Thetownend.com

Looks like Setanta will be biting the dust within the next few days or so, or going in to administration at least. I reckon it could be a good thing, if it finally gets ESPN to make their move and buy them - something that has been talked about for a while now. ESPN have the resources to compete with Sky on a level playing field, which Setanta have never really had.

Though I'm mainly hoping it happens as it could mean I get ESPN America bundled for free with Virgin.

ESPN ave the resources to compete with Sky, but Setanta have virtually bugger all EPL rights from 2010.  They'd find it hard to attract paying punters to a subscription service.

But I don't care about that. What I want is England games to go to terrestrial or failing that, Sky.

ESPN are owned by disney aren't they? It would be apt to see SPL end up there. Mickey Mouse football on the disney channel.
---

As for Setanta, I hate to see ordinary people lose their jobs. But as a company I can think of none more deserving to go bust than Setanta.

I still believe we should legislate that all national sporting events (not friendlies) should be on free-to-air TV.

Can't see the FA or ECB going for it though.

Wonder how this effects our friends down in the conference as they have a contract with the conference etc... is that going to fuck a lot of already skint clubs down there....including the pox?

The Premier League reckon they are covered as their contract says the Setanta share holders / investors have to pay up if Setanta don't. I'd imagine the Conference did something similar, after the ITV / Football League thing, though even if they haven't I'm sure Sky would go to their rescue - unless the Conference have managed to piss Sky off the way the SPL has.

ABC (ie Disney) own 80% of ESPN.

Its IOU digital all over again. And axs is right, the FA should hang their heads in shame at England games not being free to air

Bad news for the consumer if Setanta fail. BSkyB will regain their monopoly of sports rights and anyone else considering dipping in an oar knows now what the end result is.

They can do whatever the hell they want to now.

We're doomed :(

I refuse to pay for televised football so I don't really care :)

what was the england game a while ago when the crowd were all chanting "we hate setanta" every time the cameras went on them ?

Carrot crunchers.

I rekon the TV landscape could have changed significantly before the bids for the next PL TV deal.

Andorra was it not?

Does Sky make money now?

Not if you already subscribe to Sky it isn't, though thanks to the EU they aren't allowed all the footy rights anyway.

I only watch Sky and Setanta games in the pub so to be honest I can't see it affecting me much.  I won't miss the quality of Setanta coverage though - I'd rather watch ITV, and that really is saying something.

I get free Setanta with Virgin,but I rarely watch a game on it.Usually only a Spurs games when im not working which is about 3 a season

you supported spurs 3 seasons ago?!

Live coverage of England games being on pay channels is fine with me, but the highlights have to be free to air.

Setanta really fucked up with that England game by not sorting something out, I know they did at the last second (literally) but the damage had been done. Not sure that Setanta will ever recover from the bad PR they got as a result, which they fully deserve.

Completely agree - well said.

See, now if they'd done that the other way round, they might have got more subscribers

I'm not one to burst with laughter often, but that made beer come out of my nose.  You have ruined my keyboard with your clever word play.

Andorra in Barcelona, twas a fun evening. We also did 'BBC, BBC, BBC'

Correct. That was Croatia.

BBC, ITV and C5 were interested and they didnt cut a deal. Over valued the highlights.

Very naughty.

Looks like they could be saved.

The first time round it wasn't, the most cold I have ever been I think, was horrible.  11 of us from a ski resort freezing our tits of in Barca, not what we expected...

Maybe, but surely the UK arm is ultimately finished in its current form.They are a loss making venture and their product will be weaker from 2010 when they lose a Prem rights package.

If saved, my guess is they will renegotiate and see out what commitments they have. Stiff their current shareholders. Offload/let expire their expensive contracts and switch to niche markets - euro football, UFC and the like. They'll have far few subscribers at a presumably cheaper price, but far less expense too.

I'm nto sure they can continue though, the whole point of a channel like that is to get subscribers and they don't get them and when they lose the footy (or most of it) then people will cancel, so even if they get niche sport then they are not going to get many subscribers

Less subscribers at a lower price and massively reduced costs may be profitable enough, particularly if most of their debt gets wiped in the deal.

I guess they could partner with another broadcaster, but Setantas current worth to another broadcaster must be limited.

Or I guess they may think they can increase their userbase with what they have. But I just can't see it.

As Pauls says, contract renegotiation will no doubt hit the small clubs :-|

Yes I agree, I would suspect any subscriiption sport channel in this country couldn't survive without any significant football.

*Bump* D-day for Setanta today - if they don't get a rescue deal in place and stump up the cash they owe the Prem today, the rights go to auction

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/crucial-day-for-struggling-setanta-1709170.html

People are sure they will secure the cash for this payment.

Question is how do they continue in the current form? The are loss making and will lose some EPL rights in 2010.

Premier League have now confirmed they've cancelled their contract with Setanta

Ooops. If  this isn't the end, it's surely the beginning of the end.

