Setanta Pays Deposit Despite Appeal

Media reports claim that Setanta Sports has put down a deposit of between 3-5% of its new live TV rights contract with the Premier League although it is planning to appeal to European regulators after it lost one of its two packages of rights to the top-flight during the bidding process.

The Premier League is believed to have received deposits from both pay TV broadcasters Sky and Setanta guaranteeing the packages they won in a £1.623bn auction for live TV rights from 2010.

The new three-year deals saw Sky picking up five of the six available packages covering 115 live games with Setanta securing a solitary package covering 23 matches.

Sky is unable to hold all six packages to live Premier League rights in the UK under an anti-competitive behaviour ruling from the European Commission.

Analysts have forecast that Setanta will struggle to retain subscribers following the loss of its second package of Premier League rights leaving the future of its business model in doubt.

Setanta executives were believed to be shocked at the outcome of the auction, despite reportedly submitting bids that were around 20% lower than the £392m they currently pay for the two packages.

Balderton Capital, one of its major shareholders, has vowed to ‘lobby every single group’ after failing to persuade the Premier League and Sky to reopen the auction process or sub-license the matches.

UK media regulator Ofcom is conducting an ongoing review of the pay TV marketplace, while the European Commission will re-open negotiations with the Premier League later this year.

The 2010-2013 Premier League contracts represent the second half of a six-year deal agreed between EC competition authorities and the League, which guaranteed that the rights must go to more than one bidder.