Setanta Sports will reportedly go into administration “within days” unless it’s sponsors provide more funds to pay the £30 million it owes to the Premier League – leading to the potential loss of the Arsenal TV channel which shows Reserve games live and highlights of the Under 18’s.
The broadcaster is already in debt to the SPL and they suspended subscriptionsboth through their website and via the phone today – but cited technical issues as the reason behind the problems. However, a spokesman for Setanta declined to comment on the situation. The 1.2 million customers the company currently has is far from the 1.9 million which it needs to break even.
Administration firm Deloitte is ready to step in and control Setanta if the worst happens. They would be willing to sell off assets and cancel sections which are not making money. So called ‘weaker matches’ or matches of little interest are blamed for the problems with the F.A Youth Cup games part of the proposed issue.
Arsenal TV Online was a huge success but Setanta stepped in and helped launch the official TV channel on the 14th of January 2008. It was then added to the package which includes Premier League games and is similar to the other club channels Celtic TV, Rangers TV and Liverpool FCTV. ATV has become popular with Gooners due to the live showing of Reserves fixtures and highlights of the Under 18’s, but the recession has seen many fans cancel their subscriptions. If Setanta folded the channels would be in doubt unless another buyer was found.
There are reports that Arsenal would take over the full time running of the channel – or it could revert back to just being online and run through Arsenal broadband – of which Stan Kroenke is a major influence. Whatever happens, it promises to be an uncertain few days for Setanta.
Article By – J.Sanderson
id like to see sky take it on like man u tv i live in ireland and was subscribed to arsenal tv on line and then they said it aws outside broadcast restrictions if sky took it over i would gladly pay
Personally I think it’s shocking that ATVO just all of a sudden decided to stop streaming in the UK because of Setanta.
And I agree – I’d like Sky to take over too.
J – the reason they stopped streaming was part of the channel deal. It wasn’t a sudden decision but has happened to just about every club channel that’s gone digital. Let’s put it like this – why would Setanta pay us to carry our channel when they knew people could get it cheaper online? If Setanta goes under and the Arsenal channel can’t be broadcast then I’ve no doubt they’ll start streaming overnight.
As for the main point – good riddance to bad rubbish I say. The quality was abysmal because they broadcast under the C5 signal, the comms were (being very polite) third rate and the ‘experts’ were pathetic.
Take care mate.
Sky may be the answer short term, but realistically we need another name in the arena. Sky should not be allowed to strangle competitors into administration like they have done with Setanta. A monopoly is no good for anyone, and if sky continue to bully their way into gaining all the rights we will all suffer, with more second rate BS from the likes of Jamie Redknapp.
Without competition the product loses quality and in the end we the customers suffer because we are left with one choice only-subscribe to sky or nothing.
Arsenal would either run it themselves or Sky might run it for them. I also think Sky might wait to the last minutes to buy & run Setanta as seperate entity to Sky bcuz of regulation preventing them from owning of football rights.
The programming on Arsenal TV is made by Input Media on behalf of Arsenal, not Setanta, the only problem if Setanta went under would be who would pick up Arsenal TV
Irrelavant but is there any chance of Jack Wilshere playing for the U-19 Euros or U-20 World Cup? And will Kieren Gibbs play in u-20 World Cup?
fuck u setanta your a bunch of wankers who ripped me off so i hope you do collapse u cunts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yer, how comes Wilshere hasn’t made England U21 squad? Surely he is better than most of those people on there!
This was the reason i joined Setanta, to get away from sky and the negative comments around Arsenal, the problem with Setanta was that they did not advertise there games, many times i stumbled on games by going through the channels.
john Dehaney
London.
i think a monopoly for sky is fine. we have ended up paying more with two subscriptions – one for sky and one for setanta – than when all the football was on sky.
i will be happier when i can get all the best football in one place for one subscription. EU bureaucrats please take note.
competition isn’t always appropriate! it does not suit the football broadcasting industry. it’s annoying having to forage around to see what network the next arsenal game is on. i just want the football to be in one place. different competitions can be on different networks but that’s it.
Setanta (in my opinion) are shit so good riddance – my experience with dealing with them was awful and the fact my / our club is associated with such a shoddy outfit has grated me for a while.
Bin it and sell it as an add on to Sky and I will happily up my subscription.
And it’s not just me who has a dislike of this bunch – just Google ‘Setanta Complaints’ and have a read.
hate setanta. me happy.
