The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.

IRISH sports channel Set-anta could be sold in a £1billion-plus deal which would net a fortune for its founders.

The TV company which was started in a pub in London is set to be at the centre of a furious bidding war.

Possible buyers include BT, ITV, Virgin Media and Disney — the owner of the giant American sports network ESPN.

ESPN executives have made it clear they are interested in breaking into the lucrative British Premiership football rights industry.

Setanta was founded by Irishmen Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke in London in 1990.

Sources said the two could pocket as much as £100million each from any sale.

The station made its name broadcasting GAA matches to the Irish community in Britain.

But the company really hit the headlines two years ago when it paid £392million to share live Premiership football coverage with BSkyB.

It now has 1.2million premium subscribers in Britain plus another 2million customers on the Virgin Media platform and operates 10 channels in Britain, Ireland, North America and Australia.

Despite its success the company is not yet profitable but hopes to break even by the end of the year.

Setanta’s main attraction to buyers is its package of live Premiership soccer matches — seen as a key driver of audiences for pay TV.

A spokeswoman for BT — which has a deal to show Setanta’s soccer and other sports coverage on its BT Vision broadband TV service — refused to comment on a possible bid.

Virgin Media — which carries Setanta’s sports coverage on its cable TV services — also declined to comment.

But industry experts said ESPN had long been looking at trying to break into the British soccer market and was likely to be the main bidder.

Setanta’s £1billion-plus valuation reflects its phenomenal rise.

Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke started the channel by screening a Republic of Ireland World Cup match in the back room of a west London pub in 1990 when they discovered the game was not being shown on any of the main terrestrial channels.

They then moved into screening GAA matches into Britain and building a portfolio of American sports before successfully bidding for live Premiership games in a move that saw them taking on BSkyB for the first time.