Setanta TV deal offers SPL hope for future; Fans may suffer but

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Feb 15, 2004 | by Alan Campbell

IN a dreadful month for Scottish football, with Livingston becoming the third SPL club to go into administration and Dunfermline asking their players to take wage cuts, only a curmudgeon could fail to be cautiously pleased by the news that a better television deal is in the offing from Setanta Sport.

Unfortunately, there are many such creatures in and around the Scottish game. But cold logic dictates that the (pounds) 32m, four- year deal is the best our beleaguered clubs can expect.

With the prospect of a further (pounds) 20m from highlights on terrestrial television, plus radio and overseas rights, a product perceived as uncompetitive and flawed has increased its income. The (pounds) 52m package is more than was being offered by Sky two years ago, and considerably better than the (pounds) 18m, two-year deal coming to an end with BBC Scotland.

That, of course, depends on the BBC or Scottish Television buying into the highlights deal. But if the package goes through as anticipated, there is no reason why the SPL chairmen should not approve it on February 26.

None of this will particularly help the clubs - who, with the exception of Partick Thistle, have vast debts - reduce their long- term liabilities. Nor might it be enough to prevent more clubs plunging into administration before the season has ended. But at least it gives the main creditor, the Halifax Bank of Scotland, some comfort. If costs, in the shape of the unsustainable wages paid to players, can be reduced, the increased income gives some hope for the future.

The principal sufferers from the new deal will be supporters who cannot afford the (pounds) 7.95 Setanta, the Irish satellite company, charge for games. That, though, has to be regarded as an acceptable price to pay. The BBC Scotland contract has been a double whammy for the SPL, because not only has it been cut-price but supporters who might have gone to games have taken the option of watching for free at home.

The new deal will allow Dublin-based Setanta to show 38 live games a season. The company has promised to introduce monthly and season- long packages which will make the cost of individual games cheaper. The live games will be shown at 3pm each Sunday, no doubt to the ire of Old Firm fans whose games are certain to be most featured, and there will also be repeats and at least one weekly magazine programme.

The package is similar to that envisaged for SPL Television, the prospect of which caused football club chairmen to reject a (pounds) 40m offer from Sky two years ago.

The success of the venture will not so much depend on the product as on Setanta. Their existing coverage has been criticised as being amateurish, and the prospect of an ITV Digital scenario, with Setanta being forced by financial problems to pull out during the term of the contract, doesn't bear thinking about.

Setanta's partnership with the Glasgow-based production company Wark Clements, a highly professional and respected company which is putting money into the deal, has got to be welcomed.

Caution is obviously the key word, but at a time when they didn't have a lot to bring to the negotiating table this is surely good business for the Premierleague chairmen.