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Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, the latter of which is managed by Adjarasport. Formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events internationally, it operates channels in Eastern Europe and the Philippines and formerly Ireland (where it originated from), the UK, Asia, Africa, Australia, the United States and Canada.
This variant also has local broadcast rights to La Liga, the NBA (selected matches only) and NBL Australia.
In April 2003, Setanta won a contract to operate a Sports channel on Freeview.
In January 2004, Setanta signed a deal with WWE to broadcast four of their Pay-Per-View events within the year beginning with Royal Rumble. In July, Setanta launched SPL Live on Sky and shortly afterward launched Celtic TV and Rangers TV on Sky and NTL in partnership with Celtic F.C. and Rangers F.C. respectively. Earlier on in the month, the company entered into a partnership with the newly launched Racing UK to become the channel's exclusive broadcast partner and distributor prior to its launch and encryption in September.
By 2005, Setanta Sport was renamed slightly to Setanta Sports. On 16 May 2005, Setanta PPV1 and PPV2 moved from 435 and 436 to 438 and 439 on Sky, respectively. On 30 July, Setanta launched a channel on the Top Up TV service on DTT. In August 2005, Setanta Sports 2, Celtic TV and Rangers TV were added to Telewest.
On 29 June 2006, Setanta purchased the broadcast rights to the PGA Tour from Sky and announced that they would launch a dedicated Golf network entitled Setanta Golf in January 2007. On 17 August, Setanta expanded their partnership with Racing UK, merging it's subscription package together with theirs to form one, allowing Setanta customers access to the channel and spinoff Racing World, and Racing UK/Racing World subscribers access to Setanta's networks on all platforms.
On 11 July 2007, the company signed a deal with Liverpool FC to launch LFC TV. On 20 July, they signed a deal with Virgin Media to make their networks free to anyone subscribed to the provider's TV XL service but would remain as premium add-ons for M or L package subscribers. The following week, the two companies announced plans to launch Setanta Sports News, which would rival Sky Sports News. The channel would launch in November. On 22 September, Setanta entered into a six-figure deal with Arsenal F.C. to launch Arsenal TV in December. The channel was however delayed, and instead launched in January 2008.
In March and May 2008, Setanta launched Arsenal Replay and AH.TV on Sky, timeshift services of Arsenal TV which operated late-at-night and were used as filler networks in case Setanta needed the slots. In May, the company purchased the Sky EPG slot formerly belonging to Racing World after Racing UK axed the channel due to poor viewing figures. Setanta reduced the channel's broadcast hours and began timesharing it with the Pub/Commercial version of Setanta Sports 1, although it remained under the Racing World name. As with Arsenal Replay and AH.TV, the Setanta version of Racing World was used as a filler network.
On 19 June 2009, Setanta Sports failed to pay the latest instalment of £30 million (€35 million) it owed the English Premier League. The Premier League had to sell the rights to the 46 live matches Setanta had for the 2009/10 season. A Premier League spokesman said, "It is with considerable regret that we announce that Setanta has been unable to meet their obligations. As such the existing licence agreement between us has been terminated with immediate effect." Setanta collapses could cost Premier League clubs £30m The Guardian.com, 18 June 2009 Setanta loses Premier League contract after failing to repay debt Times Online 19 June 2009
On 21 June 2009, BT TV stopped selling Setanta Sports channels to customers. BT Vision stops selling Setanta BBC News, 21 June 2009
On 22 June 2009, it was reported by RTÉ News that the original Setanta Sports channel, Setanta Ireland, might be bought out by an existing consortium who already hold interests in Setanta Sport Holdings Ltd., the Irish arm of Setanta Sports. Setanta Sports Ireland and Setanta Sports North America were the only brands which made a profit in 2008. The same day, Setanta lost all their SPL TV rights because they were unable to pay the £3m (€3.5m) owed to the league. Following this, it was announced that ESPN UK had bought the rights to show the 46 Premier League games bought by Setanta for the 2009/10 season.
Setanta GB went into administration 23 June 2009, following failure to make payments to a number of sporting organisations. 430 jobs, 200 of which were in Ireland, were expected to be lost as a result of its going into administration. The administration was handled by Deloitte. At 18:00 that day, most of its channels ceased operations within Great Britain.
According to the final report published by Setanta's administrator Deloitte, released in July 2010, the broadcaster had outstanding bank loans of £261m Pound sterling and unsecured debt of £288m STG. Deloitte said that unsecured lenders received just 2p for every pound that they have claimed back from the defunct operator.
Arsenal TV continued until August 2009 while Arsenal explored alternative options. Liverpool FC assumed responsibility for LFC TV and decided to continue broadcasting as normal.
Setanta's GB subscriber numbers were lower than those of Sky Sports, and the number of households watching the match live was estimated at 1.5 million. Because of the availability of Setanta on both digital satellite and digital terrestrial television, the theoretical possible subscriber base surpassed that of Sky Sports (not available via DTT at the time) but fans who were unwilling to subscribe could not see the match live. British Prime Minister at the time Gordon Brown indicated he felt it "unfortunate" more fans could not see the match live for free.
Because of the amount of negative feedback received, Setanta GB eventually changed this to allow for cancellations to be done through email. Furthermore, while customers were originally entered into a 30-day notice period once their cancellation letter was received, this was increased to 60 days without any information being sent to customers; again, because of the negative feedback, this was quickly reduced back to 30 days. These customer service issues were compounded by the fact that customers had to phone a premium rate number should they have any issues to resolve, with calls costing at least 10 pence per minute.
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