becoming part of another package, I ASSUME HE MEANS ESPN. saying they will survive may be just giving them bargaining power with ESPN, i hope so anyway, we will see

(edited to remove blank lines - bongo)

told setanta where they could stick their subscription 6 weeks ago when for the 5th time in 7 months they stopped my viewing despite me paying by debit card for the month. They put my subscription back on for April and it stayed on ever since - they didnt turn it off when they should have done in May. They told me i had to give them a month's notice by email and i told them where they could stick it - i even got a letter in the post yesterday to say that my account had fallen behind :D

i switched over to mlb.tv in april - setanta had one live baseball game every two or three days, mlb.tv has every game live and full replays on demand in full HD for less than the Setanta subscription. Most of the other sports that i watched will no doubt go back to sky so its not like i'm going to miss anything.

This isn't allowed any more. Sky can only have right to 4 of the 6 EPL football packages by law.

ESPN america which was part of the Setanta package has at least 1, sometimes 3 live games on an evening/night at the moment. They show the Cubs alot as well because we play a lot of day games at Wrigley, which suits me.

How much is the MLB package?

They might hope so but ESPN is not the bargaining kind I think..They are fairly well known for not paying over the odds (so I'm lead to believe, although the £159mill makes me doubt it) for sports.
I would just really like ATR and RUK to get together and sort everything out. Keep the ATR presenters (other than Compo ldo ;) )and put them on the RUK meetings...happy days for all of us.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?c_id=mlb&affiliateId=mlbMENUBANNERNAV

i have premium package but normal package more than adequate unless you want to watch loads of baseball.

hope i am wrong but cant see ATR and RUK getting together, ATR would prob have gloated if RUK would of gone bust, they will get a hardcore of racing viewers willing to pay £20, i hope its not enough and they do have to merge, the way things are going racing results are going to be ppv   :D

Yeh i made the comment a while a go in an "ideal world" sort of way. I think it's 5 of 6 they are allowed and do have after next season. Hope ESPN is an improvement on Setanta and should be if it's done through sky.
England games will find a buyer so only really bothered about getting racing uk for a decent price. I'm not paying £20 for it.

ive just checked and its off the air. has this just happened at midnight?

Just before 6pm apparently.

awful production imo, i dont know if anyone (scots prob) watching a few games from setanta where the rain got into the lens and wasnt wiped all game, may have been falkirk rangers or hamilton rangers or both, but it was an utter disgrace. steven whitakers goal versus hibs not caught in live play, sure theres hundreds of other examples, and of course criag burley doing co commentry for the spl, awful, then got a promotion to their premiership games, unreal, worst co comm ive ever heard from a knowledge and articulation point of view. steve claridge was another, what a total farce he is to be doing a phone in.

+1 for all of that. A phone in to a guy whose English is barely passable, and who, considering more than half their football was the SPL, had absolutely no knowledge of the SPL at all, good move Setanta. Although 5Live are worse, they have him and (the aptly named) Spoonie on their phone in!

Twice I signed up with them, both times I had major issues and cancelled. For all that SKY are criticised, they are at least professional in everything they do.

ESPN America has been added FOC to the Sky "news and events" package.

ESPN America is currently broadcasting on my freeview Setanta channel.

mine too but no live baseball so back to mlb.tv for me

ESPN are launching new channel next month 45 prem games. No mention of SPLol

£9 a month. Sky used to do these at £1 a game if you bought all 50 up front. So it's about double the price of that but a little cheaper than Setanta.
Nit thought - Wonder if i can get it August to May and save myself £18

Free if your wife works for Sky :)

Yes but she would also see the porn you order!!

SHE CAN SEE THAT???????????????????????