It is reported that Sky and ESPN have made a joint bid for the broadcast rights to show Scottish Premier League (SPL) games for the coming season.
Setanta, the sports digital TV company, entered administration last month having run out of cash and defaulted on payments to the SPL and FAPL. Setanta was in the final year of its contract with the SPL to show 60 live SPL games per season. It had recently extended the agreement for a further four years at a cost of about £125 million.
According to reports in the Independent, Sky and ESPN have jointly bid for the SPL rights, though are likely to have paid about £40 million less than Setanta. Sky and Setanta have yet to comment.
The reports suggest that there are “a few issues to be ironed out include determining which channel would air the matches and provide the most funding”. This seems to us quite a major element of the negotiation and may yet prove a stumbling block.
ESPN has had two niche sports channels broadcasting in the UK for some time, but the demise of Setnata has given it the chance to become a major player (excuse the pun). Having just secured the rights to Setanta’s FAPL games for the next four seasons, it now appears to be actively pursuing the SPL rights.
ESPN said last week that they would announce more details about its plans for next football season this week.
What is clear is that all the football games will now be available to Sky customers, via a single payment to Sky as Sky have already agreed to retail the ESPN channels. So next season, Sky customers will not only get the 92 live FAPL games on Sky Sports, but also another 23 live FAPL games on ESPN, plus the SPL games.
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