Didn't Sportsnet show some rugby up until Setanta came around? I can't remember what league it was, but I seem to remember rugby on Sportsnet.

My biggest beef with Sentanta is forcing people to go to bars to watch their national soccer team play.

Anyways companies should be held accountable for their actions.

Yep, no love for Sentanta from me. Over priced for what it is. I will gladley pay what it costs to ge Fox Sports or Gol Tv, but not $15 a month. I dont have time to watch 8 EPL games a weekend. I just want to watch the big games and Chelsea, so at most 2 per week! I was better off before Sentanta.

I expect more HD without Sentanta around also. Score is often HD and Sportsnet also. I imagine Sportsnet can pick up Sentanta's Canadian rights at fraction of the cost. I dont see Sentanta pulling out of this given the economic climate. They are trying to be an HBO/movie channel of sports but dont offer anything close to that, and dont have ad revenue like ESPN or TSN does. Failed model and I always thought it was doomed.

Didn't Sportsnet show some rugby up until Setanta came around? I can't remember what league it was, but I seem to remember rugby on Sportsnet.Sportsnet showed some World Cup games and the odd Canadian national team match. Setanta will often show 6 games on a weekend, starting with Super 14 games from Aus/NZ/SA on Friday.

The Scottish Premier League has agreed to a reduction in rights revenue from Setanta: http://www.eufootball.biz/Television/7077-spl_agrees_reduce_setanta_payment.html

Frankly, I don't think the SPL had much of a choice. if Setanta collapses they'll lose out as there is no way Sky will fork out that kind of money for Scottish football as they're surviving well without it. IPL cricket (20/20) has also indicated they'd accept a reduction. I think I also read somewhere - can't find it at the moment - that PGA golf in the US will also be flexible. (Setanta covers it live for the UK and Ireland where the network also has an all golf channel).

The problem appears to be the English Premiership and FA. It's been reported that the EPL has refused to give Setanta an extension on the €60 installment payment that is due this month. Setanta also owe the FA €39 this Friday - presumably for FA Cup and League (ie Carling) Cup. More at this link to the Irish Examiner: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/snkfojeyey/rss2/

Andrew - did you drop a suffix on your payment amounts? Certainly €60 is not too hard for Setanta to come up with - that is only 100 bucks Canadian. Did you mean €60 million?

Ha! Yes, I meant €60 million and €39m respectively. Although they are in just about every home in the Rep. of Ireland there are fewer than 5 million people there: slightly more than the GTA. In the UK they are said to need 1.7 million subscribers to break even. At present they have 1.2 million. I don't know if that 1.2 million includes all the people who are getting it virtually for free - they have normal advertising on the channel over there with a much greater audience (ie more revenue than just subscriber fees*), unlike here where they keep showing the same 4 or 5 commercials to the few thousand who are tuned in at any given time.

* Unless the advertising revenue mostly goes to the 'platform' (cable, satellite company) they are on leaving Setanta with mostly just subscription revenue.

When I visited the UK earlier this year an English relative of mine had just dropped the expensive Sky satellite in favour of a new BT (British Telecom) TV package which is bundled with the telephone service. Instead of having the usual couple hundred channels he's now down to, I think, 40 or 50, without the main Sky Sports channels or Eurosport. Compensation for losing the very popular Sky Sports package is that you get the main Setanta channel, Setanta 1, pretty much for free for the year. (I don't know if that's a permanent feature of BT or just a temporary incentive to get new subscribers). Since this relative had Sky mostly for rugby league (not as well covered as it used to be) and MotoGP (now on BBC) he figured it was worth changing and still getting some EPL on Setanta for much less money. Another relative in Northern Ireland (which counts as UK as far as TV rights go) who only likes EPL and to a lesser extent SPL, was trying to decide whether to do the same thing, then the news came that Setanta had lost the rights to some of its EPL from 2010 onward, leaving it with only the late Saturday match (12.15pm Canadian EST). So for people over there it is an awkward (and expensive) situation as in order to get what we get from Setanta (one subscription) plus The Score (basic sports package) they need to get two separate subscriptions to get both Sky and Setanta. With many in the UK trying to cut TV spending this is bad time for Setanta to be desperately trying to get new subscribers. This is especially so if Setanta isn't getting much revenue from ads.

I think that there is less of a culture in Europe/UK of paying for TV. Here in North America it is not unusual to pay from $50-$100 every month for cable or satellite. But that is much less prevalent in the UK as cable/Sky have not been around for all that long in these markets whereas we have had cable in Canada for over 50 years. My wife's UK relatives just use OTA and only get 5 channels or so - I personally find that hard to imagine.

I see no use for Setanta here. Let it die and then we will have more EPL for less money and in HD.

I see no use for Setanta here. Let it die and then we will have more EPL for less money and in HD.Fine if you only watch EPL. If Setanta goes then so will all of the rugby games and they won't show up anywhere else unless you count paying even more for a web streaming service at a lower quality.

