I think it could be a good thing for League. I reckon ESPN will take em over as they've got 1.2m subscribers, which aint too shabby. yes it needed 1.8 to breakeven but much of those costs are already met by ESPN.
Why will it be good for league?
Its Sky's second biggest audience grabber but it doesnt reflect that in what it pays for the game. If it goes to ESPN along with the NRL, thats all the league on one channel and I reckon quite a few will follow it. more money for the game, having two rivals bidding for it, and better times slots for League if it goes to ESPN.

Heard on the radio earlier today that Setanta have to pay Sky 100k a month for them to broadcast on their sattelite. No wonder they are having money troubles. They cant afford to pay £30m installment to the Premier League & failed to pay £3m for the rights for the Scotish football.

As others have said, if they go under its one less challenger for Sky when the rights for TV coverage come up again.

hopefully it gets sorted out positively, i need setanta for ice hockey and the nrl. espn getting involved would be excellent, they are a very well run organisation and love to air "niche" sports.

Sky don't own any satellites, the ones Sky use are own by SES Astra.

They have to pay Sky to be included on Sky's EPG and use Sky's encryption

Goodbye and good riddance Setanta - hopefully your passing will at least get the NRL back on Sky.

ok.. didnt know the correct terms!

yes it can

on a certain website which is the name of a person it has archives where you can watch previously broadcasted streams

No chance. After securing the Premier League rights, it needed 1.8m subscribers to break even. It got up to 1.2m, and that's with all the Virgin Media customers thrown in, many of whom got Setanta for free.

Yeah and I hope you lose your job too

What I find interesting is the assumption that an american station would be prepared to show live rugby league!

If it was Fox, CBS, ABC or NBC then whoopee and they could show it in the states instead of "Football".

Sadly that will not happen, or certainally not in my lifetime

Its a sports station, it wants viewers. RL is Sky's second biggest ratings winner and it pays bugger all for it.
Setanta has NRL if it were to get ESL too viewers would migrate to that platform.
If it was ESPNs main sport it would then feature it more heavily granting it higher exposure.

That's the theory. hth

Yes and see how that theory currently works on both Setanta and Sky

? Sky has ESL setanta has nrl?

im toying with the idea of cancelling my direct debit due next tuesday. If most reports are accurate in that they wont last the month, i dont want to be paying £12.99 next week only for them to shut down a few days later. Anyone else done the same already? I know its exactly what anata don't need, subscribers cancelling their subs, but everyone needs to look after number 1!

Yes but the exposure is negligable on both channels!

Setanta don't even promote the game and Sky seem more interested in Onion, cricket and of course moronball even if they are out of season.

Don't kid yourself that Sky are doing the game that many favours!

I agree they got "the greatest game" for pennies and will probably get it again for even less with no competition from any other source!

Thanks for that. I'm pretty good at mine though, so I doubt I will.

I agree. Its together that it works as a package.
Sky know league fans will watch it whenever they put it on.
If Espn had both the ESL and the NRL its a pretty attractive package and would be their main draw. as such they would (you would think) position it accordingly.

Hate to agree with a Cas fan, but Setanta have brought this upon themselves. They didn't care about RL, thought they could take on Sky without learning the lessons of ONDigital, and from what people said their customer relations were terrible. Hardly deserving of success.

I would. You'll have little hope of seeing you get back any of that £12.99 if it goes bust before the month is out.

Its you that sent them under!!!

Going off air at midnight.

Breaking news on BBC News: BBC Scotland are reporting that a rescue package is on the brink of being agreed at an EGM tonight.

it better not go off-air tonight, i have game 6 of the stanely cup to watch!!!

its still on