Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports logo
Launched	1990
Picture format	16:9 (576i, SDTV)
Audience share	0.1% 2007 estimate 1.2m in 2009[1][2] (, )
Country	Ireland
Broadcast area	International
Website	www.setanta.com
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial (Ireland)	(Concluded trial) Channel 17, Current DTT Not yet operational
Satellite
Sky Ireland (Ireland)	Channel 423
Foxtel (Australia)	Channel 525
Austar (Australia)	Channel 510
UBI World TV(Australia)	Channel 3
TopTV South Africa	Channel 201
Cable
UPC Ireland (Ireland)	Channel 105/401
TransACT (Australia)	Channel 365
Digital TV (Kazakhstan)	Channel 52
IPTV
iD TV (Kazakhstan)	Channel 61/93

Setanta Sports (English pronunciation: /sɛˈtɑːntə/) is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events. The channel operates individual channels in Ireland, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Ownership[link]

As of 27 July 2009, the ownership structure of Setanta Sports Channel Ireland Limited (previously Setanta Sports Ireland Ltd) has changed. Setanta Sports Channel Ireland Limited is now co-owned by Gaiety Investments (60% share) with the remaining 40% share made up by Danu Partners Limited. The main shareholders in Danu are Michael O'Rourke, Leonard Ryan, and Mark O'Meara. Danu purchased 100% of the shares in Setanta Sports North America Limited which was disposed of in early 2010. Setanta Sports Channel Ireland Limited is licenced by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.^[3]

The Setanta business in Ireland has proved to be quite a scalable business and has managed to survive and thrive despite the difficulties in Setanta UK. Colin Morgan, formerly CEO of Quinn Direct Insurance, joined the Setanta Ireland business in October 2010.

Availability[link]

Setanta Sports offers commercial venues in several countries around the world programming of sports such as football (soccer), Gaelic football, hurling, golf, cricket, Australian rules football, boxing, NHL ice hockey and rugby union and league.

Channels[link]

Ireland

• Setanta Ireland
• Setanta Sports 1
• Setanta HD

Australia

• Setanta Sports Australia
• Setanta-i

Africa

• Setanta Sports

Asia

• Setanta-i
• Setanta Sports Asia

CIS

• Setanta Sports Euro Asia

Previous operations[link]

• United Kingdom

Setanta Sports GB operated Setanta Sports 1 & 2 and Setanta Golf within the United Kingdom. Under a joint venture with Virgin Media, it operated Setanta Sports News. Setanta Sports GB also operated Arsenal TV, Celtic TV, LFC TV and Rangers TV with their respective clubs. Setanta Sports GB went into administration on 22 June 2009, and at 6 pm most of its channels ceased operations within Great Britain.^[4] Setanta Sports Ireland's channels continue to broadcast in Northern Ireland.

Arsenal TV continued until August 2009 while Arsenal explored alternative options.^[5] While Liverpool F.C. assumed responsibility of LFC TV and decided to continue broadcasting as normal.^[6] Since September 2009, Michael O'Rourke's Premier Sports has shown content from Setanta Ireland in Great Britain, some of which was originally available on Setanta Sports GB's channels.^[7]

• United States of America

Setanta Sports previously broadcast in the United States with Setanta Sports USA. The channel ceased operations on 28 February 2010.^[8]

• Canada

Setanta Sports previously operated a version of the channel in Canada as a joint venture with Canadian media company Rogers Communications (Setanta itself owned 20% of the network). However, Rogers announced in July 2011 that the channel would be re-aligned as part of its Sportsnet networks, and become Sportsnet World on October 3, 2011. Additionally, Setanta Sports no longer has any ownership interests with the network — its minority stake was acquired by Rogers before the re-branding.^[9] The re-launch would also come alongside an overall re-branding of the Sportsnet networks.^[10]

Other business[link]

• In 2009, Setanta Sports had shares in OneVision. OneVision where initially given the opportunity to develop the digital terrestrial network in the Republic of Ireland. Negotiations with RTE Networks fell through in May 2010.

• From March 2010, Setanta Sports will provide www.setantabet.com an online gaming service for customers within Ireland. The venture is being developed in partnership with Jennings bet.

• October 2010, Setanta HD was launched exclusively on UPC Ireland.
• October 2010, Setanta Sports launched applications on the iPhone and a Setanta Goals service for other handsets.

