It took on BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) as a plucky challenger in the battlefield of live sports, but at 6 pm on Tuesday Setanta’s channels went off air as the company’s UK division fell into administration following a failed £20 million rescue attempt last week. Adminstrator Deloitte said yesterday it’s working…

US sportscaster ESPN (NYSE: DIS) has achieved its long-standing ambition of establishing a major foothold in the UK and Europe by winning the rights to broadcast 46 live English Premier League rights next season and 23 games for three seasons starting in 2010/11. That’s all the rights in collapsing Setanta’s…

A Setanta rescue proposal from Russian-American industrialist Len Blavatnik could create a much stronger outfit than the Irish sportscaster already is, with a vastly improved commitment to online sports broadcasting… Blavatnik has reportedly offered to pay £20 million for 51 percent of troubled Setanta through his Access Industries holding company.…

Pay TV in the UK is notable for its disappointing lack of digital strategy. BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) may be pushing its content through the XBox and a standalone online portal—but essentially, despite all the lip service and stated commitment to new, online business models, just like newspapers the industry still…

When your business model is under threat, you have no choice but to change it. According to several reports, sports broadcaster Setanta is considering a radical switch in strategy from a customer-facing TV subscriptions to wholesale content distribution. FT.com reports that the company, which owns English Premier League TV rights…

Still unprofitable, Setanta Sports seems intent on further debting itself to the hilt, if this weekend newspaper story is true: Telegraph.co.uk says the Irish subscription TV outfit is considering selling a further equity stake or going to the debt markets to finance a further Premier League rights buy-up… Against all…

—Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Sport: Sports publisher Factory Media‘s extreme sports news and community site Mpora has got carriage for its Mpora.tv video channel on the co-branded sports portal operated by Yahoo and Eurosport. Mpora already supplied text articles to the site, which launched in May ‘07; now it will add…

Has Setanta scored an own goal after failing to strike a deal with the BBC and ITV (LSE: ITV) to show highlights of England’s World Cup qualifying match against Croatia? Last night, pay-TV sports broadcaster Setanta decided to lift its encryption technology and allow fans to watch highlights for free.…

—Setanta: Setanta Sports has got carriage from Inuk, the south Wales-based IPTV operator whose FreewireTV service pipes channels to PCs in students’ halls of residence rooms. It’s part of a £9.99-a-month Freewire Extra package that adds subscription channels to the conventional offering. The sports broadcaster is seeking more broadband and…

BSkyB’s launch plans for its digital terrestrial television pay-TV service Picnic are stuck in a holding pattern, after Ofcom announced yesterday, yet another consultation into the service and in Sky’s positioning in the UK pay-TV market. On Tuesday, the regulator published the responses it had received from Sky’s competitors, including…

Irish pay-TV outfit Setanta Sports has been forced to abandon its hoped-for sale after buyers deemed the £1 billion asking price too high, The Times reported. The company - which broadcasts English and Scottish soccer matches, Celtic League rugby and overseas sports - is not expecting to break even until…

Irish-owned broadcaster Setanta Sports has hired Stephen Michael, former general manager at LFC TV, the digital media arm of Liverpool Football Club. He steps into the newly created role of director of new media, where he will manage the distribution of Setanta’s content across the internet and on mobile devices.…

Irish-owned broadcaster Setanta Sports is gauging the interest for a potential sale of the company after finding a float too tricky an option in the current market. Timesonline.co.uk reports the international pay TV company, which airs English Premier League Football, is thought to be seeking a valuation of over £1…

Orange UK can now claim to offer all Premier League soccer matches over its mobile TV service. The telco had already offered Sky Sports channels, which hold the rights to 92 live games, in its £5-per-month BSkyB bouquet. Now it has added the sports channel lineup from Setanta, which has…

Ofcom’s initial verdict in its assessment of the UK pay-TV market, prompted by complaints by rivals - pretty good, could do better. The regulator said the sector had grown from nothing in the early nineties to 11 million subscribers and £4 billion revenue today, delivering “significant benefits” to viewers -…

In the red corner - BT, (NYSE: BT) Setanta, Top Up TV and Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) team up to complain about BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) in a 59-page joint submission to Ofcom’s review of the UK pay-TV market. In the blue corner - reigning champion Sky submits a counter-argument protesting…