Setanta hot in hunt for piece of TV action
The dedicated sports broadcaster lost out in late 2007 when the bidding process saw the national station awarded with 40 championship fixtures and TV3 with a further 10.
Much has changed for Setanta in the meantime, however.
Only the Irish arm of the operation survived the loss of the English Premier League rights and subsequent decline into administration last year but Setanta Ireland chief executive Niall Cogley insists they will again be a player in the GAA market.
“I don’t see why not,” he remarked yesterday at the station’s launch of its Saturday night National League coverage. “The world has changed, it’s changed very dramatically for us over the past year, which has been pretty well documented. It’s also changed for all the other broadcasters too so we’d hope to be in there participating and we’ll have to wait and see what shape and timing the tender process takes.
“As you say, this is the last year of a three-year championship agreement. There’s another season after this on the league to run as part of the current agreement and, yeah, we’ll be involved in so far as we’re invited.”
As alluded to by Cogley, Setanta’s hasn’t been the only boat to fall with the economic tide in the last year or so, even if its troubles have been far more spectacular than any of its rivals. Taking that to it’s logical conclusion, it would appear that the GAA could lose millions on its next TV rights deal — the estimated worth of all its championship packages when the deals were announced in early 2008 was upwards of €20m.
Cogley, for one, can’t see those numbers being replicated.
“To be honest, I doubt it, but I really don’t know the reality of RTÉ’s income generation potential. Their model is very different to ours. Listening to the reports, they’ve been saying that they’ve had to cut €60m or €70m off their annual costs. That would seem to indicate that they’re going to be spending less on everything, just like everybody else is. It’s probably too early to predict how ambitious to spend broadcasters are going to be in 12 months’ time because, if it’s anything like the last 12 months, the world is going to be different again in 12 months’ time.”
The fact that Setanta seem set to bid again will, nevertheless, be good news for the GAA, as numbers tend to inflate when there are more companies in the chase. That was certainly the case when the previous deal was being considered.
RTÉ had enjoyed exclusive broadcasting rights for the two championships until the current system of various ‘packages’ was decided upon by Croke Park’s marketing department and the Donnybrook operation had to raise its game to counter the entry of TV3 and Setanta.
“Perhaps, again I don’t know what the outcome was because that, for obvious reasons, doesn’t get shared. We have to presume that one of the reasons that sports federations like to have a sports channel in the contest is that it gives an incentive to the incumbents and everyone else not to be too complacent. At the same time our relationship with the GAA is long. (Setanta have been broadcasting GAA games abroad for 20 years). We understand that there are complexities in the needs of the GAA and its members and organisation that need to be taken into account too.”
One of the complexities last time out saw the GAA earmark 10 championship games that had to be aired on terrestrial TV — All-Ireland and provincial finals, for example — which narrowed the scope for Setanta’s bid.
“You’d imagine that they’d be probably holding the same definitions or something similar,” said Cogley of the next bidding process. “It wouldn’t necessarily even preclude us from participating alongside another broadcaster, for example, but again it’s far too early to say what they will or won’t do. I’m sure they haven’t really thought about it themselves. I’m sure they’re really only going to spend some of this season taking some opinion from their own constituents.”
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