ToffeeWeb - Season 2008-09

The Mail Bag

Setanta Advert

There is a Setanta advert on the site advertising Premier League Football... Not sure that it is relevant anymore!

On a serious point, Setanta got things wrong right at the beginning. Their advertising campaign was all about the Big 4. This alienated lots of would-be subscribers. They then overpaid for England and FA Cup rights. I fear for anyone up against Sky as there will only be 1 winner.

Let's hope that the ex-Setanta matches will be freely available.
Jonathan Tasker, London Posted 22/06/2009 at 05:58:55

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Comments

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Ciarán McGlone
1 Posted 22/06/2009 at 14:55:37

I’m afraid ’freely available’ football doesn’t pay Everton’s bills....

Dan McKie
2 Posted 22/06/2009 at 15:17:53

The games were never great. I found it was mainly Arsenal against some team like Hull or Stoke on a Saturday tea-time! I was usually either traveling back from Goodison or had better things to do like get ready for a night out. The Monday night games were even worse, and a lot of the time involved Newcastle!!

Sky can buy half of Setanta?s deal but not all of it because of monopoly laws and all that. ESPN will get it.

Jamie Crowley
3 Posted 23/06/2009 at 04:55:56

Does anyone know (and probably most here don?t care, but I sure as Hell do) where that leaves America in regards to coverage? Setanta and Fox had the rights. Setanta surely lost those rights as their relationship with the EPL was severed. Does ESPN also acquire the North American rights with this, or will that go out to bid as well?

We have ridiculously good coverage here. Much, much better than in the UK. We could easliy view 5 to 7 games a weekend, most live and a few on delay. Setanta getting tossed might make it a lot more difficult to see games in America.

I pray ESPN gets rights and shows the games live, as well as replays on ESPN360 here in the States. If anyone has any info on that, pls post.

Patty Beesley
4 Posted 23/06/2009 at 09:05:48

In actual fact, they did show a lot of Everton games, the reason why we subscribed to it. Has anyone else had difficulty in cancelling their payments?

Sean Elliott
5 Posted 23/06/2009 at 10:27:06

Sorry for the un Everton related post but... does anyone have any idea where this will leave UFC? I can hardly cope with life without watching UFC, it?s second only to Football for me.

Patricia Beesley
6 Posted 23/06/2009 at 10:50:30

Jonathan Tasker... Are you by any chance related to a Jonathan Tasker who runs a Guest House in Brechfa

Tom Campbell
7 Posted 23/06/2009 at 14:06:25

If I am a Setanta subscriber, does thst mean I should get rid of it or will the matches still be shown with ESPN getting the money?

Will Leaf
8 Posted 23/06/2009 at 14:42:51

Setanta, as far as I can tell, still have the rights to show PL games in the U.S. Setanta (USA) is a subsidiary, apparently. Now if the main Setanta ceases to exist, who knows what that will happen.

The ESPN commentators for the USA are truly atrocious, and that Tommy Smyth is imbecilic. So, if they take over I am gritting my teeth. Better than nothing, I suppose.

Another great touch by ESPN is flashing the score, along that annoying scroll thingy, of the tape delayed game you are watching. Nice.

Richard Porter
9 Posted 23/06/2009 at 18:20:33

Tom Campbell: Setanta has been taken into administration. The administrators, Deloittes, say that they will cease UK broadcasts, and will not take any more payments from subscribers, so you don’t need to cancel, your subscription has effectively been cancelled by Deloittes. The ESPN games will apparently be available for an extra fee through SKY or Virgin packages. I’m hoping they’ll also decide to follow Setanta’s idea of having a pay channel on Freeview boxes as well, but we’ll have to wait and see

Richard Porter
10 Posted 23/06/2009 at 20:53:54

Also, the Irish and American brances of Setanta are apparently unaffected as it is the UK branch of the company which has gone under.

Jamie Crowley
11 Posted 24/06/2009 at 04:47:31

Richard -
Got a lot more info today, and it does seem the Irish and US branches are unaffected, or at least operate independently. But that?s the company line...

I see no way, now that the parent company is under, for the auxillary US, Ausie, Irish, et al divisions to survive long term. A branch needs it?s tree; it?s a matter of time.

I just hope someone steps in to fill the void when the inevitable happens. If it?s ESPN, I really pray the 360 coverage is included to allow anytime access to most games.

Richard Porter
12 Posted 24/06/2009 at 13:35:43

But the British operation isn?t the parent company ? the Irish operation was the original, and presumably is where the power base lies.