Sky refuses Setanta loan

SKY TELEVISION chiefs revealed last night they’ve refused a £50 million lifeline to stricken Irish broadcaster Setanta.

Sky’s chief executive Jeremy Darroch said they were “a broadcaster, not a bank” but insisted they had no wish to see Setanta go into administration.

Setanta had asked Sky for a £50m interest-free loan and in return offered access to the live rights to 46 Premier League games next season as an add-on option to Sky Sports.

Setanta is in crisis with a payment of more than £30m due to the Premier League this week and backers refusing to advance them any more money.

Darroch revealed yesterday: “Our job is not to fund other companies. We have been talking to Setanta, and trying to work with them and help them.

“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.”

Another broadcaster ESPN is favourite to step in and take over Setanta’s Premier League games if they go into administration. ESPN has refused to comment.

Meanwhile, Setanta’s subscription services for new customers became unavailable yesterday. Website applicants were flashed a message saying: “Oops! Something has gone wrong...”

Setanta’s customer services confirmed to callers new subscriptions were unavailable but they hoped the situation would have returned to normal today.

The Premier League should not be too badly affected should Setanta go into administration as they have only won one of the six live broadcast packages for the upcoming 2010 to 2013 period.

The Football Association, who have a £150m deal for England and FA Cup games with Setanta, and the Scottish Premier League have more significant problems however even though their agreements have been front-loaded in terms of cash being paid in advance.

Under a pre-arranged deal, ITV would take over the rights to up to eight England away friendlies for a pre-agreed sum.

The FA Cup would provide more problems but it is understood the FA would approach ITV in the first instance to see if they want to take over any live games.

If ITV were not interested, the FA would then approach other broadcasters – both terrestrial and subscription services.