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Is Setanta Saved?

Submitted by WG on Sun, 14/06/2009 - 00:00

Access Industries, a company run by billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik, will pay £20m for a 51 per cent stake in Setanta to help it to avoid administration. Setanta run into financial trouble when it lost half its Premiership live games from 2010-11, leading to fears of a mass exodus of subscribers from the already loss-making company. The crisis revived memories of the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, when the operator went under owing Football League clubs £180m with serious financial consequences for some of them. It had been thought that ESPN might use acquiring Setanta as a way of breaking into the live rights market, but it distanced itself from any deal last week. Blavatnik is a Russian-born American who has invested in Russian oil. He also owns TopUp TV, which operates pay television on Freeview, a stake in an Israeli channel called Sport 5 and a stake in Perform Group, a digital sports rights business with clients including the Premiership and some of its other clubs. Other investors are also expected to take a stake in Setanta to help rebuild the company.