Setanta target England international, FA Cup TV rights

Setanta keeps providing the competition for Sky, with its financial backers investing more than EUR 130 million (GBP 90 million) to push against Sky.

Setanta already has England's national team away fixtures rights for World Cup qualifiers, and is now seeking buying up the rights for next year's England's international matches and FA Cup games.

Private equity companies such as Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital, and investment bank Goldman Sachs have poured in financial support.

The investment helps as Setanta, which snared some Premier League rights from Sky, is expected to take a loss until mid-2009 at the earliest. The company currently has 400,000 subscribers throughout Britain and Ireland, and is aiming for one million by next year.

Setanta has also issued shares to senior executives for the first time, with founders Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan and their management team holding close to a quarter of the company.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.