Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“ESPN did have to bid for them though - there was a very quick re-auction of the rights and at the time it was reported that an FTA might bid for them to as they'd probably be going cheap. I know C4 were interested but I'm not sure if any FTA bids did materialise - and ESPN won by basically matching Setanta's price.”
“ESPN did have to bid for them though - there was a very quick re-auction of the rights and at the time it was reported that an FTA might bid for them to as they'd probably be going cheap. I know C4 were interested but I'm not sure if any FTA bids did materialise - and ESPN won by basically matching Setanta's price.”
They didn't actually match Setanta's price - see post 1173.
However some reports suggested that for 2009/10 only the PL didn't lose out as the shortfall was covered by payments already made for 2009/10 which Setanta forfeited. Whether that was really true or not I don't know - I certainly wouldn't be confident it was.
The reduction in price for 2010/13 was never even revealed until Scudamore let it slip at the 2013/16 auction announcement - though of course nobody spotted it as it would be far too much to expect any journalist to take the trouble to go back and check the numbers.




Can't wait to see the return of Danny Baker & Danny Kelly at 6pm tomorrow, although whether HD would be in their favour is another matter
