9th May 2006 07:01
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC09 May 2006 Press Release 9 May 2006 BSkyB and Setanta agree distribution deal for commercial customers British Sky Broadcasting ("Sky") and Setanta Sports Holdings ("Setanta") havereached an agreement that will allow pubs, clubs, sports centres and othercommercial premises to receive as part of their Sky subscription Setanta's livecoverage of FA Premier League football from August 2007. This announcement follows last week's award by the FA Premier League of 92 livematches per season to Sky and 46 live matches per season to Setanta for thethree-year period starting in 2007/08. By working together, Sky and Setanta willensure that all of Sky's commercial customers will be able to receive all 138live Premiership matches without the need for separate subscriptions. The newagreement builds on the existing agreement between Sky and Setanta under whichcommercial customers receive Setanta's live coverage of the Scottish PremierLeague as part of their Sky subscription. In addition, Sky and Setanta have reached an agreement in principle under whichSetanta's Premiership coverage will also be available to residential customerson the digital satellite platform. All residential digital satellite viewerswill be able to subscribe to Setanta's package of channels as a standalonesubscription service, following the agreement for Sky to continue to provide arange of Conditional Access services to Setanta. Richard Freudenstein, Sky's Chief Operating Officer, said: "This is good newsfor Sky customers - both commercial and residential. We're pleased to have beenable to reach agreement with Setanta to ensure that Setanta's Premiershipcoverage will be available on the satellite platform." Trevor East, Setanta's Director of Sports, said, "Setanta's strategy is to makeour programming services available on all platforms. We're delighted to haveagreed a deal with Sky that will give us access to all Sky homes, as well asdistribution to their pubs and clubs, for both the FA Premier League and theScottish Premier League." Continued investment in live sport by Sky has helped to achieve a biggeraudience for live sport in pubs and clubs than ever before. In the 2005/06season, fans made an average of 6.1 million visits per week to watch Sky Sportsin pubs or clubs, up from 5.4 million per week the previous season. end Notes to Editors Setanta Setanta offers seven channels in the UK on both the Sky and cable platforms.Subscribers to the Setanta Sports Pack receive over 1,000 live sports eventsevery year including football: from Scottish, Italian, French German and Dutchpremier leagues, rugby: featuring French Top14 and The Celtic League, andAmerican Sports: including NFL football, MLB baseball and NBA basketball. TheScottish Premier League is also available on a pay-per-view basis on Freeview.Setanta will be broadcasting 46 FA Premier League matches, commencing August2007, within their Sports Pack on both satellite and cable platforms, ensuringthe widest possible distribution to viewers. For further information: Sky Press:Matthew Anderson Tel: 0207 705 3267 [email protected] Fraser Tel: 0207 705 3036 [email protected] Analysts / investors:Andrew Griffith Tel: 0207 705 3118 [email protected] Kingston Tel: 0207 705 3726 [email protected] Setanta Sports Victoria Palmer-Moore (Director, Powerscourt) Tel: 0207 236 [email protected] Brooke (Director, Setanta) Tel: 0207 766 8450 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Sky