For those in the UK.

If you haven't, like I, paid for Setanta and thus for 2 years haven't been able to see any PGA Tour golf coverage then hold on to your hats.......Setanta are going into administration!

Hopefully this means Sky will buy back the rights to show the US tour again and we can get back to watching the big tournaments such as Bay Hill and the Memorial which we have missed!

Oh!
I so hope your right.

brooky333

i perfer sky's coverage anyway

Yes, I also hope you are right, i had Setanta and got rid of it, it was rubbish ken brown and ronan rafferty Oh dear!!

It would be great if Sky get the PGA Tour again, fingers crossed

*fingers crossed*

"WE HATE SETANTA"

and sky have the HD option woohoo!

The picture feed / quality from the US is pretty good now which i think is due to it being broadcast in high definition.

However it's shown in standard definition via setanta as they have no HD channel.

I do like the setanta golf channel though...lot's of good golf shows especially out of bounds so will miss them.

This is some good news. Fed up of looking at PGA tour scores on the internet and seeing unknown names towards the top of the leaderboard and thinking WTF!?!

A little more detail is here. Setenta is indeed in financial trouble. Very basically, they are not even close to their minimum subscriber level to break even. It is very likely they will go into administration in the next week or so, as re-financing deals failed last weekend.

BBC - Setanta financial trouble

However, for all those cheering at the channels demise, look at what we have now and what the future holds.

For up to £13 a month there was a fair amount of sport on offer across 3 channels (plus I seemed to get access to Liverpool FC TV which was nice) and one dedicated golf channel which carried some guff, but outside of the PGA Tour, Nationwide and Champion's Tour, about 50% of the content was OK.

1) There is no guarantee Sky will buy back the rights. They have spent a good deal of money on the Golf Night programme and building it's slot in the programme line up. US coverage would compete directly with this programme.
2) If Sky do buy back the rights there is no guarantee they will buy what Setanta had to offer (the rights were purchased by Setanta from the Golf Channel, not the PGA Tour or each separate US broadcaster). You may find yourself with just the PGA, no Champions or Nationwide.
3) If Sky do buy the rights, they will put up the price of your Sports Subscription to the value of cost plus. They are in the business to make a profit and grow (and max shareholder value, etc, etc, etc.). They are not some altruistic broadcaster here to bring sports from around the world to our TV.

Hopefully someone will step up and offer Premier League matches in HD to the USA.

There was no way I was going to pay $15/mo to Setanta to watch in SD while looking at all those HD signs around the pitch.

i only watch the first 30 mins golf on sentanta which are free

only trouble is they talk for the first ten mins or so

I prefer the skys european coverage, more varied courses different countries and conditions. Also less adverts and better commentaters.

I would suggest it is more likely another broadcaster will buy up the rights for the football and golf

Wooooooo! This also means more Premier League matches on Sky Sports too! Even better is that I go a Sky+ HD box last week, so watching Camilo Villegas and Luke Donald in HD is going to be a mouth-watering prospect lol.

Funny that they didn't reduce it when they lost the golf, though.

I bet they don't put it up £15 (Setanta in 2 rooms).

ESPN a potential buyer of the rights?

I hope Sky get the US PGA golf back asap. I thought it was inexcusable that the lost out to the broadcasting rights in the first place.

I don't think Sky will put the price up of the sports subscription if they get it back. the bulk of the sports subscription is funding the Premier League football, the golf is peanuts in comparison.

I do like watching Golf Night, or should I say Di Stewart, but it is purely filler for the abscence of USPGA golf.

The BBC also commented in the current economic climate that TV broadcasting rights when coming up for re-negotiation will be sold for considerably less than in previous years.
In an ideal world I would like to see a BBC golf channel.

In an ideal world I would like to see a BBC golf channel.


[/quote]


Now that would be good!

The best golf I have watched this year was the Masters on the BBC in HD.

I think is this economic climate we should allow the BBC to have a dedicated sport channel and allow program sponsorship

brooky333

I agree, I've been wanting EPL in HD for a while now. For better or worse, I pay for Setanta so I can watch the games not covered by FSC, but the quality is pretty bad. Is there any chance of Sky Sports ever being carried in the US? Or if ESPN would pick up the games like they do with Champions League that would work too.

I could never understand why Sky allowed Setanta to gain the UK rights for USPGA Golf ???

Football/Cricket/Boxing/Golf have always been their 'golden nuggets' to ensure their 'business model' remains.

So why did Sky ALLOW Setanta the Golf rights ? Perhaps Sky realised many viewers were turing to the internet and viewing USPGA golf via p2p and veetle ?