I see no use for Setanta here. Let it die and then we will have more EPL for less money and in HD.
Care to share your inside info that permits such a bold claim? :rolleyes:

I see no use for Setanta here. Let it die and then we will have more EPL for less money and in HD.
Just where do you get the idea that you'll get more EPL for less money? Actually how could you get MORE EPL than we get now, since we get virtually every game? Setanta sports isn't just about EPL or soccer for that matter. I guess the rugby and Aussie Rules fans don't concern you.

You would actually get less Premier League, for less money. Which would be fine with me. I'd love to go back to having a tripleheader on Sportsnet on Saturday, then the rest of the games on one (or two) of The Score, Gol TV and Fox Sports World Canada. I can't watch more than a few games a weekend anyway, and all the big games would be on TV still.

I think the gist of what ArthurDent is saying is correct - if Setanta were to disappear then we will see more EPL games on RSN, Score or TSN. In total there will likely be fewer games available but the cost per game will go down and it is likely that you will still get most of the games of the most widely supported teams - MU, Liverpool, etc. Most people will think of this as getting the games for free since they don't pay extra just to get these sports channels - they are part of the package that almost everyone in the country gets.

edit - And since RSN, Score and TSN have HD versions of their channels you have a possiblity of getting the games in HD, assuming that the English broadcaster has HD capabilities. If the games are carried on Setanta then there is 0% chance of getting the game in HD since they don't have an HD channel.

But Setanta disappearing is very bad news for rugby fans.

I think the gist of what ArthurDent is saying is correct - if Setanta were to disappear then we will see more EPL games on RSN, Score or TSN. In total there will likely be fewer games available but the cost per game will go down and it is likely that you will still get most of the games of the most widely supported teams - MU, Liverpool, etc. Most people will think of this as getting the games for free since they don't pay extra just to get these sports channels - they are part of the package that almost everyone in the country gets.

edit - And since RSN, Score and TSN have HD versions of their channels you have a possiblity of getting the games in HD, assuming that the English broadcaster has HD capabilities. If the games are carried on Setanta then there is 0% chance of getting the game in HD since they don't have an HD channel.

But Setanta disappearing is very bad news for rugby fans.
Fair enough, and the point is well taken, but if Setanta does indeed disappear, what's to stop another provider taking it over and charging the same amount. The genie is out of the bottle and providers are looking at all ways to recoup the huge costs of EPL rights. I can see it ending up something like the "Centre Ice" package, but who knows. It seems to change every year.

Fair enough, and the point is well taken, but if Setanta does indeed disappear, what's to stop another provider taking it over and charging the same amount.Because the failure of Setanta would indicate that their business model did not work. It is quite likely that future rights deals will see leagues getting much less generous TV revenue - not just EPL but all sports. The broadcasters are in bad shape everywhere and advertising revenues are down so they will be very hesitant to continue to sign cheques of the magnitude that we have seen in the past decade or so - or even last year.

But Wayne, it isn't Setanta's North American, or for that matter their Irish, business model that has brought them to this point: It is their British operation that is the problem. They tried to take on Rupert Murdoch's entrenched Sky Sports as well as the terrestrial TV channels (BBC, ITV) by throwing too much (leveraged) money at all kinds of sports properties specifically for the British market.

That doesn't mean Rogers or some other Canadian or American operators taking over Setanta's Canadian channel would be profitable. Catering to British/Irish/Australian sports fans through subscription fees may not be viable in Canada. We just don't know at this stage but unless I'm really missing something Setanta's fall is completely unconnected to their overseas business model.

Andrew - you're right. It would be interesting to see Setanta's sub numbers and to see if they are continuing to add people in Canada and the US. If you are having trouble making ends meet paying $15/month for a single channel might not make sense. But if you are a huge EPL or rugby fan then it is a good deal.

I'll be canceling Setanta after the weekend. Last year they had Super League (rugby league), including extra matches, when the EPL ended. But they don't have it this year so $15 a month is too much for what they have to offer until August.

Setanta managed to make the £50 million payment to the Premier League. http://www.eufootball.biz/Television/7113-setanta_issues_payment_premier_league.html

Even though the Premier League payment has been satisfied, Setanta will now be forced to address the remaining GBP 100 million necessary to meet its financial responsibilities for the year.

August marks the next crucial deadline for Setanta, as a GBP 67 million payment comes due between the broadcaster and the Premier League. The funds represent the first instalment for the final year of the contract

I'm guessing if they'd gone belly up this month EPL rights and TV coverage for Canada would've been sorted out by August but what happens in Canada if Setanta can't make the August payment and goes under then? Would Rogers just take over Setanta completely? (I doubt they'd show many more matches on Rogers Sportsnet). I believe The Score subcontracted most matches because they made more doing that than showing all those matches without advertisements as EPL (rightly) insists, so I doubt they will want to increase their coverage.