Criticism[link]

Just as when Sky Sports, in the 1990s, first obtained the exclusive rights to screen live coverage of the England national football team's away qualifying matches for the World Cup, so Setanta attracted similar criticism as a result of it having obtained the same contract. Whereas Sky often sold on a highlights package to a terrestrial broadcaster (BBC), Setanta indicated that the sums offered by terrestrial broadcasters, reported to be £100,000 to £200,000, were five to ten times lower than their perceived market value; Setanta paid £5 million to screen England's away qualifier with Croatia on 10 September 2008 and believed a sensible highlights package should attract a fee of £1 million.^[11] Thus, no highlights package was agreed, and Setanta themselves showed highlights of both England and Scotland qualifiers free-to-air after the live games had concluded. This was announced at 6 pm on the day the matches took place, and received 220,000 viewers.^[12] Setanta then accepted "a low, six-figure deal" with ITV to show delayed "extended highlights" a few days later.

Setanta's UK subscriber numbers were lower than those of Sky Sports, and the number of households watching the match live was estimated at around 1.5 million. Because of the availability of Setanta on both digital satellite and digital terrestrial television, the theoretical possible subscriber base surpassed that of Sky Sports (not presently available via DTT) but fans who were unwilling to subscribe could not see the match live. Then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicated he felt it "unfortunate" more fans could not see the match live (that is, without paying a subscription fee).

Cancellation issues[link]

Setanta UK also received significant criticism of its cancellation policy, with the issue investigated by the BBC's Watchdog programme and Radio Five Live.^[13][14] Whilst customers were able to subscribe either on-line or 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.^[15]

Because of the amount of negative feedback received, Setanta UK eventually changed this to allow for cancellations to be done through email. Furthermore, whilst customers were originally entered into a 30 day notice period once their cancellation letter was received, this was increased to 60 days without any information being sent to customers; again, because of the negative feedback, this was quickly reduced back to 30 days.^[15] These customer service issues were compounded by the fact that customers had to phone a premium rate number should they have any issues to resolve, with calls costing at least 10 pence per minute.^[16]

Financial difficulties and UK administration[link]

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (June 2009)

According to the official Registre de Commerce et des Sociétés of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the most recent annual accounts lodged by Setanta Sports S.a.r.l. indicated losses of €173 million (UK£149 million).^[17]

Reports on 7 June 2009 suggested that Setanta could be forced into administration that week^[18] after failing to make payments due on TV rights. Because of late payment and renegotiation over fees by Setanta to football clubs, several UK football clubs were put into financial difficulties as money promised had been spent in annual budgets. On 4 June, the Scottish Premier League announced they would be paying the sums that some of the clubs were owed to avoid causing them financial problems.^[19]

On 19 June, Setanta Sports failed to pay the latest installment of £30 million (€35 million) it owed the English Premier League. The Premier League had to sell the rights to the 46 live matches Setanta had for the 2009/10 season. A Premier League spokesman said, "It is with considerable regret that we announce that Setanta has been unable to meet their obligations. As such the existing licence agreement between us has been terminated with immediate effect."^[20][21]

Following this, the Daily Mail reported that a rescue deal had failed and "administration now looks inevitable".^[22] Two days later, it was reported on RTE News that the original Setanta Sports channel Setanta Ireland might be bought out by an existing consortium who already hold interests in Setanta Sport Holdings Ltd the Irish arm of Setanta Sports. Setanta Sports Ireland and Setanta Sports North America were the only brands which made a profit in 2008.^[23] The same day, Setanta lost all their SPL TV rights because they were unable to pay the £3m (€3.5m) owed to the league.^[24] Following this, it was announced that ESPN had bought the rights to show the 46 Premier League games bought by Setanta next season.^[25] The UK company went into administration following failure to make payments to a number of sporting organisations. About 200 employees were made redundant. The administration is to be handled by Deloitte.^[26]

According to the final report published by Setanta's administrator Deloitte, released in July 2010, the broadcaster had outstanding bank loans of UK£261m and unsecured debt of UK£288m.^[27] Deloitte said that unsecured lenders received just 2p for every pound that they have claimed back from the defunct operator.

Further UK reaction[link]

On 21 June, BT Vision stopped selling Setanta Sports.^[28] Disney's ESPN won the rights to broadcasting the Premier League matches forfeited by Setanta^[29] for the 2009/10 season.^[30][31] 430 jobs, 200 of which are in Ireland, were expected to be lost as a result of its going into administration.^[32]

Recovery[link]

Setanta made a strong recovery in Ireland since the adversity in the UK, continuing its resurrection by employing a further 50 employees in February 2010. The Setanta Ireland channel is available to entire UPC base as basic channel in Ireland, around 1.3 million homes but actually in about 530,000. Setanta also has operations in Canada, Australia and recently launched in Asia.

