LONDON (ShareCast) - Troubled sports broadcaster Setanta has been given until Friday to come up with the £10m it owes the English Premier League (EPL), or lose its rights to next season's games.
If it doesn't come up with
the cash the Premiership has warned it will auction off the rights to the 46 live matches Setanta is due to show in 2009/2010.
The group, which also owes £3m to the Scottish Premier League, paid the EPL £10m last Friday and has promised to find another £10m within a month.
It is currently losing around £100m a year.
"Although the Premier League would like to provide Setanta with as much time as possible to re-arrange its finances, the start of the 2009/10 Season is only two months away, with the release of fixtures imminent," the Premier League said Monday.
"Accordingly, the Premier League has notified Setanta that if necessary the existing licence agreement between us will be terminated, coming into effect if Setanta does not meet certain contractual requirements of the Premier League on or before Friday 19 June 2009."
It added: "In view of the shortage of time before the start of next season, the Premier League has determined, with the agreement of Setanta, that it shall today issue its Invitation to Tender (ITT) in respect of the 46 UK Live Matches for the 2009/10 Season only."
About 1.2 subscribers are able to watch football, cricket, PGA golf and rugby matches on Setanta, but that's way shy of the 1.9m it needs to break even.
There was talk over the weekend that Dutch media giant Endemol (Amsterdam: EML.AS - news) could take a stake, raising hopes that the business could be saved.
The maker of reality TV show Big Brother is thought to be interested in buying 49% of the Irish company with other investors.
It could join a consortium including US investor Len Blavatnik whose Access Industries was said to have offered £20m for a 51% stake on Friday.
Russian oligarch, Blavatnik, also involved with pay-tv channel Top-up TV, already has a small interest in Setanta.
The company has now reopened its website to new subscribers having stopped accepting subscriptions from new customers last Wednesday.
Deloitte is poised to take over the running of the business if the rescue deal fails and Setanta is forced into administration.
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