Setanta screwed?

[Stouffer]

Setanta has a month to save itself from ruin | Media | The Guardian

 

Setanta has a month to save itself from ruin.

 

Owen Gibson The Guardian, Monday 4 May 2009

 

The long-term future of troubled sports broadcaster Setanta is likely to be decided within the next month, with the company facing collapse if it fails to renegotiate key contracts and bring in new investment.

 

A new senior management team, installed to try to secure a future for the broadcaster, has until shortly after this month's FA Cup final – which it will broadcast live under the first year of its £150m contract with the FA – to do so.

 

As revealed by the Guardian in February after Setanta lost half of the Premier League live matches it holds under its current deal, precipitating a crisis of confidence among its investors, the ambitious Irish pay-TV broadcaster has been battling on three interlinked fronts to survive.

 

The new chairman, Sir Robin Miller, the former Emap chief executive, has been parachuted in to bring renewed focus to ongoing attempts to raise up to £100m from investors, restructure its existing contracts with rights holders to save money and agree on a revised business plan that could offer a viable way forward.

 

Recent attention has focused on renegotiations with rights holders including the Premier League, FA, Scottish Premier League, golf's PGA Tour and Premier Rugby, which have assumed increased urgency as various key payments have loomed. Although its last £10m fee to the FA was late, it has been keen to stress that it has not defaulted on any payments.

 

This week, it will meet Scottish Premier League officials to continue negotiations over a reduction in its existing contract and a new £125m deal due to start in 2010.

 

Some of its rights holders, including the US PGA Tour, are believed to have been open to redrawing the terms of their contracts. But the Premier League and the FA, while happy to talk with Setanta, are insisting their deals are honoured in full.

 

The next £10m instalment to the FA is due next month, with a payment of around £35m due to the Premier League immediately following the end of the season.

 

Both governing bodies are convinced they could bring in replacement rights holders that would match the amount still owed by Setanta under their existing deals. The FA deal was structured so Setanta paid a significant sum up front, and ITV would be obliged to pick up England's friendlies at £2m apiece under the terms of the contract.

 

But for both, the demise of Setanta would significantly reduce competition in the market next time they come to sell their rights. For the FA in particular, which replaced the BBC and Sky with Setanta and ITV under the new deal, it would raise awkward questions. The impact on the finances of other sports could be more dramatic.Setanta's business plan, already considered ambitious by some analysts, was thrown into disarray by its failure to retain the rights to 23 of the 46 Premier League matches per season that it shows under its existing £392m contract.

 

An attempt to reduce the amount it pays by a fifth dramatically backfired as it narrowly missed out to BSkyB, which had already secured four of the six packages on offer from the start of the 2010-11 season.

 

That left shareholders including Doughty Hanson, Goldman Sachs and Balderton Capital, which have collectively poured hundreds of millions of pounds into the company as it attempted to challenge Sky, with doubts over whether they could continue to support the business and reasonably expect to see a return.

 

The company also looked for fresh external investors but, unsurprisingly given the current economic climate, is understood to have been left largely relying on its existing shareholders.

 

Setanta executives continue to hope that a radically redrawn business plan, with a more modest rights investment burden and a renewed focus on its position on the Freeview platform, will persuade them to keep faith with the business and agree a new funding round.

 

Then today..

 

Setanta opts for silence after defaulting on £3m payment | Football | The Guardian

 

Setanta opts for silence after defaulting on £3m payment

 

Ewan Murray The Guardian, Tuesday 2 June 2009

 

Fears intensified for the future of Setanta last night as it emerged it has defaulted on a payment to the Scottish Premier League. Sources north of the border have confirmed a routine payment to SPL clubs, thought to total about £3m, did not arrive as scheduled yesterday.

 

Neither the broadcaster nor the SPL would comment on the matter but it raises serious questions over the viability of Setanta's commitment to Scottish football and the other parts of its rights portfolio. Following a meeting in London, one source has revealed an email was sent to staff in Glasgow confirming the payment had not been made and that no comment was to be given under any *circumstances to the media.

 

Setanta has been thrown into turmoil following its failure to retain half of the 46 English Premier League games it will screen live until the end of next season. From 2010-11 it will show only 23 English top-flight matches a season. It has recently made payments as scheduled to the Football Association, with whom it has a deal for FA Cup and England matches, but is actively fresh seeking investment.

 

Setanta is about to enter the final season of a four-year SPL deal, worth £54.5m. A further agreement was reached last summer which saw the broadcaster agree to pay £125m to the SPL from the 2010-11 season for a deal until 2014.

 

A meeting between SPL clubs and Setanta early last month sought to secure a way forward as the broadcaster sought to renegotiate the terms of its wide-ranging sports coverage. The options suggested at that time were understood to be a cut of as much as £30m from the extended contract or a shortening of the deal by two years. No formal agreement has been reached, however, with news of the missed payment sure to prompt concern over whether Setanta can service the SPL at all.

 

Concern will also emanate from club boardrooms given the economic climate and it being a time in the year when no gate receipts are forthcoming. The mechanics of Setanta's SPL agreement involve 48% of monies split evenly with the remainder dependant on finishing league positions.

[hamstrung]

Good.

[neko]

praise be to allah - they have completely screwed us over in canada.

 

we used to have excellent, comprehensive coverage for free until they came along a couple of years ago. they bought the local rights in a devious backhanded deal and then turned around and started charging $15/month for the basically the same coverage we had before....for free.

[hamstrung]

I've long since accepted you have to pay, but their "service" is really bad.

[neko]

we were the envy of the world for free english premier league access, and it was better quality.

 

i too accept that seldom do things change for the better - especially concerning setanta.

[RSM]

If it means that those two clueless fuckheads Tim Sherwood and Craig Burley are out of a job, then it can only be good news.

