The rise ... of Setanta

Something rather familiar is happening within the TV industry, I feel.

I wonder are Setanta starting to over-stretch themselves? With less than six months before their biggest deal, 46 live and exclusive matches in the English Premier League appear, are we seeing something that happened before again?

In the past year, Setanta has grown to become a decent competitor to Sky in terms of what rights they have picked up. As well as the football, and the Scottish Premier League and Magners League rugby, they got the US PGA tour from Sky for 6 years. They also have the exclusive rights to most of the Rugby World Cup on Irish TV.

But lets look at these deals in more detail.

They paid the Rugby World Cup an undisclosed amount, possibly a few million; the US PGA maybe up to €120 million over the lifetime of the deal, the Premier League £392m million for 3 years. But the thing is… what exactly have they got for their money?

They won't have exclusive coverage of Ireland's Rugby World Cup matches, they had to sell that package on to TV3 for the Ireland games, as they are designated events by the Government, but also nearly all of the other games will be freely available on ITV1 (UTV) and ITV4 and S4C. It’s the same with the Magners League. Why pay if you can tune into S4C and BBC 2 Wales on satellite for free, and get most of the games?

On the Premier League front, they have the packages that effectively Sky thought was the least/worst option; Saturday after 5pm and Monday nights. You wont see Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool playing on a Monday night, as Sky well know, and as European games occur, those teams would prefer a Saturday lunchtime fixture, which Sky appear to have. £392m looks a huge figure now.

On Golf, Setanta have the rights to the main US PGA tour events. But that equates to two or three hours per weekend of live coverage from the event. Is a dedicated 24 hour channel a bit overkill? Sky still retain the rights to the Ryder Cup, 2 US majors (US PGA and US Open), all the World Golf Championship games and the Solheim Cup, as well as 30+ events on the European Tour. Sky's cupboard is far from empty. Sky still have a good few biggies.

Also, the cost of their packages appears to be rising. It was €15 pm or €180 per year, but it is going up to €18 / €216, and maybe once more by the time the Premiership appears. Granted, announced this week, they will launch a channel on Freeview's TopupTV, and give them an audience that hasn’t had Premier League football since ITV Digital…. Ahh… yes… Its all becoming clear now….

That's my huge fear for Setanta, that they will become ITV Digital mk 2. While paying for a slice of the Premiership in the UK and if the return in subscriber numbers and revenue doesn't follow..... NTL in the UK almost succumbed too when it got the Pay-per-view games in the 2000 round of rights buying, before selling onto Sky.

I wonder how profitable the SPL and Magners League has been for them. Those two leagues will suffer if Setanta have issues, much like the Football League in England did when ITV Digital collapsed.

I hope they don't. It's good to have competition, but people are no mugs. When the European Commission and the Premier League decided how football should be shown on TV, I think the EC's idea of competition was bunk when the rights went to two pay-TV operators. I'm no fan of Sky, but I resent having to fork out more for less, and also having to pay to another company for the same things I paid for before, for more again.

And if people do vote with their wallets…. It's not Sky who will disappear.

Digital TV section updated

I've updated the Digital TV page - there's information on the current tests from Three Rock and Clermont Carn and some screenshots too.

Charlie Bird has a book out? Shucks, I hadn't noticed!

Report on Charlie Bird's new autobiography on RTÉ News at Nine O'clock 03/10/06
Liveline 11/10/06 - 35 mins into programme.

As good a journalist for a scoop that Charlie Bird is, the news out of RTÉ that he has a book is nauseating, to say the least. I don't have a bad word to say about Bird himself, but with items on news bulletins and on half a programme on Liveline yesterday, it gives self-promotion a bad name. Yes, there were times in yesterday's Liveline that you can hear Joe Duffy fawning over him.

What I'd like to know is, why is valuable news and current affairs airtime being used to promote this book? The place for this is the Late Late Show, and, of course, Charlie has already been with Pat.

New look RTÉ News... launch day...

And so it came. The new look RTÉ News launched today... and I have to say on balance, its not great. The titles are ... I dunno what its meant to be, but I'm sure someone in D4 knows what its meant to represent (like new GAA county crests!) The title music sounds like its going somewhere, but it doesn't; it comes to a halt. The set is fine, brown and white background and white chairs, with a strategically placed laptop and a decent sized LCD screen.

In all, very underwhelming.

For pictures and other thoughts, check out the Broadcasting forum on boards.ie (neé ICDG)

New look RTÉ News

Sunday Tribune article

As widely anticipated, the new look RTÉ News will launch tomorrow. An eight-metre square studio is very small, considering the size of the Sky News studio, let alone their newswall, which is almost as large!

We'll have a report on the look tomorrow evening.

Green light for Doughty Hanson's TV3 bid

ITV plc aren't exercising their option to buy out CanWest's 45% stake in TV3 so it looks like the sale of TV3 to Doughty Hanson is going ahead....

Discussion of this and other topics can be found at http://www.boards.ie/icdg

UTV look to merge with SMG

UTV makes merger proposal for SMG

They've thought about this for a long time, now UTV wants to get at SMG, the owners of the recently rebranded STV. I'm surprised that the title of this article is "merger" and not takeover, which has been talked of in the past.

There were thoughts that those in Havelock House were interested in a post-ITV strategy e.g. the reason for buying radio stations here and in the UK was for the company to go on if/when ITV wanted to buy the Ulster franchise. But that seems off now.

TG4 to go it alone

DCMNR Press Release

So TG4 is to become an State Broadcaster in its own right. From April next year, it will have its own authority in charge of the channel, and it looks like extra funding is on the way....

Is it me or is there a need for this? Is this another layer of administration on the channel, and surely that will take money away from the real place the funding is needed, programming?

I suppose you could say that they are trying to compare it to the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority, who control S4C since its inception, in a manner just to ensure the quality of the channel. If that is whats desired, then thats ok, but if its jobs for the boys in the Údarás out West, is that what TG4 or its viewers need? I think not.