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Voices
in
Football has spoken before elsewhere within its hallowed office walls about the pay
television subscription channel Setanta. Before going onto put the dagger into a fallen man, lets get first things right
most of us surely have little sympathy for the people at the top of Setanta.
In the current climate greedy business people are probably or least favourite brand of citizen. The CEO officers of Setanta had pie in the sky ideas about
making SETANTA the premier football and sports channel in the UK.
Unfortunatly for them they were competing with a media monster in Sky
and it was never going to be a successul challenge. With very few subscribers anywhere near
that required you have to scratch your head at the business ideas and hopes of
such people. Even when it was clear that things were heading downhill fast they were eager to fight there way out of a hole, renegotiate and attract new investment. They had long enough to see things were not going right long before the administratoir came calling. There were more bill demands in the Setanta mailbox than the whole of a 18 floor skyscraper. Where these guys at the top of the organisation in it for the sheer ego boost of running a
sports channel in the UK and if so what did the fact that it was a loss
making part of the business do for that ego.
Aside
form those executives at the top of the company 200 people have lost
there jobs due to SETANTA GB failing with the fall of the channel.
That may not be too much of a problem for James Richardson, Steve
McManaman and Tim Sherwood but it will be an issue and a problem for
all those working people in the backgroup of every operation who
relied on Setanta for a living. This extends from cameramen through to
those in call centers who booked in consumer subscriptions.
Setanta Sports was formed back in 1990 in London. Its aim was to be ' the need to
facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events'
to Irish
expatriates in the United Kingdom. Namely chiefly this was originally
coverage of the Italia '90 World Cup tournament that Ireland were
competing in. Things grew slowly for Setanta with divisions in North
America, Ireland and the UK. The desire to take on the BBC, ITV and
the massive Sky was one that the channel bosses wanted to tackle head
on. However, as is the case with many business ventures the channel
went from what could have been a specialized yet appealing mimimal
channel offering screening of matches to those who otherwise lacked
access, to one that grew too extensive and too fast which did not
appeal.
The
mumerings of discontent and ill-ease with the deals SETANTA had signed
with a number of bodies were surfacing long before the final nail in
the coffin was knocked in during June 2009. Presenters of SETANTA
programmes looked glum and aware of behind the scenes angst that the
channel was not doing as well as could be. The Monday night Football Matters
programme hosted by Rebecca Lowe and James Richardson saw both
presenters dropping hints that things were not as they seem. More than
that the impression given out by Richardson at least was that pride in
working for Setanta and making the channel better was not there. With
a background with Channel 4, Bravo and columms with highly respected publications such as The Gaurdian Richardson had bigger fish to fry.
A Gaurdian football podcast in June hosted by Richardson at the height
of the Setanta mess came along with jokes of a 'sinking ship' and
'Russian subs' thinly vailed yet easily detected jibes at Setanta. With
media scrutiny increasing, analysts in late June revealed that Setanta
had been running at a loss of about £100m
a year, after missing subscriber targets of 1.9 million. The stated
figure of 1.2 million subscribers was also a fluctuating one with many
football fans taking there subscription away come the season end and
joining again as August approached. 
Setanta
Sports themselves has missed massive financial payments to both the
English Premier League
and the Scottish Premier League (SPL) in the crucial weeks of June.
The English Premiership set a Monday high noon deadline for the payment
and it failed to arrive. Soon after Setanta had lost its deal and
ESPN and Sky Sports stepped in at half the price. The lesser
attractive yet business like SPL then joined in the crusade and
withdrew rights from the channel. It was also looking for a new buyer
for its domestic
broadcasting rights of the SPL games. SETANTA GB announced soon after that it was
in administration and its channel in the UK stopped broadcasting. Due dilegence by potential investors and saviours had uncovered a trail of unpaid debts, tax bills and Inland Revenue demands.
Setanta's
coverage of football was
extensive and varied with everything from the Portuguese league to the
Bundesliga and Eredivisie covered. Friday nights saw a Bundesliga game
beemed live into homes and Sunday lunchtime often saw Ajax v
Feyenoord. The average Sunday evening meanwhile would see Lyon,
Marseille or Lille on your screen. The deal for consumers was overall
of decent value or so the bosses at SETANTA though. At £10.99 a month
with no long term contract
committment consumers were not tied in, had freedom to watch what they
want at no extra cost and come and go as they please. That said
coverage of the English Premiership was less than attractive compared
to what Sky Sports offered. Whilst Andy Gray and Richard Keys could
set the scene for Liverpool v Manchester United on a Sunday prime time,
Setanta had to make do
with a Monday night game between Portsmouth and Sunderland. Its
product was less than polished compared to Sky and the quality on the
field or in the commentary box domestically was not as attractive to
that which either
the BBC or Sky Sports could offer. Commentary teams had been poached
from ITV and Channel 5 but the sets were not as polished as others and
the technical analysis of action and match issues was not as creative.
In Scotland the coverage of the SPL was highly parochial and its scope
of a very
narrow focus. With coverage of games and highlights packages
shamlessly old firm centric (either Rangers or Celtic on every week) this was understandable such is
the narrow field of play in Scotland. Most of its subscribers in
Scotland were fans from the Strathclyde region whilst its subscribers
in Ireland also have leanings to either one of the Glasgow giants.
That said when efforts were made to branch out to screen any other
games from Scotland such as Hamilton Accies v Kilmarnock very few
wanted to watch. Summary shows or critical evaluations programmes
meanwhile almost always saw an ex Rangers or former Celtic player spouting
views and opinions. This again was appealing to either of the old firm
clubs fans but to a wider audiance it was unappealling and a turn off
and added to the parochial scope of Scottish football coverage.