First Irish Channel to go HD[link]

In September 2010, Setanta Ireland announced that it would be Ireland's first indigenous channel to broadcast in HD. The service launched in January 2011. The service is only available on the UPC platform. The Dublin v Armagh encounter on the 16th of January 2011 was Ireland’s first broadcast of Gaelic Games in High Definition.

See also[link]

• Special 1 TV - parody programme on Setanta Sports that featuring puppet caricatures of football personalities.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Setanta Sports Website

Mick McCarthy

Mick McCarthy managing Wolverhampton Wanderers
Personal information
Full name	Michael Joseph McCarthy
Date of birth	(1959-02-07) 7 February 1959 (age 53)
Place of birth	Barnsley, England
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position	Centre back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1977–1983	Barnsley	272	(7)
1983–1987	Manchester City	140	(2)
1987–1989	Celtic	48	(8)
1989–1990	Lyon	10	(1)
1990	→ Millwall (loan)	6	(0)
1990–1992	Millwall	29	(2)
Total		505	(20)
National team
1984–1992	Republic of Ireland	57	(2)
Teams managed
1992–1996	Millwall
1996–2002	Republic of Ireland
2003–2006	Sunderland
2006–2012	Wolverhampton Wanderers
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Michael Joseph "Mick" McCarthy (born 7 February 1959) is an English-born former Irish international footballer who was most recently the manager of Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

McCarthy began his playing career at Barnsley in 1977, and he later had spells at Manchester City, Celtic, Lyon, and finally Millwall, retiring in 1992. He also played internationally, representing the Republic of Ireland on 57 occasions.

After his 1992 retirement, he managed Millwall, and then the Republic of Ireland. He guided Ireland to the knockout stage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan. He later managed Sunderland, and most recently Wolverhampton Wanderers. He has also worked as a television pundit and commentator, most recently in South Africa as part of the BBC's 2010 World Cup coverage.^[1]

Playing career[link]

Club[link]

Born in Barnsley, Yorkshire and a boyhood Leeds United fan,^[2] McCarthy made his league debut for then-Fourth Division Barnsley on 20 August 1977 in a 4–0 win over Rochdale. He spent two years in the basement league, before the club won promotion. Two years later, the team again went up to the (old) Division 2. A strong central defender, he was a virtual ever-present for his hometown club, but departed in December 1983 for fellow Division 2 club Manchester City.

The Maine Road club won promotion in McCarthy's first full season and he finally had the chance to play at the highest level. His first season in the top flight was steady enough as the club reached midtable, but relegation struck the following year. McCarthy himself would not face the drop though as he moved to Celtic in May 1987.

He picked up his first silverware at the Scottish club as they won the league and cup double in his first season. He scored the winning goal after an assist by veteran defender Alex Blackburn. The following season McCarthy again won a Scottish Cup winners medal, although the club had to settle for third place in the league.

McCarthy again moved onto a new country, as he joined Lyon in July 1989. However, things did not work out for the defender in France and, feeling his international chances were being harmed, he returned to England on loan with top flight Millwall in March 1990. Despite the London side suffering relegation during his loan period, McCarthy impressed enough to earn a move and he was signed permanently in May 1990 for £200,000. His appearances in the next two seasons were often limited by injuries and he effectively retired from playing when he took over as manager of the club in 1992.

International[link]

McCarthy was eligible for the Republic of Ireland because his father, Charles, was Irish. Making his international debut in a goalless friendly against Poland on 23 May 1984, McCarthy soon became a first-choice player and featured in all three of Ireland's games at Euro '88. He went on to become captain, leading to the nickname "Captain Fantastic", as per the title of his autobiography.

The highlight of McCarthy's international career was the second-round penalty shoot-out win over Romania in the 1990 World Cup finals. This led to a crunch tie with hosts Italy in the quarter-final, where Ireland's first ever appearance in the finals came to an end, losing 1–0. McCarthy was the player who committed the most fouls in the 1990 tournament.^{[citation needed]}

In total, McCarthy won 57 caps for Ireland; scoring two goals, one against Yugoslavia in April 1988, the other versus USA in June 1992.

Management career[link]

Millwall[link]

McCarthy became player-manager at Millwall in March 1992, succeeding Bruce Rioch. In his first full season (1992–93), he was still registered as a player, but made only one further appearance (in the Anglo-Italian Cup), before he became solely a manager.

He took the club to the play-offs in 1993–94 after a strong third-place finish, but they lost out to Derby County in the semi finals. During the 1995–96 season, McCarthy became the prime candidate for the vacant Republic of Ireland manager's job, after the resignation of Jack Charlton. After a protracted period of speculation, McCarthy was officially appointed on 5 February 1996, two days after his resignation at the club. Despite sitting a comfortable 14 points clear from the relegation zone at the time of his departure, Millwall would go onto to suffer the drop (by virtue of goals scored) after McCarthy's departure.

