Setanta TV faces Premier League deadline

Troubled sports broadcaster Setanta was on Friday racing against the clock to secure a rescue plan to avoid its 46 English Premier League matches for next season being auctioned off to rivals.

Media reports say Setanta owes more than 30 million pounds to the Premier League.

The league announced earlier this week that it would offer the games for which Setanta has broadcast rights to other television firms, if the struggling pay-TV group fails to pay off the crucial bill by the end of Friday.

If the Irish broadcaster does not meet its contractual obligations then the 2009-10 broadcast rights for the games set to feature clubs such as Manchester United and Arsenal will be sold after a bid deadline at the start of next week.

The league said in a statement on Monday that it had been working with Setanta “to ascertain whether they are in a position to continue as the broadcaster of 46 UK live matches for the 2009-10 season.

“Although the Premier League would like to provide Setanta with as much time as possible to re-arrange its finances, the start of the 2009-10 Season is only two months away, with the release of fixtures imminent.

“Accordingly, the Premier League has notified Setanta that if necessary the existing licence agreement between us will be terminated, coming into effect if Setanta does not meet certain contractual requirements of the Premier League on or before Friday 19 June 2009,” the statement added.

Earlier in the week Setanta reopened its website to new subscribers, having closed it for several days.

Under an agreement with the European Commission, the Premier League cannot sell all its live matches to one single broadcaster.

That means that Sky would be able to bid for only 23 of Setanta’s 46 Games next season as it already holds the rights to show live the other 92 games.

American broadcaster ESPN would be expected to bid for at least one if not both of Setanta’s two packages of games for next season.

Setanta also holds the rights for one package of 23 games for the 2010-13 seasons and should it default on its payments those deals also look under threat, with ESPN again the favourite to step in.

Setanta’s directors are trying to organise a rescue package and have had talks with Access Industries, owned by Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik.

It has been reported that Endemol, the TV production company that makes reality TV programme Big Brother, could also take a stake in Setanta, which has operations in Britain, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia.