Setanta’s non-payment has its rights-holders fretting
THE Scottish football authorities were yesterday fearing the worst after Setanta, the struggling pay telelvision company, missed a £3m payment and gave no indication when it might be forthcoming.
The missed payment has sent shockwaves through the Scottish football establishment which recently signed a lucrative four-year deal with Setanta worth £125m.
Last night the chairmen of the Scottish Premier League arranged a crisis meeting for later in the week.
At this stage, analysts are unclear whether Setanta’s move comes because it has genuinely run out of funds or whether the pay television group, which has asked rights-holders for a reduction of its rights fees, is using the delay of a payment to ramp up the pressure on the clubs.
Setanta loses around £100m a year. It has big backers in Doughty Hanson and Goldman Sachs, but so far its management has been unable to convince them it has a workable business model going forward.
Its plight was made worse when it lost a batch of highly-prized Premier League matches.
Setanta has recently tried to raise £50m from BSkyB and ITV.