[Liverpool lad]

Sherwood is shite as well

[Lupin]

If it means that those two clueless fuckheads Tim Sherwood and Craig Burley are out of a job, then it can only be good news.

 

That is the good side, deffo - the downside is where does this leave LFC TV?

[The Dude Abides]

I'm not surprised. Whenever they've shown a game on Setanta Ireland most of the ads were local businesses. Shite like Car Valeting and Tarot Card reading. They can't have been making much back on that side of things.

 

Think Setanta as a package is great personally. You get loads of Boxing, UFC, German, Dutch and South American football, LFC TV. Hopefully Serie A in the near future.

Edited June 2, 2009 by The Dude Abides

[Liverpool lad]

That is the good side, deffo - the downside is where does this leave LFC TV?

 

Probably doing more and more 'who was best Shankly or Paisley?' shows and re-runs of the 4-3 against Newcastle back in the 90's.

[discuit]

Wonder what this means for the LFC Tv Channel.

[Xherdan]

Agreed re: the advertising, they just werent getting the big boys in. Not sure about their viewing numbers.

 

I think it was good that they broke the Sky monopoly but it just meant that I am paying a lot more per month to have access to both packages. Burley and Sherwood are a pair of fucking tools though.

[Xherdan]

Probably doing more and more 'who was best Shankly or Paisley?' shows and re-runs of the 4-3 against Newcastle back in the 90's.

 

 

I still maintain that they should run more 'Liverpool' based shows as opposed to just keeping if LFC. Something like running Brookside would be ace!

[t1971]

Whilst i enjoy seeing a bit of competition for the cunts at Sky, Setanta are a total bunch of muppets and i wont be saddened to see them go. Actually that may be a bit harsh as they have a lot of good sport on, and i believe they also are responsible for our TV Channel?? But it will be good to get the 3 muppets of mcManaman, Sherwood and especially Burley off the air. Any company that thinks those 3 make good presenters / analysts is always going to be facing trouble.

[philyhamann]

Good, they were shit. How many times did games start glitching and freezing up?

[Liverpool lad]

I still maintain that they should run more 'Liverpool' based shows as opposed to just keeping if LFC. Something like running Brookside would be ace!

 

I think the club channel could be used to promote the city a bit more, and Brookside isn't the answer :whistle:

 

I reckon documentaries would be better, like the one they had on at Fact in December about fans perceptions and the importance of the club, but give some comparisons, and don't let Dave Kirby hijack it with his shite tales.

 

[YOUTUBE]jnn9CPbV6Rg[/YOUTUBE]

 

He was talking about the 1977 final the other week on the tele, and as much as I appreciate the background to the story and talk of the city, he seems a bit false in it all. Talking about working in a petrol and having a few fivers out the till, it wasn't necessary. It puts the city back 20 years listening to that.

[Xherdan]

Good, they were shit. How many times did games start glitching and freezing up?

 

 

We were there first live game back in 07/08 or was it 06/07, anyway, their first live match and the sound was fucked for half of it.

[Xherdan]

I think the club channel could be used to promote the city a bit more, and Brookside isn't the answer :whistle:

 

 

I agree with the documentary style programmes. Again, it doesnt have to be specifically about LFC but could also look at cultural, historical and economic programming relating to the city. I realise they have a pretty small budget to work on but they wont get viewing number up unless the quality of the prgramming improves.

[Liverpool lad]

I agree with the documentary style programmes. Again, it doesnt have to be specifically about LFC but could also look at cultural, historical and economic programming relating to the city. I realise they have a pretty small budget to work on but they wont get viewing number up unless the quality of the prgramming improves.

 

You are thinking along the same lines as me, I think what Alexi Sayle did last year was good and that wouldn't have cost a mint. Companies, Theatres, pubs, clubs, politicians, well known faces would be throwing themselves at the channel to promote themselves. And we have a huge fanbase who prehaps don't see Liverpool as it is now, but rather what it was portrayed by the media.

[Xherdan]

I agree. There is a massive target market there and all with a common theme. Coming off the setanta package may not be such a bad thing if they did try to become a little more mainstream.

[Liverpool lad]

I agree. There is a massive target market there and all with a common theme. Coming off the setanta package may not be such a bad thing if they did try to become a little more mainstream.

 

I am not sure mainstream is the word your looking for, but I am reading a book about Spanish football and its regional importance, it is so important to the people to have representation.

 

I think Liverpool fit the Spanish model quite well, because our own pride, our identity and being critical of recent governments. This is definitely an angle to explore and would be more interesting that Dave Kirby's petrol station exploits. This is something Brian Reade captures well in his book, the admiration supporters had for Shankly when he promised them the cup.

 

In summary, I think the LFC Channel would benefit from not viewing the football in isolation from the society that made it.

[coop]

I get Setanta free with Virgin so bit gutted as it means Sky will probably buy the rights and go back to the pay-per-view channels that they used to do.

[Xherdan]

By removing itself from the Setanta package and becoming freeview (aside from sky subscriptions) it would become mainstream, i.e. available to the general populous. In order for it to survive as a seperate, albeit intricaltely linked entity, it would need to appeal to a larger audience to generate advertising income.

 

Personally I think it would be a good investment for the club to hire a full time LFCTV CEO who has plenty of experience in television. It really could be a good income stream for the club if it was properly run and appealed to the tens of millions of LFC fans out there.

[aws]

Why couldn't lfctv just get itself on the sky platform instead of setanta?

[hamstrung]

I get Setanta free with Virgin so bit gutted as it means Sky will probably buy the rights and go back to the pay-per-view channels that they used to do.

 

I "preferred" that (not sure that is the right word). Flat £50 fee.