Both the English Premiership and Scottish Premier League were aired and
efforts to challenge the Sky Sports monopoly were commendable at least
largely within the business world. For consumers with
many homes not investing in the Sky package it gave a number of homes
the opportunity to have football beemed live into the living room.
But
that essentially was one of the central problems the broadcaster faced;
its bread and butter coverage of the UK's two main divisions failed to
attract either the associated advertising revenue or essentially the
required number of break even subscribers. Some estimations were
that the broadcaster had 1.2 million subscribers in the United and
needed 1.9 million just to break even.
As news of the Setanta channels
financial woes broke within the wider media a large number of
subscribers broke ranks and cancelled the direct debit set up. The
subscriber level was dropping day by day and with the season ending and
no further live games on the menu subscribers had very little to keep
them tied to Setanta aside from golf, boxing and wrestling. Whilst
ending or challenging the Sky Sports monoploy may have been fantastic
for bosses at Setanta and for those without Sky Sports, at home most
fans could not really care less where football is screened as long as
they had it and better still, such is the case with ITV and BBC, that
it is free to view. With people paying for a BBC television license and
millions of other subscribing to Sky Sports that fact that you had to
pay an additional £10.99 a month to perhaps see your team play was a
problem. Setanta took great delight in telling its viewers that
International games were shown but most people feel such games should
be shown on national television free of charge. International football
and watching it is not a free right but the fact that its the national
team meant that paying to watch in via a televsion screen was never
appealing. Just as many clubs had priced some fans out of watching
games in the ground so Setanta, despite a £10.99 fee, had priced out and
put people off purchasing the product to watch at home.
Setanta rights to England, Scotland and Ireland away
International football matches were valuable to them but with these few and far between its
is very hard to keep subscribers on board for such a minimalist
offering. As noted people feel these should be on terrestrial television. There is also the social aspect to such games with many
people choosing to watch such national team affairs for free in a
gathering with friends in bars. The broadcaster underestimated the
extent to which international football differs from domestic fare from
a social point of view purely due to business delusion.
Another problem from a consumer viewpoint was the channel offering
available from Setanta was inconsistant and confusing for many. One
channel simply tagged SETANTA was available via the Freeview platform.
This crammed football, rugby, golf and boxing into its schedule which
was on air 12 hours a day from 12 to 12 midnight. Those subscribers
on the Sky Sports platform meanwhile got the choice of Setanta Ireland,
Setanta Golf, Setanta Sports 1, Setanta Sports 2, Setanta Sports
News, Liverpool TV, Celtic TV, Rangers TV, Arsenal TV and Racing UK.
With these scubscribers paying the same £10.99
that those watching on Freeview got the offering was less. Whilst some
watching at home on the Freeview channel got golf or repeated runs of
boxing, those on the Sky Sports platform often got French Football live
on SETANTA two which was denied to a wider audience. It was very
inconsistant and even the person buying the channel was confused. The offering for the forthcoming weekend was advertised via newspapers such as The Sun and The Daily Record every Friday but it was mass marketing that few took notice of or cared about.
Just
as Setanta could not take care of its core customers of the 'football club and the football Associations that it defaulted payment on, so the end consumer was often treated with
contempt due to poor public relations and poor customer service.
With customer service and subsciptions done by contractor call centre
operations phone lines were unprofessionally manned by staff ill
trained, low paid and unskilled. Setanta were also receiving
significant criticism of its cancellation
policy with the issue investigated by the high profile BBC Watchdog
programme
and Radio Five Live. Whilst customers were able to subscribe either
online or easily over the
telephone, many customers found it "nigh-on impossible to
cancel" the service, with the only means of a cancellation being
to inform the company in writing.
Due
to the amount of negative feedback received Setanta had
recently changed this to allow for cancellations to be done through
email. Even when this was done the call centre dealing with
subscriptions would then call the customer four or five times a day
requesting the consumer re-think, or re-assess. Furthermore, whilst
customers were originally entered into a
30 day notice period once their cancellation letter was received this
time was put up to 60 days without any information being
sent to customers, again due to the negative feedback this was
quickly reduced back down to 30 days.
Overall the poor customer
service issues have been compounded by the fact that
customers have to phone a premium rate number should they have any
issues to resolve, with calls costing at least 10p per minute and those
calling being put on hold often for 5 minutes before a call was
answered. Aside from that there were issues of bank mandates being set
up wrongly, set up fees being charged twice and numerous other customer
issues. Customers had little faith in the company and the first signs
of trouble meant that a subscription to them was sure to be the first
to go as recession problems set in.
Like so many in business Setanta
Sports was obsessed with the question of
greatness and the corporate delusion of somehow making itself 'the best.' Its downfall arises directly
from this misconception of themselves as something capable of
greatness but that people in wider society (customers) and competitors (Sky Sports) knew would never be. As well as saving £10.99 per month the
downfall threatened not one consumer in the United Kingdom who will now
be able to watch sports via some other media stream possibly free of charge. Most people and football fans are happy the there is a monoploy of television coverage of football. The simple fact is that competition just complicates things and costs money.
Setanta
bosses spent most of the time dreaming of success instead of
actually acting on the fact that they were critically failing to attract viewers
and customers. They are not alone though; this is a society that sweeps
aside the notion and health of a monopoly and instead convinces itself
that there are no
limits and that everyone can come out 'number one'. The fall of so many businesses in the United Kingdom shows that this system is a failure. Setanta came a
long way from humble origins in 1990 but eventually the Willy Loman notion that as
long as 'one
works hard enough' became a a truly sorrowful 'can we borrow enough?' The delusion of success
become a desperation to make ends meet when the concept failed to live
up to expectations. The car crash that was the end of Setanta came soon after and it was no surprise, but at least now we won't have to listen to Steve McManaman going on about Stevie G. anymore. Unless he is poached by ESPN of course....
-editor
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