News round-up: Setanta Sport has mixed feelings about this week's announcement of the GAA's broadcasting rights for the next three years.

According to CEO Niall Cogley: "There's a fine line between our disappointment at not getting any live championship rights and our satisfaction at the two packages we have been awarded."

With the finer details still to be tied up, Cogley acknowledged that the GAA had made its choice in relation to how it wanted to proceed in relation to subscription television.

"There are two models of how to earn revenue from match schedules: one the sponsorship model, which the GAA have chosen and the other, straight to viewer, that we would offer."

In the past week it has been publicly speculated that Setanta had offered twice the €25 million believed to be the value of the domestic GAA championship rights, but was turned down because of the association's desire to maximise reach rather than revenue.

Setanta retain their National League rights but with a slight improvement.

Having previously been restricted to Saturday fixtures the station will in the next three years also be allowed broadcast a match on Sunday afternoon, which had up until now been the exclusive preserve of TG4.

Although there are fewer fixtures involved in Setanta's package, the Saturday night floodlit fixtures are bigger draws because the time of transmission is more attractive to television audiences.

Setanta Ireland will also continue to carry repeat transmissions of championship matches during the summer.

Cogley, as is the industry norm, declines to discuss figures but points out that the speculation is at best nebulous, as it isn't clear for instance to what extent the GAA's new sponsorship deals are costed into the estimates - the association's new multi-sponsor model for the football and hurling championships will include television exposure.

He also points out that to engage optimally with subscription television a sports organisation has to allocate a sizeable portion of its events in order to attract sufficient numbers of viewers to ensure a reasonable financial return for both parties.

Soccer in England went down this road 16 years ago when Sky took all live Premiership matches on to subscription.

For reasons of realpolitik the GAA isn't in a position to take this route and in fairness to Croke Park, there are genuine concerns about the free-to-air availability of championship fixtures.

"Premiership doesn't have the demographic the GAA has, as arguably the biggest sport in the country.

"You have to pay for soccer - that's their decision and they've earned between one and one and a half billion out of that decision. Setanta understands that the GAA hasn't wished to use television to concentrate on revenue."

Between 1992 and 2003 the company made its way offering a close circuit and event-by-event service with its main source of profile the GAA's overseas rights and the occasional soccer match.

The broadcaster came to more general prominence in 2003, stepping in to take advantage of a falling out between Sky and the Scottish Premier League, which left a big hole in the SPL business plan.

Setanta approached with an offer that was accused of over-valuing the product but which proved sustainable and which has been since renewed.

More recently Setanta has concluded big English soccer deals and this season will be carrying 79 Premier League matches. Irish subscriptions are running "well into six figures", according to Cogley and Setanta Ireland is available on basic cable packages in a number of regions, principally the east coast.