Setanta going under?
Discussion
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/me...
I would be very happy if this does indeed come to pass.
I would be very happy if this does indeed come to pass.
Fittster said:
curlie467 said:
Me too, always a shame for people wjose jobs are involved but setanta have been a mighty pain in the arse since they arrived on the scene, fancy showing england matches on a pay channel, whata load of crap.
When did Sky become free?It mentioned in the Times this week that most of the subscribers are expected to cancel after this weekend as this is the final England footy game to be shown.
There was also a rumour that is why David Haye cancelled the fight in 2 weeks as all his money was to come from Setanta. They reckon a back injury is harder to prove so cancel the fight, get new carrier and reschedule. I guess he didn't expect Wlad to simply get a new opponent though which leaves him screwed.
There was also a rumour that is why David Haye cancelled the fight in 2 weeks as all his money was to come from Setanta. They reckon a back injury is harder to prove so cancel the fight, get new carrier and reschedule. I guess he didn't expect Wlad to simply get a new opponent though which leaves him screwed.
Other than the obvious problems of redundancy for Des Lynam and others who work there, I wouldnt be disappointed. OFCOM (or whoever it was) said that Sky couldnt have the monolopy on games - ok fair enough, but it just meant that the consumer had to pay more, because Sky certainly didnt lower their prices, so extra Setanta subsciption means just more money. How is that good? Rather have a monopoly.
Would be good for a terrestial channel to get some games, but doubt that will happen. All GB internationals should always be on normal telly in my opinion!
Would be good for a terrestial channel to get some games, but doubt that will happen. All GB internationals should always be on normal telly in my opinion!
LaserTam said:
Would be good for a terrestial channel to get some games, but doubt that will happen. All GB internationals should always be on normal telly in my opinion!
I'd second that. The average man has already been priced out of actually attending the games on a weekly basis so the least they could do is show the Internationals on the free-to-air channels.But the cats out of the bag and the money has started to roll in so (sadly) it'll nevere be free again.
im said:
LaserTam said:
Would be good for a terrestial channel to get some games, but doubt that will happen. All GB internationals should always be on normal telly in my opinion!
I'd second that. The average man has already been priced out of actually attending the games on a weekly basis so the least they could do is show the Internationals on the free-to-air channels.But the cats out of the bag and the money has started to roll in so (sadly) it'll nevere be free again.
As for Setanta, good riddance to bad rubbish. A bunch of shysters & pikeys IMO (a view that isn't exactly unique) and that's why they will die.
tuscaneer said:
most logical as branson owns both channels doesn`t he? there is no way you are going to get a free channel showing all the boxing though, itv are pulling out after the next contracted shows with hennessey(6 of them) so i guess sky is going to have to come to the rescue
Why would Sky pay to show the fights if nobody else wants them?deevlash said:
sod the football, who is going to show the UFC?!?!
Prob nobody.UFC are the biggest bunch of arselholes to deal with.
They fell out spectacularly with Sky a few years back when they first crossed the Atlantic. (I will go into more detail if you want, although their lawyers are probably already trying to think of ways to sue me for saying any of this....they've tried before
)I would be really surprised to see them kiss and make up, especially now that the MMA bubble has burst.
I suspect that they will end up on a small channel in all seriousness though.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of
s.LaserTam said:
Other than the obvious problems of redundancy for Des Lynam and others who work there, I wouldnt be disappointed. OFCOM (or whoever it was) said that Sky couldnt have the monolopy on games - ok fair enough, but it just meant that the consumer had to pay more, because Sky certainly didnt lower their prices, so extra Setanta subsciption means just more money. How is that good? Rather have a monopoly.
This is exactly how I feel about the situation, and why I started the thread. Same situation with Directory enquiries actually.LaserTam said:
Would be good for a terrestial channel to get some games, but doubt that will happen. All GB internationals should always be on normal telly in my opinion!
Somehow I don't think they will end up back on Sky, but if they do it doesn't bother me...as I have Sky. 
Martial Arts Man said:
deevlash said:
sod the football, who is going to show the UFC?!?!
Prob nobody.UFC are the biggest bunch of arselholes to deal with.
They fell out spectacularly with Sky a few years back when they first crossed the Atlantic. (I will go into more detail if you want, although their lawyers are probably already trying to think of ways to sue me for saying any of this....they've tried before
)I would be really surprised to see them kiss and make up, especially now that the MMA bubble has burst.
I suspect that they will end up on a small channel in all seriousness though.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of
s.If Setanta does go under then the UFC will want a fairly mainstream channel who can pay lots of money to broadcast their shows.
tim2100 said:
Some reasonably large channel will pick them up. I guess Bravo will be wanting them back as well. They may be difficult to deal with, hoewever they are the major organisation in MMA which is growing in popularity all the time. So which ever channel does get UFC they will be able to command a good premium from their advertisers.
If Setanta does go under then the UFC will want a fairly mainstream channel who can pay lots of money to broadcast their shows.
Setanta pay virtually nothing for UFC. Remember when they tried PPV in the UK? How long did that last? 1 show....hmmm....why could that be?If Setanta does go under then the UFC will want a fairly mainstream channel who can pay lots of money to broadcast their shows.
I remember being briefed by their UK fixer upon their arrival here that they were planning 6 shows a year, every year in the UK. How long did that plan last? Didn't happen....I wonder why?
MMA is growing, but slowly from an essentially non-existent base. I have spent my working life at the sharp end of this business; everyone is struggling big time in the UK MMA world right now.
The sport may well be huge in the States, but it will never approach that level of popularity here. I remember UKMMA pre-UFC; this line about "fastest growing sport" etc only arrived here with the UFC at their first Manchester press conference. It has since been parrotted out non-stop and everyone believed it, mostly because they truly wished it to be correct.
