Setanta Sport, the Irish television broadcaster, has lost out to BSkyB in the battle to win the rights to the Carling Cup and Football League championships in England. The Irish group is still pursuing Premier League rights.
A spokesman for Setanta confirmed last night the company had bid for the Carling Cup and Football League rights, but was not successful. The company already holds the rights to Scottish Premier League football.
BSkyB, which owns Sky Sports, has promised to broadcast an extra 30 live football matches a year as part of a three-year Carling Cup and Football League deal. The new contract is believed to be worth more than £110 million sterling.
British reports suggest BSkyB had to raise its bid to see off Setanta's challenge. The new contracts kick in from August 2006.
The setback for Setanta comes after an eventful week for the Irish company. First it announced it had acquired a 50 per cent stake in the North American Sports Network, with the other 50 per cent bought by Benchmark Capital Europe.
On Thursday, British media reports suggested Setanta was trying to poach one of BSkyB's most senior executives, Trevor East. Neither BSkyB or Setanta was prepared to comment on these reports.
Many observers believe the attempt to lure Mr East is part of a plan by Setanta to bid for lucrative rights to broadcast premiership soccer in 2006.
The EU Commission has told the Premier League that a cap may be imposed on the number of matches broadcast by any one company. If this is conceded, it may open the way for Setanta to secure some lucrative rights and show the games on pay-per-view basis in Britain.
However, the rights to these games are extremely expensive with BSkyB's present all-in deal worth £1.02 billion sterling.
Sky Sports picked up Football League rights for a knockdown price of just under £25 million a year in July 2002, after ITV Digital collapsed and pulled out of its £315 million, five-year deal.
"The Football League continues to go from strength to strength and attendances are at their highest in 45 years, reflecting the huge interest... and emphasising the league's importance in the sporting fabric of this country," said the Sky Sports managing director Vic Wakeling.