His disastrous loan signings of the grossly underachieving Russian internationals Sergei Yuran and Vassili Kulkov from Spartak Moscow, who each received a £150,000 signing on fee and were being paid five times the wage of the rest of the first team, would later be cited as one of the main reasons Millwall were eventually relegated under Jimmy Nicholl.^[3]

Republic of Ireland[link]

After two narrow failures to qualify for the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, McCarthy took the nation to the 2002 World Cup held in Korea and Japan. However, their tournament was overshadowed by a very public and bitter spat between McCarthy and the team's star player Roy Keane, who was sent home without having kicked a ball on the eve of the tournament. The conflict occurred after Keane had questioned the quality of the preparations and facilities the team were using.^[4]

Despite this furore, McCarthy's team reached the second round but were eliminated by Spain in a penalty shoot-out (after having already missed and scored a penalty in normal time), thus fractionally missing out on a quarter-final place. Indeed, the narrowness of the elimination meant Ireland were the ninth best performers at the World Cup, and the fifth best among European teams in the competition. In spite of this, the Keane issue remained, with the proportion of blame undecided. Many in Ireland sided with Keane — particularly following a televised interview in which details of poor preparation were revealed — and demanded McCarthy's resignation both during and after the tournament. An independent inquiry into the organisation's handling of the squad's preparation later commissioned by the FAI created a damning report, leading to general secretary Brendan Menton tendering his resignation.^[5]

Criticism of McCarthy in the media became increasingly intense after a poor start to Ireland's qualifying campaign for Euro 2004. In particular, his persistence with several players and tactics that some perceived to be inadequate did him damage, as did a 4–2 away defeat to Russia and a 2–1 home defeat to Switzerland. Under mounting pressure, McCarthy resigned from the post on 5 November 2002.^[6] During his 68 games in charge, the Republic of Ireland won 29, drew 19, and lost 20.

Sunderland[link]

On 12 March 2003, he was appointed manager of struggling Sunderland as an immediate replacement for Howard Wilkinson, who was sacked after six successive Premiership defeats left the club facing near-certain relegation.^[7] McCarthy could not stop Sunderland's slide, and the Black Cats were relegated at the end of the season.

However, he largely escaped blame for the relegation and was retained as manager. The following season, McCarthy took Sunderland to the First Division promotion play-offs, but lost in a penalty shoot-out to Crystal Palace after Palace had scored a stoppage-time equaliser.

McCarthy completed the turnaround of the club in the 2004–05 season. The Black Cats returned to the Premiership as Football League Championship champions, amassing an impressive 94 points.

Life in the Premiership was much tougher for McCarthy though, as he was unable to spend much to strengthen the team. After a poor season and with the club 16 points from safety with only 10 games remaining, he was dismissed on 6 March 2006.^[8] In an ironic postscript, Sunderland eventually appointed Roy Keane as their next permanent manager.

Wolverhampton Wanderers[link]

On 21 July 2006, McCarthy was appointed manager at Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers,^[9] replacing Glenn Hoddle who had departed a fortnight before. The Midlands club faced an uncertain future after having to sell the majority of their first-team players, though despite this situation, McCarthy promised Premier League football at Molineux within three seasons. From this awkward position, McCarthy managed to collect together a team from the club's youth ranks, and some lower league signings, and free transfers. Despite the lack of expectations, the team managed to make the promotion play-offs in McCarthy's first season, but it was third time unlucky for McCarthy in them as the team lost out to local rivals West Bromwich Albion over two legs, losing 3–2 at Molineux and 1–0 at The Hawthorns.

In the 2007–08 season he took the club to within a single placing of a successive play-off finish, ending seventh, losing the coveted sixth place to Watford by a goal difference of only one (although another goal would have been required to overcome Watford's superior goals scored record). The campaign had also seen him linked with the international positions of South Korea and his previous post as Republic of Ireland manager.^[10]

The 2008–09 season started well for McCarthy as he won the August Championship Manager of the Month Award, after seeing his side reach the top of the table,^[11] eventually going on to match Wolves' record start to a season (equaling the 1949–50 season). Wolves maintained their position at the top of the table over the following months, and McCarthy again scooped the Manager of the Month Award for November.^[12] After maintaining top spot since October, McCarthy's Wolves secured promotion to the Premier League by beating QPR 1–0 on 18 April 2009. The following week McCarthy clinched his second Championship as a manager after a 1–1 draw at his hometown club Barnsley. He won the Championship Manager of the Season Award at the conclusion of the campaign, his side having led the table for 42 of 46 games.

