Setanta plan following loss of prem rights?

[chinny]

Setanta have only won one of the six premier league packages from 2010 to 2013. They currently have two. The only one they retain is Satuday late afternoon games.
Lets face it the vast majority of paying setanta subscribers pay for the footy, and mainly prem league.
I just wonder if this will have a major impact on Setanta’s plans over the next few years.
They are largely backed by venture capital firms who are looking to grow the value of the business and will eventually look to sell the business at a nice profit.
Perhaps this means significantly more cash will be available in their budget for other sports. Hopefully boxing.
Conversely, we might see Sky Sports (who snatched Monday night package from Setanta) scale down their boxing coverage even more.

Any other opinions or interest in this?

[Billy_Boy]

After Football, is Boxing Setanta's second biggest draw for subscribers? Considering the amount of Golf they show, I wouldn't be convinced it was.

In theory, the extra money the loss of part of its Premier league rights frees up could go (on among other things, I'm sure) a few extra boxing bouts. Sky's current boxing coverage is generally quite poor IMO but they do seem to have most of the British/Commonwealth level fights which, if not mis-matched, can make for very good viewing.

The bottom line, I think, will be which promoter's shows they air. Personally, (as a Freeview Setanta subscriber) I would like to see their existing coverage include more decent level domestic boxing. There'll be a clamour for TV rights with so many of the recent amateurs/Olympians signing pro deals and I'd be surprised if Setanta didn't dip their hands in their pockets to entice more big name UK promoters to its ranks.

Perhaps you could email Buncey.

[leforge]

Setanta needed to retain premier rights for business model. It wont effect them for another year or so then they may lose football customers.

[MR UNTOUCHABLE]

I cancelled mine last month.

Other than the odd decent prem game I think it's poor.

No domestic boxing, US ones at 4 in the morning, blue square footy and loads of golf (I HATE golf!).

I don't think it's VFM.

[chinny]

I cancelled mine last month.
No domestic boxing, US ones at 4 in the morning, blue square footy and loads of golf (I HATE golf!).
I don't think it's VFM.

What you think setanta should arrange for Showtime, HBO and the casinos to reschedule those big US fights for 3pm so we can watch at prime time live in the uk?
Setanta is essential for boxing fans IMO

[steve689]

Setanta is good value for Boxing fans and the footy thrown in keeps my subscription going :surprised:

[Poncey]

Setanta is good value for Boxing fans and the footy thrown in keeps my subscription going :surprised:

x2

[winkveron]

I only subscribe for the boxing. Rarely watch football on it. Plus with all the repeats on a Sunday even if you can't stay up for the fight you don't have to miss it. That's one criticism of Sky Sports. I work Friday nights so can never watch Friday Fight Night and they only have one repeat at like 8am on the Saturday. Whereas Setanta always have 3 or 4 repeats during the day on a Sunday.

[leforge]

http://www.scenta.co.uk/sport/news/cit/ ... -value.htm

Interesting article.

[The-Artist]

When i first starting subscribing it was for the football more than the boxing, but after having setanta for a year i'd be lost without their boxing coverage! Unfortunately, when they lose some prem matches, they'll have less money for boxing rights as subscriptions decrease along with the price, but hopefully the fees demanded for the fights will decrease too as setanta won't be able to splash the cash as much!

[junior pepa seed]

Setanta is good value for Boxing fans and the footy thrown in keeps my subscription going :surprised:

x2

X3

On top of that you have steve bunce boxin hour every wk...where else do you get a weekly show dedicated to boxing?
Skys boxing is shockin...a gd fight comin this wk but even their ppv are shit vfm.
Also ufc live coverage is a big one for me I think the ch offers summin different to skys wwe, darts footy and rugby
What's a tenner a month for fights like jennings v cotto, rubio v pavlik,sugar shane v margz...hayemaker are down too.
All of those fights on sky would prob be ppv and cost 15quid just for one of them.

[banjo]

Sky used to be fantastic for boxing especially from summer '05 to summer '08

Now though it is shocking and that Clark fella is awful compared to Paul Dempsey.

Great thing about setanta is numerous reruns of fights so you don't have to stay up until stupid o'clock to watch it.

[DavidPayne]

x4.

[Chambers2]

x6

[twenty six]

The Artist,
I agree with what you've said, but you haven't factored in the amount Setanta were bidding for the footie.
Assuming they did have that money, and now can't spend it on footie, maybe they'll invest more in boxing ?
By the way I am told by a good friend who is rarely wrong, that footie negotiations have reopened with Setanta.

[deadpan]

x7

I like the football matters show with James Richardson as well. He's the anti-Motson.

[chinny]

On top of that you have steve bunce boxin hour every wk...where else do you get a weekly show dedicated to boxing?

Just a point of detail but you don't have to subcribe to get the Bunce hour as it's on the 'free' news channel.

