IRISH PAY television broadcaster Setanta Sports yesterday lodged a bid for rights to show live English Premier League football for three years from the beginning of the 2011/12 season.
The Irish broadcaster is believed to have pitched to retain the two sets of live rights that it currently owns. These packages comprise 23 matches each and cost Setanta £392 million (€433.8 million) to secure in the last round of bidding.
Setanta is expected to have to pay at least the same again. The Dublin-based company, founded by Irishmen Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke, is likely to tap existing shareholders and potential new investors for the funds to secure the rights.
The deadline for bids was extended yesterday to 3pm due to the inclement weather. Sources indicated that the Premier League might announce the winner of some of the packages as early as today.
Other packages are likely to go to a second and possibly third round of bidding.
Setanta is believed to be in competition with Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Sports and possibly the Disney-owned sports channel ESPN.
The English Premier League has offered six live packages, each comprising 23 live matches. No one broadcaster is allowed to own more than five of the packages under rules agreed with the European Commission.
Sky currently holds four live packages, with Setanta owning two.
Sky’s rights, which cost £1.3 billion, include access to matches between the league’s big four – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
US-based ESPN is rumoured to be keen to secure some live English Premier League soccer to use as a platform for a European-based sports channel.
It is not clear if any of the UK terrestrial TV channels – BBC, ITV, Channel Four and Five – has bid for live rights.
The BBC recently renewed its deal with the Premier League to show highlights on its popular Match of the Day programmes.
Setanta pulled off a coup in 2006 by breaking Sky’s monopoly on live Premier League rights.
It began showing live matches at the start of the 2007/08 season and has won plaudits for its coverage.
Setanta also owns the rights to show live games on a Saturday afternoon in Ireland. These rights will also be up for grabs in the near future.
Setanta also holds live rights to the FA Cup and England inter-nationals in a joint deal with ITV.
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