They already had the European Tour (and a strategy to roll out HD programming at European Tour events) so allowed Setanta to overpay for the rights (as they did for the Premiership, SPL and IPL) then sat back and waited for them to run out of working capital and cash. The same strategy they used to drive ITV digital out of business.

I would love a BBC golf or even sport channel.

Interesting you don't think that Sky would put up their Sports Package costs if they bought back the PGA Tour broadcasting rights. Setanta paid £103 million for a six year deal with the Golf Channel/PGA Tour in 2007. Say Sky got the remaining 4 years of that deal at a cut price rate of £40 million, where is that money going to come from considering B Sky B made a loss of £127 million last year?

Edit....sorry, just read that back, it sounds like an exam question....sorry!

Hm. As a Setanta subscriber this is unfortunate news. Don't get me wrong their golf coverage is plain awful, however it pains me to think I might have to succumb to getting Sky just to watch some decent golf (Masters and The Open excepted of course).

I admit the Sky coverage is a substantial improvement over Holyer and his cronies on Setanta, but I can't work out why everyone is so excited at the prospect of lining Rupert Murdoch's pockets even more and consolidating his virtual monopoly over sports coverage in the UK? Also, how much is a Sky Sports these days, £45 a month? Call me a cheapskate but given I won't watch 99% of the channels, that's a reasonable amount of bunce.

Sky sports itself is a premium package which costs £19 on top of the standard package, i pay £67 per month

£47 full sky package
£10 HD Chanels
£10 multiroom viewing.

i don't drink, i don't smoke and i love tv so for me its justifiable, what i wasn't going to do was also pay SULTANA just for a extra few games of footy and the USPGA.........but lets hope sky do get it, that would be a big thumbs up from me.........but the MRS may not be too happy

Why pay for USPGA golf when you can watch it for free ???? Why take over the Setanta Golf contract when you know people are watching for free on Internet ?

Where can one watch the PGA Tour for free?

myp2p or channelsurfing.com

Thurs/Fri - Veetle shows Golf Channel then Sat/Sun p2p shows NBC coverage - all free via internet. Added bonus is Veetle/Golf channel show 2 hours extra coverage Thur/Fri and also 2 hours extra coverage on Sat/Sun

No wonder Setanta are going down the tubes - I moved house recently and had Sky installed, but no internet connection at the time.

I phoned Setanta as I was considering getting it for one of the local derbies, to be told that they were not allowed to tell me what the special offers were, that I had to go online to view them myself.

I pointed out that I had no internet connection, and was told there was nothing they could do, that I would have to pay full fees as I didn't have any offers to quote them.

Told them to poke it, their football coverage was dire, and the golf wasn't much better.

Bit of a concern that Scottish Football might not be getting the money they are due, but that is the only thing I am worried about.

ESPN will be buy the football and golf rights, starting ESPN Europe 360 network. This will happen if setanta finish.

ESPN already provide NASN (Now ESPN America) to setanta, ESPN will start a European Sports Network with live NBA, NHL, MLB for European countries, ESPN Deportes will also be broadcasted on this new European sports networl.

The other rumour going around is that the European network Canal+ plus will start providing the golf for PGA Tour the UK, as they provide PGA Tour coverage EU countries.

Also, due to EU competition laws, not all the premiership football can be on one provider, same as the golf I beleive. Sky cant mononpolise the golf.

saves me another £15 a month.
Sure hope they keep hold of the premier league games!

Herewith latest report from BBC here in UK :-

US investor Len Blavatnik is offering £20m for a 51% stake in the troubled Irish pay-tv channel Setanta, the BBC has learned. Mr Blavatnik is also involved with Top-up TV, the pay-tv channel on Freeview.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said Mr Blavatnik's intervention could buy Setanta some extra time.

Watch this space !

£20m? He's not going to get far with that with Setanta's £500m odd deficit, maybe another week or 3. Of course if he gets 51% and the company goes to wholesale format or merges/gets taken over by ESPN etc I guess it could be a nice earner for him.

Hopefully now when we watch PL Football we dont have to listen to Craig Burley commentating on setanta, and finding any excuse in the game to have a go at Manchester United!!

That man is such a D**K!

What do you think the odds are on getting a dedicated golf channel , either through ESPN or SKY which you would be able to subscribe to independently?
I'm not that interested in the rest of the current sports filler on the other channels , Internation tiddlywinks, folk racing cars/motorbikes , cricket, rounders , netball, football, handball etc, etc