Setanta selling NASN to ESPN for €80m

Pay-television group Setanta Sports and Benchmark Capital Europe have agreed to sell their jointly owned North American Sports Network (NASN) to multimedia sports entertainment company ESPN for €80-€90 million, including debt.

NASN is the only network in Europe completely dedicated to North American Sports, airing more than 800 live and as-live sports events each year, including ice hockey and American football. It reaches more than 6 million households in 26 European countries.

Setanta was a launch investor in NASN in October 2002 along with Vulcan European Media. In June 2005, Vulcan sold out to Setanta which then sold a 50 per cent interest to venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Europe.

The sale is expected to close early next year subject to regulatory approvals.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed but informed sources confirmed the deal was worth around €80-€90 million.

Proceeds from the deal will go towards helping Setanta to finance its acquisition of live English Premiership soccer and PGA golf rights.

The group, which is controlled by co-founders Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke, is also understood to be in the final stages of fundraising at least €300 million for the same purpose.

Last April the group won the rights to screen Monday and Saturday games in Britain for three years from August 2007 in a deal that cost €574 million, or more than €4 million for each of the 46 games it will screen.

It later won the rights to screen one-third of all Premiership soccer matches shown in the Republic in the same period in a €40 million deal.

The British and Irish rights for PGA golf are believed to have been acquired at a cost of some €150 million. The rights were previously held by Sky Sports.

Setanta employs 150 staff in seven channels with operations in Dublin, London, Glasgow and San Francisco. It has an Irish channel on the NTL platform, broadcasting GAA, the Scottish and English soccer premierships and Formula One motor racing.

Two of its channels in Britain on the Sky platform broadcast Scottish soccer and premier league soccer from France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.