Setanta may challenge Sky for Premiership

MEDIA group Setanta is said to be in talks with British cable firm Telewest in a bid to prise the television rights for Premier League football from Sky Sports.

Sky’s exclusive deal to show live Premier League games ends in 2008 and Setanta is believed to be working on a bid with Telewest for some of the rights, London’s Observer newspaper has reported.

Setanta recently poached Trevor East, the deputy managing director of BSkyB, in what is seen as the start of the company’s bid to snatch the Premier League rights.

Setanta’s non-executive director Richard Brooke (a former finance director of Sky) has stepped into a day-to-day role at the company.

It is unclear how a deal between Setanta and Telewest would be structured. Setanta, although growing quickly, is a minnow compared to Telewest, which is valued at several billion. The Observer speculated that Telewest could take an equity stake in the Irish company.

A spokesman for Setanta Sports declined to comment yesterday.

The European Commission has indicated that it wants another broadcaster to show some of the Premiership matches as it believes that Sky’s deal is anti-competitive. This could open the way for the Premier League to divide its live football into packages, giving Setanta a chance of securing some rights. It already broadcasts Scottish, French, Spanish and German football.

Sky have held the exclusive rights to broadcast English football for more than a decade and spent more than €1.3 billion to secure them last time out.