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A dispute in the UK over TV content rights may lead to Internet rights restrictions being blown away.

To protect two of it exclusive rights deals the English football (soccer) Premier League recently launched two prosecutions against a bar owner in the south of England and two suppliers of TV decoders. The thrust of the argument is that the bar owner is accessing a Greek satellite channel in order to show Premier League matches and the suppliers are providing decoders and smart cards which enable access to non UK broadcasters. This undermines the UK and Ireland Exclusive deals the Premier League has signed with satellite broadcaster BSkyB and Setanta.

The Premier League launched the case believing a win to be a formality but last week the UK’s Highest Court referred both cases to the European Court of Justice. Not good for the League as it opens up the possibility that the Court may rule against them on the basis that exclusive territorial deals are in effect barriers to the free distribution of decoder cards across the European Union States thereby allowing rights holders to create price differentials and limit customer choice.

Financially this will be a massive blow to TV rights values. The ‘exclusive territory’ element of sports rights deals accounts for anywhere between 40% and 60% of the total deal value. Interestingly though, if the ruling does go against the Premier League it may be the breeze to blow against the house of cards which controls rights across the Internet. Currently major rights holders make content available in deals giving publishers geographical exclusivity in a similar way to the TV rights. Anyone trying to access that content from outside the agreed territory is blocked (’Geo-Blocking’). Admittedly it is a big leap but it is conceivable that geo-exclusive deals would be deemed illegal, at least across the European States.

I just caught the scent of revolution in the air.

Tags: BSkyB, English Premier League, Setanta

Irish pay television broadcaster Setanta Sports added a 12th channel to its ever-expanding portfolio yesterday with the launch of Arsenal TV.

The new station, which will comprise six hours of programming on the London football club each day, will be carried exclusively by Setanta on cable and satellite in Ireland and the UK as part of a six-year deal.

In August, Setanta became the first broadcaster other than Sky to show live English Premier League matches. Before Christmas, the Irish company said it had one million premium subscribers in Ireland and Britain.

The new station will be available to Setanta subscribers as part of their existing monthly fee. Setanta already carries the TV channels of Celtic, Rangers and Liverpool football clubs on both sides of the Irish Sea on satellite and cable. It also carries Chelsea TV on cable in Ireland.

Tags: Arsenal, Celtic, Chelsea, Liverpool, Rangers, Setanta

Someone once said that Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen and soccer is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians. Well if you just love to see a bunch of seriously overpaid thugs strut their stuff on a soccer pitch then today is good news. Grab yourself an Orange mobile phone and you will be able to see all English Premiership games on your handset. If the ‘bootiful game’ is not your thing then no worries, Setanta Golf is also thrown into the £5 a month package, presumably as you have no chance of actually seeing a golf ball on a screen the size of a politicians intellect. In three months time you will be off to the opticians - I guarantee it.

Orange has become the first British network to offer sports programming from pay-TV group Setanta, making its mobile TV service the only one available where football fans can watch all televised Barclays Premiership games.

Mobile phone customers willing to pay £5 a month will get access to Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2 and Setanta Golf from today. Orange already provides Sky’s mobile TV service so anyone willing to shell out for both will have access to every televised match of the Barclays Premier League.

www.setanta.com

Full story on Guardian Unlimited

Tags: Orange, Setanta

Setanta Sports has passed the one million subscriber mark, adding 200,000 subscribers in the past year, and not including the two million homes that receive the channel as part of sweetheart deals with Virgin Media and UPC Ireland. To reach break-even, the company reportedly needs to reach 1.5million subscribers over the next 18 months.

Setanta Sport Ltd is an international media company whose core business is broadcasting sport. The company operates distinct divisions: Setanta Sports, Setanta Media, and Setanta Screens. Setanta Sport relays sporting events to a global audience. Setanta Media is responsible for Setanta’s new media operations, providing mobile phone content to network operators, web-management services to 3rd-parties and maintenance of the setanta.com website. Setanta Screens supplies large LED screens to the sports and entertainment industries.

Setanta’s coverage includes live coverage of the Scottish, Dutch, French, German and Italian premier leagues, Celtic TV and Rangers TV; in Ireland live Formula One, English Premier League, and GAA; and in the US live UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and Six Nations and Heineken Cup rugby, NASN.

Setanta operates in seven countries, owns and operates seven channels and employs 150 people in Dublin, London, Glasgow and San Francisco. Setanta Sport was founded in 1992 by Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke, who remain joint CEOs and controlling shareholders. Starting from a base of closed circuit TV distributing Irish sports to an expatriate audience, the business has grown into an international multi channel operation.

Current holders in Setanta are EchoStar Media Holdings, Enterprise Ireland, Balderton Capital, Leonard Ryan, Michael O’Rourke, Management Team, Indigo Holdings, Davy Private Equity, Adams Street Partners, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Doughty Hanson.

Tags: Adams Street Partners, Balderton Capital, Davy Private Equity, Doughty Hanson, EchoStar Media Holdings, Enterprise Ireland, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Indigo Holdings, Setanta

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Setanta, the Irish TV broadcaster, has raised £90m from its existing shareholders, including Goldman Sachs, Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital. The money will be used to pay for soccer rights acquisitions including FA Cup games and England Internationals.

Tags: Balderton Capital, Daily Telegraph, Doughty Hanson, Goldman Sachs, Setanta