Setanta Death Watch Starts Up Again
June 21, 2009
UFC UK broacaster had seemed to have been given something of a reprieve in the days leading up to UFC 99. The UFC 99 event was touch and go to even be carried on Setanta, as the broadcaster was thought to possibly not even make it out of the week leading up to the event. Talks with Russian American billionaire Len Blavatnik as well Dutch entertainment company Endemol were thought to give the company a lifeline to better days ahead. Two bits of recent news reported by the Financial Times may signal a death knell for the company:
Setanta edged one step closer to administration last night after it missed its deadline to make a £10m payment to the Premier League, triggering a loss of its rights to broadcast football fixtures next season.
The troubled broadcaster has been locked in survival talks with investors all week and had even explored the possibility of a merger with TopUp TV, the pay-television company, in an attempt to save itself from administration. Len Blavatnik, TopUp’s owner with a shareholding of about 70 per cent, approached Setanta last week and offered £20m for control of the company.
A statement from Mr Blavatnik’s company Access Industries said that the company was disappointed not “to have been able to make this deal happen” but would “continue to explore opportunities in this area”.
The loss of the EPL will be key here, as it is the crown jewel of Setanta’s programming. It was used as the driver for new subscriptions (before they subs were recently frozen), and with the loss of the EPL package they should see a large defection in their subscriber base, if their financial troubles haven’t done that already. That subscriber loss will make the company vastly less attractive to the likes of Blavatnik and Endemol. That snowball effect make the outlook for Setanta bleak. The UFC were exploring other options in the lead up to UFC 99, and other UK broadcasters like Sky, Virgin, and Bravo are the most likely options for the UFC at this point.
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