Setanta considers options as British division set to go into administration

THE board of Setanta Sports was remaining silent over the company’s future yesterday – repeating the line that it was still considering its options – but it now looks certain that the core British division of the broadcasting group will, as expected, go into administration later this week.

That is likely to trigger a selloff of its still-profitable Irish and international divisions, a long since mooted move, with businessman Denis Desmond believed to be at the head of the line of interested parties, for the Irish business.

Setanta’s board was locked in a series of management meetings yesterday, following a disastrous end to last week. The ailing broadcaster finally unravelled after it failed to meet the second of three payment deadlines for transmission rights for English Premiership football for next season – the final season for which it still had its full allocation of 46 live games.

The English Premier League – which is still owed about £25m (€29.5m) in unpaid transmission rights fees by Setanta – has put those live games out to tender, as a result. And, yesterday, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) – to which Setanta owes £3m in rights fees – said that the broadcaster had failed to meet its extended deadline, adding that it is now “actively engaging in the process of selling our domestic broadcasting rights for next season and beyond”.

Setanta’s main problems stemmed from it ending up paying out more for transmission rights than it was taking in from subscribers. It is thought that the company needed at least 1.9 million subscribers to break even financially, but although it had reached around 1.5 million, that figure had recently dropped to nearer to 1.2 million.

Setanta’s proposed £50m rescue package – led by Russian financier Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries vehicle – came to nothing on Friday.

A further announcement was made yesterday postponing the draw for this year’s Setanta Sports Cup – which had been scheduled for Thursday.