The tale of Setanta's origins is the stuff of folklore. Two Irish ex-pats living in London found they couldn't watch the Republic of Ireland vs Holland match in the 1990 World Cup. However, they managed to persuade FIFA to sell them a feed of the game to be broadcast in their local pub.
While the pair, Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke, managed to sell-out the pub to Ireland fans at £5 a ticket, their subsequent attempts to break into the UK market and take on pay-TV's big beast Sky, have been less successful.
In March 2007, Setanta, in partnership with ITV, made an audacious £425m bid for the TV rights to FA Cup games and England's home fixtures. These matches, which commanded a 42% premium on the FA's previous deal with the BBC and Sky, supplemented its rights to 46 Premier League games.
At the time, it looked as if Setanta had successfully shed its image as the home of Celtic sports, such as Gaelic football, breaking Sky's stranglehold on the English football market.
However, it recently failed to retain the packages it owns in the 2010-2013 rights auction. Since then, it has been attempting to delay or renegotiate deals with its existing rights-holders, including the English and Scottish Premier Leagues, while it strives to attract new funding from shareholders.
As fears for its future grow, we asked Tim Bonnet, chief executive of Tequila, and Nigel Currie, director of sports agency brandRapport, how Setanta can avoid disappearing into the mists of folklore.
Tim Bonnet chief executive, Tequila
Setanta remains a strong player in the marketplace and it will survive, but change is needed.
Its fundamental offering is sport - especially football - from grass-roots through to international level. This gives Setanta a property that consumers care passionately about, but there is more to the broadcaster than just football. The channels available cover boxing, golf, cricket and other popular sports from around the world, taking its offering beyond football and giving it a potentially powerful place in the industry.
Many people involved at all levels of sport will be hoping that a positive conclusion is reached, if only to continue the challenge to Sky's monopoly.
One of the main challenges is to make Setanta's offering more attractive to the consumer, especially following the damaging dispute over England's World Cup qualification highlights at the start of the current football season.
In the US, Fox took on ESPN by giving itself more of a personality. Setanta can certainly do the same.
Remedy
- Assume a personality to rival Sky.
- Reframe the brand's value proposition, making a big play on customers not having to sign a monthly contract as with Sky.
- Put the cost-saving of having fewer Premiership football games next season back into the hands of the fans, making them feel like they are being rewarded.
- Setanta is platform-agnostic, so rethink the brand's positioning to make it the ‘must-have' for die-hard sports fans by covering events Sky cannot offer, rather than continuing to be the distress purchase it currently is.
Nigel Currie director, brandRapport
Timing is everything in the business world. At a time when Setanta should have been switching on the after-burners and mounting a challenge to other UK broadcasters, the fuel warning light has come on.
Initially, Setanta did everything right. A small, Irish company, it took on the established broadcasters and made them sit up and take notice.
However, Setanta needed to look at the early days of BSB and Sky to see what worked for them. The merger that created BSkyB was important, but it wasn't until the broadcaster acquired two major sporting contracts - live Premiership football and the Ryder Cup that a subscription became essential for vast numbers of sports fans in the UK.
Setanta has failed to secure those crucial rights. It has acquired some good sporting events, but the development and expansion of other channels and digital and online offerings has increased the options for consumers.
Too many of Setanta's rights are aimed at niche audiences. As people look for ways to make cost-savings, subscriptions to an additional sports provider will be high on their lists.
Remedy
- Talk early to rights-holders with which Setanta has contracts. They will be generally sympathetic, and realise the value of having as many broadcasters in the market as possible. If they are prepared to take a long-term view, there should be room for some renegotiation of existing contracts.
- Secure the rights to sporting events that are ‘must-see' for UK sports fans. This will guarantee a significant and immediate increase in subscribers
- Emphasise league sports and ongoing competitions over one-off events.
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