OK, everyone may have heard of UFC these days, but who actually pays money into the industry? Hardly anyone. How many subscribers joined Setanta as a result of the UFC deal? Hardly millions I presume.
3 MMA magazines have launched and folded in the last 2 years. The current market leader sells a pitiful number of copies per month. A truly pathetic amount. My local town's football mag (2nd division!) sells twice as many!
UK MMA Promotions have fallen faster than a house of cards since the UFC declared war on Cage Rage some years back. Nobody is going to these UK shows.
MMA going mainstream was a short term bubble. It is like boxing....all the money in the hands of the few with only big time bouts drawing the viewers.
These things combined give me all the evidence I need to conclude that MMA is nowhere near as important as it believes itself to be.
However, back to Bravo sounds about right. Sky will never have them due to UFC's insistence on total 100% control over the shows and broadcasts. This is why they fell out a few years back, I believe.
Martial Arts Man said:
Setanta pay virtually nothing for UFC. Remember when they tried PPV in the UK? How long did that last? 1 show....hmmm....why could that be?
PPV has never worked in the UK. The UK market is different to the states, and PPV does not work. the payments that Setanta make to UFC for the shows makes the UK UFC just about profitable.Martial Arts Man said:
I remember being briefed by their UK fixer upon their arrival here that they were planning 6 shows a year, every year in the UK. How long did that plan last? Didn't happen....I wonder why?
That was / is ambitious. The UK is to small to host that many shows in the country. Also when they have had shows they are treated like Fight Nights and don't always have the big names of a US PPV usually the following week.Martial Arts Man said:
UK MMA Promotions have fallen faster than a house of cards since the UFC declared war on Cage Rage some years back. Nobody is going to these UK shows.
It is a tad optimistic to say that nobody is going to the shows. The mojority of the shows overhere have been pretty well attended, and near enough filled the venuesMartial Arts Man said:
MMA going mainstream was a short term bubble.
MMA will not be main stream in the UK. there is still to much preduice and around to get it mainstream. I was told last week that UFC/MMA is no holds bars and includes biting, gouging out eyes and head stamping! To get MMA to have a greater audience and better informed public, the sport needs to be on a mainstream channel, not locked away on a PPV / Subscription channelMartial Arts Man said:
However, back to Bravo sounds about right. Sky will never have them due to UFC's insistence on total 100% control over the shows and broadcasts. This is why they fell out a few years back, I believe.
I may be wrong but I thought that UFC was on Sky some years ago before it went to Bravo. Because the sport was relatively minor at the it was bumped for darts and various other repeats on sky. MMA is gathering pace in the uk, slowly but surely. The new game on Consoles will attract a new audience. I am seeing UFC being mentioned on various Twitter feeds from people who have not heard of MMA.
However the uk audience wants big names, they do not want the cheesey broadcasts by Cage Rage and the current UK MMA organisations, they want to see the glitz, the glamour the big names that the UFC offers.
Martial Arts Man said:
lots of other good stuff
ETA I do agree with you that UFC back on Bravo or more likely Virgin will do wonders for growing the market.Edited by tim2100 on Monday 8th June 16:20
mma does involve headstomps, just not under nsac rules, they still have them in Japan, Pride had some fairly brutal rules in relation to head stomps and soccer kicks.
The UFC have been trying to get a network deal for years in the states, it almost worked but as said, they want production control whereas fox wanted to ditch goldberg and rogan for their own sportscasters.
Bravo were going to show the first Affliction card but zuffa (who still had a deal with bravo at the time) vetoed it and it was pulled at the eleventh hour. They only showed the second card after the UFC deal was finished and it had moved to sultana.
I dont believe a magazine circulation is a good reflection of how popular mma is in the UK, magazines are a medium that is slowly dieing, even max power is practically bankrupt. Mma has a ridiculous amount of information readily available on the net, a quick read of sherdog would quickly render a monthly magazine redundant.
MMA itself may not have a huge direct participation rate but a lot of folk who do judo follow it and I can only assume its the same for other martial arts (apart from the crap ones like TKD). Id like to see the UFC on virgin, virgin 1 doesnt have a major show to call its own yet and a TUF, Unleashed and the big PPV's all for "free" would make an attractive proposition Id have thought. It also wouldnt appvar to be a retrograde step for the UFC.
Theres no way the UFC will walk out on the UK, theyve spent too much money on it, the latest TUF series being a case in point.
The UFC have been trying to get a network deal for years in the states, it almost worked but as said, they want production control whereas fox wanted to ditch goldberg and rogan for their own sportscasters.
Bravo were going to show the first Affliction card but zuffa (who still had a deal with bravo at the time) vetoed it and it was pulled at the eleventh hour. They only showed the second card after the UFC deal was finished and it had moved to sultana.
I dont believe a magazine circulation is a good reflection of how popular mma is in the UK, magazines are a medium that is slowly dieing, even max power is practically bankrupt. Mma has a ridiculous amount of information readily available on the net, a quick read of sherdog would quickly render a monthly magazine redundant.
MMA itself may not have a huge direct participation rate but a lot of folk who do judo follow it and I can only assume its the same for other martial arts (apart from the crap ones like TKD). Id like to see the UFC on virgin, virgin 1 doesnt have a major show to call its own yet and a TUF, Unleashed and the big PPV's all for "free" would make an attractive proposition Id have thought. It also wouldnt appvar to be a retrograde step for the UFC.
Theres no way the UFC will walk out on the UK, theyve spent too much money on it, the latest TUF series being a case in point.
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