I feel a bit sorry for the company to be honest, originally set up to screen an Ireland game that wasn't on TV and managed to pip Sky to some broadcasting rights at their peak.  Their problem has been not hanging on to subscribers rather than not getting new ones it seems, which probably suggests the extra offerings were the problem as opposed to the football (which will be what gets them in).  Sky's ability to get International sporting events is probably the big difference, and that comes from having an International sized budget to splash on rights.  I think we are living in cloud cuckoo land if we think this will mean anything other than Sky picking up all the loose change.

So the return of Sky Sports Box Office then!

Sky can only pick up 1 EPL package. I don't feel sorry for Setanta in the slightest. They are by and far the most dubious company verging on unethical if not illegal regarding their T&Cs. Reap what you sow.

I do feel sorry for the average Joe employee that may lose there job though.

Also, if they go under England home friendlies go to ITV (contractual obligation). Away games presumably go back to the host broadcaster.

Looks like the guy who was going to bale them has pulled out.

Perhaps the bbc will put in a bid. We can dream

Obviously the BBC or ITV won't get this - so is there anyone else other than ESPN that could?

Too much football on tele; I say scrap the 'pool' and keep the fixtures as a Saturday 3pm.

Maybe, or they could just be waiting until its cheaper. Setanta are pretty much worthless now, without football you aren't going to get that many subscribers. The Premier League won't be getting anywhere near as much for the rights when they sell them again.

Wouldn't surprise me if someone buys the football rights on the cheap and then buys Setanta for £1. Ideally it will be someone like ESPN that comes in, we need someone that can compete with Sky.

Do we though?

Both ITV digital and Setanta have tried and failed to compete with Sky and basically for the same reason, i.e they never had the really top draw games to bring in the subscribers.

While the only rival to Sky had third rate games on at unattractive times it was pretty easy to ignore them and just stay with Sky which is what most people did and why Setanta never acquired enough subscribers to be viable.

If a rival broadcaster was genuinely able to compete with Sky they would have some of the top Premier league games, decisive matches at both ends of the table, better time slots than 12:30 on saturday etc...

If that had been the case with Setanta, a lot of fans would have been left with a choice of missing out on big games they really wanted to see, or subscribing to both at double the cost of Sky alone.

In other words, to support 2 big pay TV companies will require a lot bigger outlay from subscribers. I can see why that would be attractive to the clubs, but not to the average punter. The EU ruling that stops Sky hoovering up all the rights is actually tending to achieve the opposite of its intention, i.e. it will drive costs up for subscribers if it works at all.

the bbc should be delivering us top sport.we pay their poll tax to watch tv.yet we get less and less quality sport on the beeb,by the  year.

It would be nice, although they've obviously got to be showing a balance on what they spend it on, and they don't do too badly with what they get.

Don't the beeb have the rights to a few championship games next year or did I imagine that?

i have no idea,better than nowt i suppose. i'm glad setanta is going under,purely because i dont have it.

Aye, 8 or 9 games if memory serves me right.

You can see how if a person doesn't subscribe to Sky that a cheaper alternative for some of the games is a good thing.

But I agree with you, for us Sky sports subscribers the Sky monopoly was a far better deal.

Not really, because when they had all the rights, Sky had that PremPlus package which was basically what Setanta is now. Really, there was no change to the amount you had to shell out, just the channel it was on.

Its a pity the FL didn't force the deal so there would be a weekly game on the BBC, provided the BBC were up for it and I'm sure they would have been. The FL might not have got as much money but the extra publicity for The Championship would help more in the long term.

The BBC get 10 first choice live Championship matches and will be showing all the Football League goals on their website. Pity they didn't get a weekly highlights show as well.

I take it you didn't see the 50 quid early bird season ticket sky used to do then.

I vaguely remember some adverts with James Nesbitt in them, but don't remember a price. If that is the case, down with Setanta.

Didn't you need to subscibe to sky sports to get the prem plus though? I don't think you can compare costs on that basis

Yes you did. The original point was it costs a Sky sports subscriber more to watch everything that is available than it used to, hence monopolies aren't always bad!

There's an argument that sky should be providing people with these games if they subscibe to all the sports channels anyway. Maybe I think it's a con because I think sky are rip off merchants anyway :)

ESPN have taken Setanta's packages. They will sell through BSkyB, at extra cost to current subscription.

Despite the fact that Setanta's deal with the FA has now finished, and both sides agree that it has been terminated, the FA should continue to take £30m a month off them for another 3 months or so.

That'll learn 'em.

What has the FA got to do with it? Its the Premier League deal that has been terminated and they've said they're covered from any possible losses through guarantees from Setanta's financial backers. I don't think the Premier League have lost anything though, the reduced amount paid by ESPN is about the same as the money Setanta owed.

I don't think anything has happened yet about the England / FA Cup deal, which would be with the FA.

I hope Virgin strike a deal with ESPN,I want to to watch ESPN classics.

Now that is a great TV channel.

