ESPN Win Premier League Broadcasting Rights
American Network Receives 46 Live English Football Games
Jun 23, 2009
Irish Broadcaster Setanta has gone into administration after missing a payment deadline to the Premier League expected to be in the region of 10 million.
Losses Of 100 Million a Year
Its network coverage to Great Britain ended on Tuesday afternoon at 16:00 after accumulating losses of 100 million a year to plummet the channel into disarray and leaves 200 employees redundant.
ESPN Will Broadcast 46 Live Games Next Season
Subsequently, the 46 live Premier League football games that Setanta were going to broadcast next campaign have been snapped up by Disney-owned American network channel, ESPN, which includes Saturday evening fixtures and the Monday night matches. ESPN have also won 23 of the games that Setanta were going to feature for the seasons starting from 2010 to 2013.
ESPN Could Receive Even More Fixtures
The Football Association are now seeking new rights deals for fixtures valued at 100 million involving the Community Shield, various England encounters and several FA Cup games. ESPN and BSkyB are expected to compete fiercely for these deals but EU Legislation restricts networks possessing all the rights which paves the way for ESPN as Sky already have a considerable monopoly within the Industry.
If ESPN do receive more contractually binding broadcasting deals it will be superb news for the Sports channel, as it is already the first American network to own the rights to show live English Premier League games.
"Great Credit to ESPN", Richard Scudamore, Premier League Chief Executive
Richard Scudamore, the English Premier League’s Chief Executive, has said that “it is to the great credit of ESPN that they have committed themselves adding the Barclay’s Premier League to their already impressive portfolio of sports rights”. Adding England games to their network would surely mean an early staff party at the headquarters of the Entertainment Sports Programming Network.
"Sad Day for All Concerned", Sir Robin Miller, Chairman Of Setanta
However, these are disastrous revelations for the once so optimistic and dominant Setanta. Sir Robin Miller, Chairman of Setanta, conceded that it was a “sad day for all concerned”.
Indeed the saddest for the two entrepreneurial Irish brothers who came up with the idea for Setanta, initially starting out by covering the Scottish games, then broadening to England internationals and finally stretching as far as “low key” Premier League fixtures.
In fact, the siblings had ambitions of making Setanta a power house in the world of Sports broadcasting but the “highly competitive market” means that it has been impossible “to find sufficient additional funds in the time available to ensure its survival”.
Setanta's Ambitions Struck Down
So Setanta’s ambitions have been struck down but they did themselves no favours. Only months ago they argued with leading British broadcasters, most notably ITV and Sky, with respect to showing England highlights with Setanta wanting to keep their rights absolutely exclusive.
However, this move failed to attract more viewers and with it brought fewer friends with ITV eventually being granted rights to show highlights and thus tarnishing Setanta’s reputation as a greedy, selfish and sub standard broadcaster.
This next saga only makes matters worse, with contracts with the Indian Premier League (the lucrative cricket tournament) and the Scottish Premier League being thrown into the mire.
ESPN a Global Sports Broadcasting Powerhouse
What is clear is that ESPN have now moved from being an NBA, NFL loving American channel to being the most powerful all round Sports Broadcasting network in the world.
