Setanta renew Scottish Premier League Contract
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008Scottish Premier League football clubs are rejoicing after it was announced yesterday that Setanta, the satellite company that currently hold the rights to screen live Clydesdale Bank Premier League action, has renewed a deal to screen live matches from Scotland, at double the price they paid for the privilege four years ago. The SPL’s current deal with Setanta, worth 13.5 million a season, is due to expire at the end of the 2009/2010 season. The original deal was struck in 2004, when Setanta took over coverage from the BBC.
The four year contract extension was announced by Lex Gold, the SPL’s executive chairman. “£125 million marks the biggest ever TV deal in Scottish football history,” he said yesterday. “This will allow clubs to re-invest to make the Scottish game even stronger.”
The main beneficiaries will be the club managers, who will see the annual television revenue of £31.25 million distributed when the new terms come into force at the beginning of the 2010-11 season. Whilst Celtic and Rangers are among the top 20 richest clubs globally, other Scottish Premier League teams will be only too glad of the extra cash. Most have to operate on much smaller budgets and therefore lose out on key players. They will now see their revenues from satellite television rise from just over £1 million a season to £2 million a season under the new agreement.
The success of Rangers and Celtic who both reached the UEFA cup final in the last five seasons has raised the profile of the Scottish game, particularly abroad. Lex Gold sees this change reflected in the new deal.
“Ten years ago, we spoke about delivering a brighter future for Scottish football,” he said. “Today, as we look ahead to our next 10 years, we can do so with confidence. No commercial deal comes close to matching what has been achieved today by the SPL and Setanta Sports for our game. We have moved forward with Setanta over the past four years and we look forward to working with them to continue building and developing our league.”
Setanta will broadcast sixty live games each season to be shown throughout Britain and Ireland.