ESPN are rumoured to be ready to jump in when Setanta finally goes belly-up. It is assumed therefore that Liverpool, Celtic, Rangers and Arsenal woould go with them
Paul you are frankly an idiot. Sky is a monopoly. With the amount they bid to have most of the premier league games next season who the hell do you think will foot the bill? You!! You are complaining about customer service? Idiot. You Google ‘Setanta Complaints’??? Retard. Setanta were trying to break that monopoly, you know competitor=price war= Cheaper subscription
Setanta and Arsenal TV are a joke. The only things that were worth watching were Football Matters and The Fans Forum. Whoever takes over Arsenal TV better up their game or they will not get any more money from me. I hope Setanta sinks without a trace…
well, I am in the US and they charge $15 for the channel, which is truly excessive since all games are now stream online for free. I have cancel for the summer, not sure I can afford it any longer but $9.99 seem like a better option.
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if setanta does collapse then im pretty sure the BBC will pounce for the FA deal with england games etc so it will be available to everyone which i always thought england games should be.
the other thing is with setanta, did anyone actually watch a french match? or german game? even an SPL game? i certainly didnt although i watched the german league highlights but that was it.
i think at the end of the day this channel did not have much to offer in comparison to sky, what you guys think?
Maybe Setanta should have made all their channels (including ArseTV) available through the Freeview platform, or broadcat 24hrs a day instead of 12. Or shown more Arse matches – OK they showed a few in the FA cup, but after 3 in the early weeks of the season, we’ve only had Hull & Newcastle away (& i was abroad for the Hull match). I noly kept my subscription going so i could watc the Youth Cup matches, but went to Tottenham (a) & Liverpool (h) anyway. They didn’t even show either of our semi final matches. Once the season was over, i intended to cancel anyway. I’m glad they’ve collapsed. I argued with my girlfriend over whether half-time & post-match analysis was intereseting, then sat there red-faced as Steve McManamadman & Tim Sherwood proved her point, not mine.
I was once an ITVdigital customer, they were crap but 100 times better than Setanta.
Good riddance.
Dont worry ESPN are now in talks with Setanta to buy them out. They may do it before they go into administration or after.
if they do it after then they can pick up any of Setanta’s subricptions for cheap. Sky cant get hold of the premiership package and it ESPN are a bigger company who can match the financial power of Sky Sports.
So the AVT would either be picked up by Sky or ESPN as long as either comapny think people will watch the channel.
I love Setanta but if they go down I think BBC and Itv shud get rights to premier league. I live in Ireland and maybe our terrestrial channels could get one or two aswell. There also needs to be another strong competitor to sky who can show those shower of cunts whos boss. Sky fukin ripped me off.
I hear ESPN could absorb Setanta’s debt and eventually secure the rights. Soccer in HD, bring it on.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2009/06/did-espn-know-setanta-was-doomed.html
Personally I think the less Setanta has to do with Arsenal the better.
The channel is a joke as all you get is repeats when most of us signed up for the youth and reserve games.
Granted the reserve games are covered but why show repeats of interviews with celebrity fans then only highlights of the youth games?
The Youth cup games against Spurs where not on Arsenal TV but were shown on the online channel which is a total disgrace.
For £9.99 a month fans deserve better and I think that the channel will struggle now that the season is over – who will pay £9.99 a month for 3 months of no football?
The club should take over and run it them selves or better still eempower it to the official supporters club to run it – a channel for the fans ran by the fans.
Just logged back on to this and see that most agree other than my new (articulate) friend;
Simon – June 10, 2009 at 12:11 am
Listen mate if you had Setanta threaten you over a few quid and bombard you will calls owing to an error at their end then perhaps you may understand – plus I do not need a lecture about monopolies.
I will not degrade myself by using the type of phraseology you have but I ask you to consider that opinions are just that and whether you agree or not you should try and articulate yourself rather better than you have managed here – otherwise you yourself will end up looking like the type of person you have accused me of being.
Plus I believe part of Setanta’s problem is that they paid too much for the Premiership and the SFA games – surely therefore they would have to charge more to cover these expenses? I am not a huge fan of Sky either and feel that the terrestrial channels should be granted a few league games a season but that is unlikely to happen.
Sky can and have brokered a better deal for themselves and in turn therefore their public then clearly Setanta have managed– it ran quite well between the launch of the Premier League and a couple of years ago so I doubt they will be missed. The only people who may have real cause for complaint are those on Virgin Media who get Setanta for free.
I stand by my comments that Setanta is also over priced and their coverage is rubbish, my dealings with them were shocking and I will be pleased to see then disappear from the radar.
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