| Setanta score deal to show FA Cup
matches  By
Niamh Hennessy
IT all began in an Irish bar in London but now one of Ireland’s most
successful companies has pulled off one of the year’s biggest coups.
Irish broadcaster Setanta has joined forces with ITV to win the rights
to televise the FA Cup and England home international football games.
The Football Association announced the deal which is worth over £400million.
The contract from August 2008 is said to be worth £100million more
than the existing deal with the BBC and Sky Sports.
The BBC and BSkyB have held the FA Cup rights since 2001.
Snatching the FA Cup and England rights from the BBC is a major coup for
Setanta and its founders, Irishmen Michael O’Rourke and Leonard
Ryan, who founded Setanta when they were working in London many years
ago.
Last year the Irish broadcaster secured a six-year deal to televise the
PGA golf tour featuring 40 leading tournaments, rights previously held
by Sky.
Setanta also holds the rights to broadcast the Scottish Premier League.
Setanta and BSkyB also won a £1.7billion auction to screen Premiership
games last year.
The new deal means Setanta will have every round of the FA Cup including
the final, showing 25 FA Cup games per year with ITV showing a further
16.
Setanta Sports’ games will include two quarter-finals and one semi-final
exclusively live and the exclusive rights to the Community Shield each
year. The FA Cup final rights will be shared.
In a statement the company said: “Setanta Sports, the leading international
sports broadcaster, has announced that it has been awarded the Irish and
UK rights to broadcast the FA Cup, Community Shield, England friendly
matches along with England B, under-21s and other development games.
“Under the terms of the FA deal Setanta will have more exclusive
live football than any other broadcaster and will be showing live football
every week of the football season.
“The number of top-quality, exclusively-live English domestic and
international games broadcast on Setanta will increase by 26, from 79
to 105.”
The games listed above will not broadcast live on any channel in Ireland
and Britain other than Setanta Sports 1.
Setanta will also broadcast the FA Cup final each year as joint rights
holder with ITV.
Setanta will broadcast the games on both satellite and cable.
In the North of Ireland the games will also be available on the DTT platform
as well as cable and satellite.
Setanta Sports Group commercial director Mark Mohan said: “This
is a great win for the Setanta Sports Group and another reason why we
are a must-have for sports fans in Ireland.
“The FA Cup is a great highlight in the English football calendar
and will help to strengthen our offering even further.” |
