Irish sports broadcaster Setanta has concluded a landmark deal worth €572 million which gives the company exclusive access to 46 live English Premiership games a season. Emmet Oliver reports
The company, which began by showing Ireland's World Cup games to Irish people in London pubs in the 1990s, will be offering the matches to British viewers on a subscription or individual pay-per-view basis. It hopes to win the Irish rights to the English Premiership over the next few weeks.
The scale of the deal surprised many observers in Ireland and Britain. The company, run and owned by Dubliners Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke, was competing with major international companies like BSkyB, cable group NTL and Disney-owned ESPN
There were six packages up for grabs in an auction held by the English Premiership, with BSkyB winning four of these and Setanta the remainder. Sky is paying about €6.9 million per game, while Setanta is paying €4.1 million per game. The huge outlay on the games means both companies will have to aggressively recoup their investment via pay-per-view and subscription revenue. This will also be supplemented by advertising revenue.
The total deal between BSkyB and Setanta on one side and the Premier League clubs is worth £1.7 billion, up from just over £1 billion paid in July 2003. The games which the two companies have been awarded have not been released yet.
Setanta has been given various time slots when it can show the games in Britain. These are 12 matches at 8pm on Mondays, with the rest either broadcast at 1.30pm on Sunday or 5.15pm on Saturday. The rights begin from August 2007.
Setanta Sports now becomes the second largest pay sports broadcaster in Britain. The company holds rights to sporting events in Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Europe owns 40 per cent of Setanta.
The company said it would broadcast its matches on both satellite and cable platforms in Britain.