Setanta Edges Closer to Administration

[The RealDeal]

D-Day For Setanta After Last-Ditch Meetings

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/090610/140/imcam.html

"At the end of the day we are not a bank, we are a broadcaster, not a supplier of working capital to a business and rights holder.

"Our job is not to fund other companies. This is a huge amount of money."

Setanta fights for its life as sports await fate

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/548...wait-fate.html

This massive fund-raising program was required to underwrite future rights commitments of £666million

666 ? haha looks like Setanta done a deal with the devil and hes come to collect their soul.

[Savino]

reports in the Mirror before is that ESPN are lookin at buyin the rights for the football and Setanta and everything else it owns and just call it ESPN Setanta UK.

[D-MiZe]

reports in the Mirror before is that ESPN are lookin at buyin the rights for the football and Setanta and everything else it owns and just call it ESPN Setanta UK.

Lol.

They should just call it ESPN UK.

[Savino]

Lol.

They should just call it ESPN UK.

agreed. ESPN Setanta UK just sounds ****.

[The RealDeal]

ESPN EUROPE ?

[The RealDeal]

Setanta stops signing new subscribers


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090610...r-fe50bdd.html

2 hours 37 mins ago

''As has been widely reported in various media channels, the management of Setanta Sports is in the process of attempting to secure the future of the business," it said on its Web site.

"The company has not gone into administration. All our channels are still broadcasting across all platforms and our subscribers can continue to enjoy our programming.

"However, in the current circumstances, we have decided to suspend temporarily the acceptance of new subscriptions." Rescue talks are being led by its founders Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, who started the business after charging fans to show an Irish World Cup match which was not available on British channels in a pub in London in 1990.

It grew quickly, acquiring the rights to show sports around the world from soccer to boxing, cricket and golf and is now struggling to meet the payments. The group has 1.2 million direct subscribers and needs around 1.9 million to break even according to analysts

BSkyB could acquire some rights, although not all due to competition rules, while Disney's sports service ESPN could be interested again after failing at the previous auction.

Setanta is a privately backed company whose shareholders include its management team and institutional investors.

I think they will go bust then ESPN will let SKY take the Football and they hoover up all the rest.

Racing UK and NASN American Sports is part of Setanta as well.

[RenegadeT]

ESPN: "No current plans" for Setanta bid

ESPN has dismissed press speculation that it is considering making a bid for Setanta, saying it has "no current plans" to acquire the ailing sports broadcaster.

The Disney-owned sports network has its ESPN America channel distributed by Setanta in Britain and lost out to Setanta when it bid for Premier League rights earlier this year. It had been seen as a potential buyer of the business, and press reports had indicated Setanta had mulled selling an equity stake to ESPN to plug its £50m funding gap.

"We currently have no plans to buy Setanta," an ESPN spokesperson said. "There are a lot of stories out there that link ESPN with a possible purchase. We wanted to set the record straight."

ESPN would not be drawn on whether it was interested in the various rights packages currently held by Setanta in the event that it went into administration.

[The RealDeal]

Ahhh well.


Fingers crossed someone decent does something to save our boxing.

[The RealDeal]

I still can't see a rescue package happening.

I think they will go into liquidation and Sky Sports will buy up all the Football, BBC will buy PGA Golf, Bravo will buy back UFC and Boxing will go to the highest bidder, either SKY or BBC or a new change of heart ITV.


Only other option for boxing is ****** Media taking an interest or someone like ESPN buying the Boxing rights and making a channel here that won't include football.


Only time will tell, let the truth set itself free....

[The RealDeal]

Today I had to factory reset and rescan my Cable Box due to alot of channels going missing.

After I sorted it all out I got all my channels back plus some I had not had in a long while.

The funny thing is I did notice one channel was missing but I also found a new one which has made up for it....

I have lost a sports channel called NASN - American Sports which was owned by SETANTA and I have found a (new ?) channel called ESP AMERICA.

Is this what I think it is or has ESPN AMERICA been around for awhile and my Box just didn't find it before ?