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Setanta expects profits for Premier League TV deal
England - 31 May, 2006
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Setanta Sports is forecasting that it will earn more than a million British customers on the basis of English Premier League TV rights.
Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, the broadcast company’s founders, anticipate making a profit toward the end of the second season of a three-year deal, which cost GBP 392 million. Both rejected any notion of overpaying for the deal.
“We’ll be available in 20 million homes — it seems a reasonable assumption to think we might get five percent to sign up — and we might do better,” O’Rourke said.
Ryan said Setanta will need less than a million subscribers to break even, and that “over the three years of the deal we expect to be net positive.”
Setanta paid for the right to show 46 games from August of next year, claiming a hold previously dominated by BSkyB. The games acquired by Setanta likely generated only modest revenues for BSkyB. Shown under Sky’s Prem Plus brand, the pay-per-view service generated only GBP 35 million a year.
Setanta holds the rights to Saturday games at 5:15 p.m. and Mondays at 8 p.m. The company is looking to hire a production company to handle the outside broadcasts and is looking for high-profile presenters to launch the service.
However, Setanta’s founders are confident of generating a broader scope of income, mainly by offering the games on Freeview for the first time. Setanta aims to charge about GBP 14 a month for its Setanta Sports 1 channel in an attempt to make top-flight football available more cheaply than before.
That’s the latest in a large group of sports rights owned by Setanta, including live broadcasts of Scottish Premier League football, which has 150,000 subscribers paying GBP 14 to GBP 15 a month on satellite and cable.
Ryan and O’Rourke share about 35 percent of the privately owned company, and Benchmark Capital owns 40 percent. The company and its backers are looking at ways of raising money to finance the cost of the rights, most of which will be paid in instalments from August next year.
Ryan expects to raise funds from a mixture of “debt, new shareholders and existing shareholders.”
Neither man ruled out another media group taking a stake, as O’Rourke said, “You could always have a strategic investor in there.”
Benchmark paid about GBP 40 million for its holding, ahead of the Premiership deal. Ryan said it had turned over GBP 45 million in 2005. Setanta expects to generate GBP 48 million in turnover this year and significantly more in 2007, when the English football deal kicks off.
Setanta runs sports channels in the Irish Republic and specialist sports channels aimed at Europeans in America, and Americans in Europe. Mr O’Rourke and Mr Ryan hope to expand the business internationally.
Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, the broadcast company’s founders, anticipate making a profit toward the end of the second season of a three-year deal, which cost GBP 392 million. Both rejected any notion of overpaying for the deal.
“We’ll be available in 20 million homes — it seems a reasonable assumption to think we might get five percent to sign up — and we might do better,” O’Rourke said.
Ryan said Setanta will need less than a million subscribers to break even, and that “over the three years of the deal we expect to be net positive.”
Setanta paid for the right to show 46 games from August of next year, claiming a hold previously dominated by BSkyB. The games acquired by Setanta likely generated only modest revenues for BSkyB. Shown under Sky’s Prem Plus brand, the pay-per-view service generated only GBP 35 million a year.
Setanta holds the rights to Saturday games at 5:15 p.m. and Mondays at 8 p.m. The company is looking to hire a production company to handle the outside broadcasts and is looking for high-profile presenters to launch the service.
However, Setanta’s founders are confident of generating a broader scope of income, mainly by offering the games on Freeview for the first time. Setanta aims to charge about GBP 14 a month for its Setanta Sports 1 channel in an attempt to make top-flight football available more cheaply than before.
That’s the latest in a large group of sports rights owned by Setanta, including live broadcasts of Scottish Premier League football, which has 150,000 subscribers paying GBP 14 to GBP 15 a month on satellite and cable.
Ryan and O’Rourke share about 35 percent of the privately owned company, and Benchmark Capital owns 40 percent. The company and its backers are looking at ways of raising money to finance the cost of the rights, most of which will be paid in instalments from August next year.
Ryan expects to raise funds from a mixture of “debt, new shareholders and existing shareholders.”
Neither man ruled out another media group taking a stake, as O’Rourke said, “You could always have a strategic investor in there.”
Benchmark paid about GBP 40 million for its holding, ahead of the Premiership deal. Ryan said it had turned over GBP 45 million in 2005. Setanta expects to generate GBP 48 million in turnover this year and significantly more in 2007, when the English football deal kicks off.
Setanta runs sports channels in the Irish Republic and specialist sports channels aimed at Europeans in America, and Americans in Europe. Mr O’Rourke and Mr Ryan hope to expand the business internationally.
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