Good job I havnt got it really. Wouldnt go to work.

same as, all i got is ESPN America. need ESPN Classics

Setanta are fucked really. Got nothing that is going to entice new members to sign up for. Can people quit the network now? Surly they breached their terms of service by offering a service which they now cant provide. ie SPL and EPL football.

They've just won a small claims case by saying that they're offering a much improved service by not showing the SPL.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8113702.stm

The customer notice on the Setanta website made me laugh, they're trying to make out that nothing has changed and that you're still obliged under the terms of your contract. I'd be very surprised if the contract terms don't allow you to cancel seeing as they've lost all the decent content from their channels.

I wonder how many Setanta subscribers there are now? It was 1.2m, I reckon it will be well under 1m by the end of the month and near zero by the start of the season. I'd imagine Virgin are about to pull the plug on them as well by dropping Setanta from their XL package which has 1m+ subscribers (not included in the 1.2m direct subscribers).

Put simply, Setanta are fucked.

That notice has been up since before the EPL and SPL withdrew their rights.

I think their own T&Cs provide scope for cancellation on reduced service grounds, that's assuming they don't pull (another) fast one and changed them again.


Long and short, if you pay by direct debit you can give notice and cancel it, if you pay by credit  card they have you by the balls.

But like you say, it's unlikely to be an ongoing concern in its current form! As long as Sky (or one of the FTV chans) get the FA Cup and England jobs a good un.

Seems that ESPN will be managed by Sky the same way they handled their own PPV and how they give access the the likes on Man U & Chelsea TV, early indications are it will be £10 a month.

I hope that ESPN do not snap up the rights to the england games, I hope it goes to ITV or BBC as any national game should be free to air

And thats the end of Setanta Sports, they are now in administration and dead....

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a161663/setanta-uk-to-cease-broadcasting.html

lucky for me as i was going to switch to Virgin because Setanta having the extra football etc.

So renewed with Sky and added HD. Happy Days

Why is that lucky for you and happy days? Did I miss something?

Sky better give James Richardson a job.

they better.

think it is time that i get rid of setanta

Setanta has got rid of you, assuming you are in GB the screens have gone blank. They will be taking no more payments.

yeah the message Setanta no longer exists is on the screen

clearly you did.

i was going to change to setanta but luckily i didn't as i would have been stuck with Virgin and no Setanta whilst also paying a large sum of money, so i stayed with Sky and got HD @ £20pm cheaper than what Virgin would have cost so it's Happy Days

Except we don't know what Virgin will be doing yet so if it was me I'd have waited. Now that Setanta are history Virgin will have to do something to compensate their TV XL customers, it might even work out better - ESPN could be free taking the place of Setanta. Plus you still don't know what Sky will be charging for ESPN.

What package did you get from Sky? I checked their prices when I upgraded my Virgin package to include V+ and Setanta / Sky Sports and it was cheaper than Virgin on a straight comparison. Would have cost me even more with Sky though as I'd have been on their "national broadband" which is more expensive and slower. Plus there is also the issue of me not being allowed to put up a sat dish where I live.

well the package i've priced up with Virgin was:
V+ Box
Additional V Box
TV XL + Sky Sports Pack
Phone XL
Broadband Size L

Installation = £99
Monthly Cost = £79.95

With Sky i have ordered:
Sky HD (packages not included are Movies and Music)
Free Sky + for Multiroom
Sky Phone Unlimited (half price line rental for 6 months)
8mb Broadband


Installation = FREE
HD Box = £49
Monthly Cost = £58 for first 6 months then £63pm thereafter

Saving me almost £20pm so if ESPN is an additional £10pm i can afford it.

I get TV XL, BB L, Phone M and Sky Sports for £58 a month with Virgin. I imagine an extra V box and TV XL would cost me between £5-£10 a month extra which would make the price comparable with Sky and you should be able to get installation for £49 as well. But you have to give them a call and argue, quoting prices from Sky to get a deal.

Got to wait and see what happens with ESPN, good chance they will bundle it with TV XL to replace Setanta. If they don't I'll be having words to get a new deal to compensate for the loss and extra costs. Will be even better if they sort a deal for ESPN America and Classic at a reasonable cost.

never thought of arguing with Virgin to see what deals we can do as we've already got sky so was easier. Plus sky are getting back the Monday night games as of 2010/11 season.

Mate at work is hoping they strike a deal for ESPN America & Classics too. he used to live out in America so enjoys all the baseball etc

I wouldn't say to no ESPN America, for the hockey and baseball, but not at £10 a month.

I'm wondering if Sky will sell the Monday night package to ESPN, so they have the same 46 games in future. Sky aren't stupid and they know they need a decent relationship with ESPN as they're not dealing with a tin pot competitor any more. It looks like this is just the start of a full blown ESPN move in to Europe, I'd be very surprised if they don't pick up the rest of the football that Setanta had.

The ESPN packge starts 3 August. £9 for Sky subscribers, £12 for non subscribers.

No thanks, less on than Setanta for about the same money.

Think I'm going to subscribe, its only £9 a month, or £3 as we have 3 in our flat.