The production company behind 'Big Brother' is considering joining a group of potential investors led by Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik who are looking to take a majority share. Blavatnik is also a shareholder in Top-Up TV, which sells Setanta subscriptions.
Access Industries, the investment vehicle formed by Blavatnik, offered £20m in return for a 51% stake on Friday. The company is currently carrying out due diligence on Setanta's books.
However, according to the Financial Times, is uninterested in becoming a minor shareholder in Setanta and would want to be a bigger partner with as much as 49%. If it is unable to secure this, Endemol may limit its involvement to picking up Setanta's production business.
business model started to unravel last week when it missed a £3m payment to the Scottish Premier League and reports revealed it had failed to secure the £100m it needed to remain operational. It stopped taking on new subscribers.
Setanta almost went into administration last week when it was due to pay £35m to the FA Premier League as part of its £392m three-year contract. It was only after Blavatnik's offer that Setanta released £10m and the Premier League agreed to restructure the deal.
The company, which also has the rights to Guinness Premiership rugby, bought two of out of six Premier League packages covering the past two seasons and the coming one, but needed to bring in 1.9m subscribers to justify its investment. The figure is currently stalled at around 1.3m.
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