Goodbye Setanta, More Of The Same To Come.

The fall of Setanta Sports has been met with much glee by the British Media or maybe I should stop reading the BBC website and the Guardian. Scratch that, I should definitely stop reading the BBC website and the Guardian. If they had their way there would be no enterprise, success or failure, just living off the State safe in the knowledge that nothing ever changes.

The real culprit in all of this is the European Commission who in their bureaucratic wisdom decided that Sky Sports had an unfair monopoly over Premier League football and a competitor was needed in the market. This simply meant that instead of subscribing to one sports channel, you had to subscribe to two if you wanted to see all the games you would otherwise have seen on Sky anyway.

There were already controls over what Sky could charge for Premier League games. This was dependent on the demand of the consumer (if you charge too much they simply won't buy it) and the quality of the product (if it gets too boring they mightn't buy it). The introduction of Setanta through no fault of theirs only meant that the average football fan either missed key matches or had to fork out more to watch them.

Setanta failed because they didn't do their sums properly, though this process was hampered by the relatively unforeseen collapse of the world economy (let's just say it as it is). Their coverage was excellent by and large and their staff or their production can't be faulted. Interviewing Sam Allerdyce during Blackburn's FA Cup game against Blythe Spartans was both hilarious and brilliant, while having camera's in the dressing room and grabbing a player for an impromptu comment after he just scored a goal is exactly what I expect from a subscription Sports Channel. If there is anywhere Sky have fallen down it is in not being intrusive enough but then they probably don't want to spoil the mystique.

Setanta's problem was that much of this great coverage involved SPL and Blue Square league games that presumably absolutely no one wanted to watch. Of course you could nit pick over the coverage if you wanted to. Like there was absolutely no difference between Setanta Sports News and Sky Sports News except that it just wasn't quite as good. Maybe a Euronews type news feed would have worked better, it would have given an alternative at least as opposed to more of the same.

I can only assume that Setanta failed either because they overvalued the games they bought or they didn't sell enough subscriptions but their demise changes nothing for the consumer. The European Union of Socialist Republics will be happy to know that ESPN are entering the market to provide competition and rock bottom prices.

The Premier League doesn't need competition from different channels. If it is too expensive you will go to your friends house to watch the game, maybe split the price of the package or just watch something else like reruns of Scrubs. You might go to the pub and sip away on a bottle of lucozade. The Premier League can only generate so much money and this is determined by demand which dictates the size of the bid Sky or whoever makes for the rights.

It is surely up to the Premier League alone how they wish to sell their product. If it's more profitable for them to sell it all as one package then so be it. This is equally true for the FA and the SPL. Football is a business and not the opiate of the people it once was. Football needs to stay popular to keep it profitable and it can only do this by giving people what they want at a price they are willing to pay for it.

Introducing more channels showing the same thing for an extra charge benefits no one. Choosing one over the other isn't really an option because it's no good wanting to watch all the games if 2/3's of them are on Sky and the rest are on Setanta.

It will be interesting to see how ESPN do. They will simply have to reevaluate and pay less for the games because I doubt there will be any major increase in subscriptions or what people are willing to pay for them.

Either way Setanta's demise changes nothing except the logo at the top of the screen. If it means less money goes to Conference clubs or the SPL then so be it because in this game you have to make an impact to justify your existence.