Setanta Sports Rebranding As ESPN UK?

espn uk

Irish based Setanta Sports faces administration “within days” unless backers provide more funds to pay £30m+ the company owes in television rights money, reports have suggested.

The broadcaster has already failed to pay the Scottish Premier League £3m with £30m also owed to the English Premier League.

If Setanta does collapse there will be a scramble to acquire its many rights, with ESPN seemingly poised to make inroads to the UK football broadcasting market.

Setanta started life 19 years ago in an Irish dance hall in west London, showing the Republic of Ireland’s 1990 World Cup game against Holland after the BBC and ITV declined to broadcast the game in the UK.

It’s two Irish founders, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, managed to break even after 1,000 Irish fans turned up to watch the game.

In recent years the company has acquired the UK and Ireland rights to many major sporting event such as football, cricket, golf, boxing and rugby union, however, it only has 1.2million subscribers and needs 1.9 to break even.

Posted on June 9, 2009 | Filed Under Sport