Setanta still on the ropes

[Sports-Select.co.uk]

Setanta, which is struggling to survive after the loss of some of its Premier League rights, has entered into emergency funding talks to raise up to £100m (€112m) from shareholders this month….

In order to buy time and ease its immediate cash flow, the company has also opened negotiations with the Premier League over deferring or reducing a £60m (€67m) instalment due on its current £392m (€440m) deal this month.


http://mmapayout.com/2009/05/ufc-tv-partner-setanta-entering-crucial-juncture/

[JeffMcFluffy]

Not surprised, trying to compete with Sky tends to end in failure for the other party

[woo]

Good, I don't have to waste more money to get a shit reception.

[Ian23]

Glad they are as it's stupid charging people for stuff they used to get for 'free' (I say free but obviously you have the sky sub to pay)

and when i bought the gsp = penn fight i stayed up till fucking 5am only to get a message telling me to turn over...but you don't get that channel if you bought it with freeview so i was stuck watching the golf or whatever was on.

[Plastikman]

Glad they are as it's stupid charging people for stuff they used to get for 'free' (I say free but obviously you have the sky sub to pay)

and when i bought the gsp = penn fight i stayed up till fucking 5am only to get a message telling me to turn over...but you don't get that channel if you bought it with freeview so i was stuck watching the golf or whatever was on.

UFC PPV are not free?

[Ian23]

i thought bravo used to show them the day after?

they always had old ufc shows on aswell.

[Plastikman]

i thought bravo used to show them the day after?

they always had old ufc shows on aswell.

Getting them free on Bravo, while nice, was never gonna last when the UFC moved into promoting in the UK and at the time every other country had them on a pay per view basis.

I have a feeling that if Setanta folds, the only place to see UFC events in the UK is gonna be Sky Box Office, where we will prob have to start forking over £20 per card.

Viva la Setanta!!

[Joat-Mon]

UFC should just have their own channel on sky, they've got a big enough back catalogue of shows. Nearly 100 UFC's 9 TuF's plus all the behind the scenes stuff.

I'd pay a monthly sub for it, anyone else?

[CraigA]

UFC should just have their own channel on sky, they've got a big enough back catalogue of shows. Nearly 100 UFC's 9 TuF's plus all the behind the scenes stuff.

I'd pay a monthly sub for it, anyone else?

Good idea, doubt it will happen though.

[Plastikman]

Good idea, doubt it will happen though.

I dunno, how many premiership teams have there own channel?

[Ian23]

Getting them free on Bravo, while nice, was never gonna last when the UFC moved into promoting in the UK and at the time every other country had them on a pay per view basis.

I have a feeling that if Setanta folds, the only place to see UFC events in the UK is gonna be Sky Box Office, where we will prob have to start forking over £20 per card.

Viva la Setanta!!

Yea i suppose back then UFC wasn't big enough but i can't see it going to sky box office, especially at 3am as the viewing figures would be shocking!

[CraigA]

I dunno, how many premiership teams have there own channel?

I think there is 4 and 2 scotish.

[Zanmato]

I would pay for an MMA channel run correctly (I was glad to have Fight Network, but really, it was shit, and only seemed nice because there was nothing else). If we got an HDNet Fights type channel with a better selection of events I would pay for it. The UFC have a huge back catalogue but even if they only kept the broadcast on 12 hours a day they'd have to repeat events with huge frequency to fill up the air time. I can't imagine they'd be giving much time to the earlier UFCs either.

Still, even with those drawbacks (imo) I'd be delighted to see this happen.

[Plastikman]

I would pay for an MMA channel run correctly (I was glad to have Fight Network, but really, it was shit, and only seemed nice because there was nothing else). If we got an HDNet Fights type channel with a better selection of events I would pay for it. The UFC have a huge back catalogue but even if they only kept the broadcast on 12 hours a day they'd have to repeat events with huge frequency to fill up the air time. I can't imagine they'd be giving much time to the earlier UFCs either.

Still, even with those drawbacks (imo) I'd be delighted to see this happen.

They own the Pride back catalogue too remember, shed loads of UFC:Unleashed, Ultimate Knockouts etc

[DetoxGuru.com]

i hope the fuckers go bust bigtime,they treat all their customers with utter contempt, even more so than sky!!

[Zanmato]

They own the Pride back catalogue too remember, shed loads of UFC:Unleashed, Ultimate Knockouts etc

They own it, but have they done anything with it? Can you imagine them broadcasting Fedor owning their fighters for example? Seems like they bought it to erase it from history, rather than to broadcast it for the benefit of the fans.

If they had

UFC, WEC & Pride + Bushido
Ultimate Knockouts, Pride Hardcore Knockouts, WEC KO's (does it exist?)
Shows like MMA Live (maybe in-house ones) or demonstrations of techniques and rules
+ A new live event every couple of weeks between the 2 that are still going

Then I think they could fill a schedule out decently. Depends how much it was, I wasn't pay too much just for 1 'type' of MMA.

[Plastikman]

i hope the fuckers go bust bigtime,they treat all their customers with utter contempt, even more so than sky!!

Sky have never been anything but top notch in the customer service dept as far as im concerned.

Maybe next time you call try not opening with a line about Rupert Murdoch being part of a secret society of the global elite out to kill off the poor to control the population?

[DetoxGuru.com]

^^ bro your starting to look like the paranoid geezer now.

[Plastikman]

^^ bro your starting to look like the paranoid geezer now.