The following season, McCarthy kept Wolves in the Premier League, his first success at this level in three attempts. The club assured safety with two games to spare, eventually finishing 15th, their best league finish since 1979–80, and their first ever survival in the modern Premier League. However, in the process of keeping the team in the top division, Wolves and McCarthy were fined £25,000 for fielding a weakened team for a fixture at Manchester United and thus breaking the Premier League rule E20. The Premier League also stated that the club had failed to fulfil its obligations to the league and other clubs in the utmost good faith and was therefore in breach of Rule B13.^[13]

The club's second consecutive top flight campaign was a dramatic one. The team spent the majority of the campaign mired in the relegation zone, yet managed to defeat the likes of Manchester City F.C.,^[14] Manchester United,^[15] Liverpool^[16] and Chelsea.^[17] A final day loss to Blackburn put them in danger of relegation, but results elsewhere meant they narrowly survived in 17th place, one point ahead of relegated Birmingham and Blackpool.^[18] This gave McCarthy the distinction of being the first Wolves manager in thirty years to maintain the club's top flight position for two successive seasons.

The 2011–12 season began well for McCarthy and, at one stage, his team topped the Premier League after beginning with two wins.^[19] However, results tailed off and by January they had once again entered the relegation zone after nine games without victory. McCarthy was sacked as Wolves manager on 13 February 2012^[20] after a run of poor results, including a 5-1 home defeat to local rivals West Bromwich Albion. At the time of his dismissal, he was the 7th longest-serving current manager in English league football, having spent 5 years and 207 days at Wolves.

Statistics[link]

Player[link]

^[21]

Manager[link]

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Millwall		18 March 1992	4 February 1996	&10000000000000203000000203	&1000000000000007400000074	&1000000000000007400000074	&1000000000000005900000059	&1000000000000003645000036.45
Republic of Ireland		1 March 1996	5 November 2002	&1000000000000004800000048	&1000000000000002200000022	&1000000000000001300000013	&1000000000000001300000013	&1000000000000004582999945.83
Sunderland		12 March 2003	6 March 2006	&10000000000000147000000147	&1000000000000006300000063	&1000000000000002600000026	&1000000000000005800000058	&1000000000000004285999942.86
Wolverhampton Wanderers		21 July 2006	13 February 2012	&10000000000000270000000270	&10000000000000104000000104	&1000000000000006600000066	&10000000000000100000000100	&1000000000000003852000038.52
Total				&10000000000000669000000669	&10000000000000264000000264	&10000000000000175000000175	&10000000000000230000000230	&1000000000000003946000039.46

As of 12 February 2012^[22]

Honours[link]

As a manager[link]

• RTÉ Sports Person of the Year 2001 — Republic of Ireland^[23]
• Football League Championship 2004–05 — Sunderland
• Football League Championship 2008–09 — Wolverhampton Wanderers

As a player[link]

• Scottish Premier League 1987–88 — Celtic
• Scottish Cup 1988 — Celtic
• Scottish Cup 1989 — Celtic

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mick McCarthy career stats at Soccerbase
• Mick McCarthy management career stats at Soccerbase

v t e Republic of Ireland squad – UEFA Euro 1988 1 Bonner 2 Morris 3 Hughton 4 McCarthy 5 Moran 6 Whelan 7 McGrath 8 Houghton 9 Aldridge 10 Stapleton (c) 11 Galvin 12 Cascarino 13 O'Brien 14 Kelly 15 Sheedy 16 Peyton 17 Byrne 18 Sheridan 19 Anderson 20 Quinn Coach: Charlton

v t e Republic of Ireland squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup 1 Bonner 2 Morris 3 Staunton 4 McCarthy (c) 5 Moran 6 Whelan 7 McGrath 8 Houghton 9 Aldridge 10 Cascarino 11 Sheedy 12 O'Leary 13 Townsend 14 Hughton 15 Slaven 16 Sheridan 17 Quinn 18 Stapleton 19 Kelly 20 Byrne 21 McLoughlin 22 Peyton Coach: Charlton

v t e Republic of Ireland squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Given 2 Finnan 3 Harte 4 Cunningham 5 Staunton (c) 6 Roy Keane 7 McAteer 8 Holland 9 Duff 10 Robbie Keane 11 Kilbane 12 Kinsella 13 Connolly 14 Breen 15 Dunne 16 Kiely 17 Quinn 18 G. Kelly 19 Morrison 20 O'Brien 21 Reid 22 Carsley 23 A. Kelly Coach: McCarthy