Setanta spoils BSkyB’s Premiership party |
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Published
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Sun, 07 May 2006 10:10
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The English Premier league took the word "richest" to a new level after it announced a new three year deal with British television giant BSkyB and the Irish pay-TV operator, Setanta which will amount to an astounding £1.7 billion.
The deal, which will start from 2007-08 season, has guaranteed that the Premier league will remain the richest league in the world. The main news that will grab the headlines is that Setanta, which was expected to get just one of the six packages available, has managed to bag two of them for £392 million, thus breaking the monopoly of BSkyB over the TV rights of the English football.
BSkyB had to pay £1.314 billion for its 4 packages, the high price being blamed by many on the decision of the European commission which had earlier made it clear that there should be at least two companies that would share the TV rights for the league, which was entirely under the monopoly of the British media giant thus making it uncompetitive.
Of the 138 matches to be played, BSkyB has the rights to telecast 92 matches for which it will pay £4.8 million as compared to £2.5 million on the existing deal. The packages won by BSkyB include the all important 'A' package which allows it to telecast matches played on Sunday afternoons. The other packages include the games to be played early afternoon Saturday and Sunday.
Setanta's TV rights include the matches played on Saturday evenings and Monday nights. Meanwhile Trevor East, Setanta's director of sport and former BSkyB man, has said that this is a historical deal and one that will put his company on the map, "Most people in the UK haven't heard of us. Now we're on the map."
The new deal also sees Premiership clubs getting more money with even the bottom club getting at least £25 million every year as compared to £30 million given to Chelsea, who were the league champions last season.
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