[The-Artist]

The Artist,
I agree with what you've said, but you haven't factored in the amount Setanta were bidding for the footie.
Assuming they did have that money, and now can't spend it on footie, maybe they'll invest more in boxing ?
By the way I am told by a good friend who is rarely wrong, that footie negotiations have reopened with Setanta.

Fair point mate, lets just hope setanta pull something out the bag, because the bottom line is, that if the loss of some of the football is going to affect the boxing, we'll all be gutted.

[twenty six]

Amen to that mate.

[leforge]

The thing is I don't reckon the susbcriber losses will be as big as expected, people are still going to want to watch the FA cup and other premier league games. I have read they may shut news channel as this was only introduced when virgin had bust up with sky. I think the boxing great on Setanta.

[Chambers2]

Setanta should forget about the other Premier league package and invest the gazillions into Hayemaker Promotions and also buy ITV's contract with Meaty Mick and invest heavily in him as well........ but I may be abit biassed

[banjo]

Thing is the likes of Sky and Setanta have to get as much football as possible if they want any viewers, seeing as football is by far the most popular sport in Britain they'd be better off getting as much football as possible thus enticing more viewers and then more money would be available to spend on other sports.

[Chambers2]

Thing is the likes of Sky and Setanta have to get as much football as possible if they want any viewers, seeing as football is by far the most popular sport in Britain they'd be better off getting as much football as possible thus enticing more viewers and then more money would be available to spend on other sports.

It's a decent argument and you could well be right, but the prices for a Premier League football package is astronomical. Would many people drop there Setanta subscription, because they've gone down from 1 package to 2?

bit more info

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 45159.html

........

Under the current deal (2007-10), the Ireland-based pay-TV operator Setanta owns the rights to the two packages not held by Sky, and it is believed that Setanta again made a competitive bid for the same packages for 2010-13. But it is not certain whether Setanta's bid matched the £392m it paid for two packages last time, nor whether Setanta had any rival bidders.

It was widely anticipated that the Disney-owned American sports network ESPN would enter the market for UK rights, and a second round of bidding for the remaining packages can mean only one of three things.

Either the rights did not attract much competition at all, and therefore did not meet an undisclosed "reserve price" that the Premier League is able to set, and thus the League has opening a second round of bidding to squeeze out higher bids.

Scenario two is that Setanta had a serious rival, and the respective offers from the bidding broadcasters were within 10 per cent of each other in value. If that was the case, the League – or more specifically its chief executive, Richard Scudamore – would have ordered that the bidding companies re-submit their offers.

Scenario three is that Setanta and ESPN were bidding together, or rather that one firm was fronting a bid on behalf of both in anticipation of some kind of partnership or merger, and there were unsubstantiated suggestions this was causing delays. However, one source told The Independent this was not the case, and suggested that ESPN had not made a serious bid at all. Some of ESPN's key executives scheduled this week to take part of their annual leave, which hardly suggests they were preparing for the celebration of the acquisition of a share of the most valuable sports rights anywhere on the planet outside of America's NFL.

As The Independent revealed at the time, the League sent out its tender documents for the rights back in December. Interested parties had until 11am yesterday morning to submit their sealed bids to the City offices of the accountants KPMG, where Scudamore and his team of rights' sellers from the League spend much of yesterday pouring over the fine print of the offers and weighing up the bids.

The League made £2.7bn from all media rights for the seasons 2007-10, £1.7bn from live domestic rights (£1.3bn from Sky, £0.4bn from Setanta), £650m from overseas rights and the balance from highlights deals including with the BBC for Match of the Day, which was renegotiated last week for 2010-13 at a marginally higher price than 2007-10.

Recession? What recession?

[REAL_DEAL]

Enders Analysis has warned that Setanta may not survive after losing a package of live Premier League coverage rights to Sky last week.

On Monday, it emerged that Setanta was seeking to secure £159m in new funding to attempt to buy the package, or the rights to some of the matches in it, back from Sky. Further press reports today suggest that the broadcaster plans to meet with the Premier League in a bid to secure a deal to restore effectively half its Premier League output.

Enders said that Setanta currently reaches 1.5m subscribers, "slightly short of its required break-even total" of between 1.7-1.8m, assuming £10m in annual revenues per 100,000 subscribers.

"We... envisage mass subscriber defections," Enders warned. "With live Premier League football such a jewel in its crown, the fear is that Setanta could easily lose upwards of a third of its current subscriber base. At the very least it has to review its entire business plan and survival cannot be taken for granted."

However, it added that "many diehard sports fans will still want Setanta even with a reduced Premier League offering", and suggested that the combination of reduced rights payments and a fan base who may be willing to continue to pay for the service "may actually prove positive".

A spokesperson for Setanta said that the broadcaster "retains the rights to show 46 Premier League games per season until the end of 2009-10 along with a host of other top-class sport

[Old bones Ian]

Interesting article on Setanta. Looks like the future might not be so good.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... ier-league