ITV & Setanta Win FA Cup & England Home Matches

ITV and Setanta have been awarded exclusive rights to the FA Cup tournament as well as England’s home football matches.

This will come as a huge blow to the BBC and BSkyB, who have reportedly offered over £400 million for the television rights, beginning August 2008. ITV and Setanta Sports bid separately, which is thought to have helped them in winning the deal.

In a statement released today, the FA said: “The new deal will generate £425 million for The FA over the four-year term – a 42% increase on the current £300 million agreement with BBC and Sky, which expires on July 31 2008.”

This new deal will no doubt aid Virgin Media and Setanta’s ambition of launching a rolling sports news channel to compete with Sky Sports News (see Virgin And Setanta Join Forces For Sky Sports News Rival), which was recently removed from the Virgin Media platform following weeks of wrangling (see Sky Anytime? Not For Virgin Media Cable Homes). The deadline to sort out these issues, at which point Virgin Media is taking BSkyB to court, is in five days (see Virgin Media Threatens Legal Action Over Sky Channel Dispute).

FA chief executive, Brian Barwick, who led The FA’s negotiating team, said: “We are delighted with this new deal and are looking forward to our partnership with ITV and Setanta.

“ITV are the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster and have captured many special moments in English football history, while Setanta are an ambitious, emerging sports broadcaster who see our properties as the next critical step in their development. I’m hugely excited by their innovative ideas and their commitment to helping us promote all sectors of the game.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank our current broadcast partners, the BBC and Sky, for their coverage of our properties and look forward to working together with them over the next 15 months.”

ITV chief executive, Michael Grade, said: “ITV is pleased to be returning both The FA Cup and England games to our viewers and advertisers. Our position is now substantially enhanced as the leading terrestrial free to air sports broadcaster.

“The FA has run an intense bidding process and we are delighted to be the winners. It is a great deal for all of us.”

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Setanta: 020 7930 8926 www.setanta.com