Setanta promises (pounds) 32m SPL television bid is not an own goal

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Feb 15, 2004 | by Arthur MacMillan

SENIOR figures at Setanta, the Irish media company behind a (pounds) 32 million television rights package aiming to provide a cash boost for Scottish football, insist that the deal will be a money-spinner.

The deal, which could be approved within a fortnight, is likely to see Scottish football fans paying (pounds) 7.99 per match if they want to see their side's live games over the next four years.

The Dublin-based satellite broadcaster was last week named as the Scottish Premier League's (SPL) preferred bidder for television rights. The deal will allow Setanta to exclusively broadcast 38 SPL live games per season on its pay-per-view channel, beginning later this year.

The SPL hopes to raise another (pounds) 2.5m per season from the sale of highlights to the BBC, a further (pounds) 1.5m per year from the sale of radio rights, and a further (pounds) 1m each year from the sale of overseas rights.

A senior insider at Setanta told the Sunday Herald: "We really think this deal is going to benefit Scottish football but it is a great deal for us and a logical progression for the company.

"The Celtic v Rangers games are obviously the big draw but we think we will make money from all 38 games."

Setanta has been in discussions with the SPL for months in an attempt to secure the television rights. The company has in fact already been broadcasting Scottish football in North America on its satellite channel for seven years, but has been criticised for poor production quality.

This helps explain why Wark Clements, the Glasgow-based television production company, is making a new move into sport by taking charge of SPL game presentation under the deal. The company, owned by Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark and her husband Alan Clements, has previously worked in factual, drama and children's programmes but it is also putting money into the (pounds) 32m plan.

"It is a joint Irish-Scottish bid. Not a 50-50 split but Wark Clements is our partner in this in every way. We are providing the sport and Wark Clements will handle the front end of the business," the Setanta insider said.

However, the deal is yet to be approved by SPL club chairmen and directors, who will meet on February 26 to ratify or reject it.

"We have been in talks for months but, at this stage, it is not a done deal," the Setanta insider added. "The SPL have been trying to maximise their revenue and we are well aware that they turned Sky down two years ago."

Given that the SPL's rebuttal of Sky's (pounds) 40m offer in 2002 is considered a major factor in many clubs' current financial misfortune, few predict that Scottish clubs would make the same mistake twice.

At the time, the SPL had wanted to launch their own television channel but the plan was later abandoned and the BBC paid just (pounds) 18m over two years to broadcast live games. Motherwell, Dundee and Livingston are currently in administration and have been forced to sack players, while Dunfermline has asked players to take pay cuts.

The Setanta insider refused to go into detail about the exact costs involved in subscribing to the channel but it is thought that the company will introduce a range of packages including single games, monthly and season-long television "season tickets". As well as showing a live game at 3pm each Sunday, there will be at least one weekly SPL news and analysis programme on the channel throughout the week.

Although until this week relatively unknown, Setanta already shows 10 live SPL games per season, while the BBC has 38. Setanta Sport was formed by Irishmen Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan in 1992. It is a global sports broadcaster with offices in Dublin, London, San Francisco and Sydney. For the past seven years it has broadcast Celtic and Rangers games in North America, cashing in on the exiled football fan market. Turnover for 2003 is thought to have exceeded (euros)23m.

O'Rourke and Ryan have successfully bought up rights to North American baseball and basketball, but have been careful not to mix it with media giants Sky, Fox and ESPN. They founded the business when during the 1990 World Cup they discovered that Irish fans could not access the games. They then struck a deal with a German broadcaster and screened the games in Kilburn, a prominent Irish area of north London.

Unsurprisingly, given that neither the BBC nor ITV showed Ireland's group game with Holland, more than 1000 people turned up through word of mouth. In the years that followed Ireland's qualification games were added, as was rugby.

Setanta also owns the North American Sports Network (NASN), an all- American sports channel available to exiled Americans - available on Sky Digital in Ireland and Britain. It also has a stake in NewsTalk 106, the radio station.

The company also makes television programmes for RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster and provides SMS sport text alerts for mobile phones.

Last month Setanta secured the rights to broadcast World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) events on a pay-per view basis in Britain and Ireland. The rights were previously held by Sky.