Sports broadcaster has something to cheer about
Ciarán Hancock
Business Affairs Correspondent
ONE MORE THING : HAVING NEARLY gone bust in 2009, Setanta Sports now has something to cheer about in Ireland. Latest abridged accounts show that it netted a small profit in 2010, the year after its main holding company in Britain was placed into receivership.
The surplus recorded by Setanta Sport Channel Ireland Ltd, which is involved in the production of the two pay television channels broadcast here, might only have been modest at €55,000 but it’s mightily important for a company that dropped €6.9 million a year earlier.
Chief executive Colin Morgan told me that 2011 was a “difficult market” for Setanta, as it was for all Irish media companies. Costs associated with a restructuring of the business last year will “probably” result in a “small loss” being recorded.
With no sign of a recovery in the economy, Morgan expects 2012 to be another tough year but is hopeful that the company can be “slightly profitable”. Morgan was elevated to the board of Setanta last October.
Setanta’s line-up includes live English Premier League football, GAA and Formula One.
The abridged accounts don’t detail a turnover figure but say it rose by 5 per cent in the year. In 2009, when its UK business collapsed, turnover had halved to €18 million.
The latest accounts state gross profit at €3.37 million and administrative expenses at €3.31 million. The accumulated losses were reduced marginally to €41.8 million.
Setanta’s Irish business is now wholly owned by co-founder Michael O’Rourke, who last year bought out his fellow shareholders. These included fellow co-founder Leonard Ryan, long-time business associate Mark O’Meara and concert promoter Denis Desmond, who had helped to rescue Setanta’s Irish business in 2009. O’Rourke, Ryan and O’Meara continue to work together, and the last two have interests in other Setanta businesses outside Ireland.
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