Big Brother firm in talks over £40m Setanta rescue

Published on Sunday 14 June 2009 21:59

ENDEMOL, the television company behind Big Brother, is reported to be in talks about joining a rescue deal for sports broadcaster Setanta.

Endemol and other investors were said to be looking at injecting about 40 million in exchange for a controlling stake in the broadcaster.

The consortium is led by Access Industries, the company controlled by US-based tycoon Len Blavatnik. Access confirmed on Friday that it had submitted a plan to buy a majority stake in Setanta as part of a wider refinancing.

Mr Blavatnik's business already has a small stake in Setanta as well as an interest in TopUp TV, which sells Setanta to digital terrestrial viewers.

Setanta has TV rights including the Scottish Premier League, the FA Cup, World Cup qualifiers, Premier League and the Blue Square Premier, but is struggling to pay for them as customer numbers have dwindled.

The broadcaster has around 1.2 million subscribers, but that is short of the reported 1.9 million it needs to break even.

The group suspended all new subscriptions on Wednesday.