Im not paranoid...who's been saying im paranoid?

[Valour5]

Getting them free on Bravo, while nice, was never gonna last when the UFC moved into promoting in the UK and at the time every other country had them on a pay per view basis.

I have a feeling that if Setanta folds, the only place to see UFC events in the UK is gonna be Sky Box Office, where we will prob have to start forking over £20 per card.

Viva la Setanta!!

Unfortunately I agree 100%. Once the Bravo deal ended i fully expected Sky to snap up the UFC rights and charge anything from £9.95 to £29.95 and broadcast the shows live PPV ala boxing cards.......

[Joat-Mon]

The UFC have a huge back catalogue but even if they only kept the broadcast on 12 hours a day they'd have to repeat events with huge frequency to fill up the air time

I agree but i watch the same episodes of topgear on Dave whenever i'm flickin channels, i must have seen the one with the veyron at least a dozen times.Lol.

[Zanmato]

lol you're right enough, i have literally 0 interest in cars and must've seen every episode of Top Gear ever about 5 times lol

[moogie101]

I can see it turning up on Sky as PPV's.
Bear in mind they do a similar thing with WWE who put out between 12-14 PPV's a year & Sky put about ten of those on PPV. They start the same time as UFC shows so time difference wouldn't affect it going on to PPV.

I think the WWE & Boxing PPV's are about £15. So if Sky also show the odd free UFC PPV as they do with WWE, plus give us the other UFC shows such as TUF, UFN etc for free then it works out about the same price as most are paying for Setanta.

Personally I'm happy with Setanta, but whatever happens I just hope we somehow continue to get the shows somehow on TV overhere squinting to see some terrible quality stream just isn't the same!!

[Supersoph199]

Personally im happy with setanta, except its had a few problems before when the fights have been on.
When its bad weather mainly raining the whole picture messes up, it ruined the Rampage vs Forrest fight for me.

I dont want UFC to go to PPV, cba with it and the cost of it just wont make me happy.
Especially when we already have to stay up till 3am, that annoys me. Personally i need my sleep.

Straight up i think we deserve a decent MMA channel which is just filled with MMA events, fights, shows and news.
Seriously doubt it though.

[Joat-Mon]

It's crazy when you think of the fan base for combat sports in general.

FFS even wine has it's own channel on sky! Not to mention the extreme sports channel where you've got some nutter jumping out of a plane on a surf board & spotty skate dudes watchin the action on a screen 3 miles away...what the fuck is that?

They should just merge MMA & the porn channel & i'd be a happy man, although probably single but hey ya can't have it all :D

[Dave Hirst]

They can suck my balls, if they got the UFC broadcasts right (which is why I pay the subscription) then I might have some sympathy.

[Gareth]

UFC should just have their own channel on sky, they've got a big enough back catalogue of shows. Nearly 100 UFC's 9 TuF's plus all the behind the scenes stuff.

I'd pay a monthly sub for it, anyone else?


That would be a much better idea than Setanta, like a UK version of Spike?

[Dave Hirst]

Yeah they could have my credit card details fo sure.

[Plastikman]

a UK version of Spike?

That would be Bravo. It would be more like a UFC version of ManUTV

[TheRealIrishHandGrenade]

Good, I don't have to waste more money to get a shit reception.

I'm always available for wiggling that wire, it's worked before :D

[mickclark]

I can see it turning up on Sky as PPV's.
Bear in mind they do a similar thing with WWE who put out between 12-14 PPV's a year & Sky put about ten of those on PPV. They start the same time as UFC shows so time difference wouldn't affect it going on to PPV.

I think the WWE & Boxing PPV's are about £15. So if Sky also show the odd free UFC PPV as they do with WWE, plus give us the other UFC shows such as TUF, UFN etc for free then it works out about the same price as most are paying for Setanta.

Personally I'm happy with Setanta, but whatever happens I just hope we somehow continue to get the shows somehow on TV overhere squinting to see some terrible quality stream just isn't the same!!

I think that is a great shout personally if Setanta does go bust. I wouldn't mind paying the £15 for the odd pay per view considering i pay the monthly subscription for setanta anyway

[Ian23]

would the viewing figures really be worth sticking it on ppv tho?

i mean they're getting about 15k for a live show on setanta and i'm not sure if this is right but wasn't frank warren saying they needed 100k buys to make putting khans fight (the one after his ko loss) on sky box office worthwhile, he did 50k in the end

own sky channel wouldnt be a bad idea. i think it would be pretty easy to fill up with shows, just have it running from 6pm - 12am or so.

[alwaystapping]

My 2 hopes are that Setanta goes under and UFC UK bring in new people to manage the business.

[JJSFC]

I just hope that Ultimate Talk carries on running after Setanta falters.

That show is brilliant - excellent punditry, well-researched presenters, good guests and they keep us up to date with the sport of UFC.

Gareth A. Davies is, I think, the king of MMA analysis. 'Holls Hoyce' Gracie - you can't write that! And don't forget that extremely intelligent chap from FHM...

[CraigA]

I just hope that Ultimate Talk carries on running after Setanta falters.

That show is brilliant - excellent punditry, well-researched presenters, good guests and they keep us up to date with the sport of UFC.

Gareth A. Davies is, I think, the king of MMA analysis. 'Holls Hoyce' Gracie - you can't write that! And don't forget that extremely intelligent chap from FHM...

:D (10 characters)