Many football fans will remember a few years ago, when ITV Digital went tits up, meaning a load of football clubs who had shelled out for new players and stadia based on their expected revenue from the deal went a bit sideways. Much shaking of heads and wringing of hands ensued, as the FA promised such a situation would never arise again.
Which makes the pending doom of Setanta all the more surprising.
As I write, they're expected to call the administrators in shortly, as they owe £3m to the SPL and a further £30m to the Prem. Apparently they've fallen behind on payments and are unlikely to be able to meet them, so that's that. I'd be surprised if the Premiership suffers too much as a result, but the Jocks may have some trouble filling that void, and besides which, that's not the point.
I'm all for fair competition in the marketplace, to ensure no one company has complete control over something. Sky pretty much put regular live football on the map (although they do seem to think that top-flight footy began in 1992) and have been nothing but a success in delivering quality footage, drama and the worse pundits this site of MoTD ever since. A couple of years ago, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (or whoever deals with this kind of thing these days) decided enough was enough and broke up their monopoly on the packages. Setanta threw their hat in the ring and got some games, so Sky wound Prem Plus up and Setanta began showing Saturday tea-time games against a gaudy yellow background.
There are 2 reasons why this eventually went wrong.
Firstly, other than these odd games and some international matches, all Setanta can offer are pay-per-view boxing and a bit of golf. These are specialist interest sports in my opinion, meaning they would only ever attract a fraction of the viewing public. Had they offered a wider range of sports and/or less pay-per-view options, I think more people would've signed up to it. Contrast with Sky, who offer entertainment, news, movies and some right twaddle alongside their sports package, meaning the vast majority of people will opt for Sky (rightly or wrongly) knowing they can add/remove the sport at their behest. Sky's multi-avenue coverage of televisual entertainment ensures they're the punter's choice for a satellite provider.
The second (and easily most important) reason that Setanta are on their arse is because, not to put too fine a point on it, they're utter, utter, UTTER shite at customer service. At the request of a friend who wanted to attend my birthday and watch the Calzaghe fight later that night, I signed up for a 3-month stint one April. They couldn't have been more helpful in setting it up and taking my brass (from my credit card, mind; a Direct Debit was not allowed). Once the 3 months was up I was surprised to learn I was still able to see games. That's because they'd decided to carry on charging me anyway, God bless 'em. By the October I'd decided enough was enough, so begun the cancellation process. A few points relating to this procedure:
- There's literally no way to cancel your subscription either on their website or over the phone. Upon searching Google, the only hits were for users in a similar situation who were either asking for help cancelling or offering an email address to contact.
- Having rung them to cancel, the 'assistant' gave me the wrong email address (in my opinion wrongly, to get another month's pay out of me). I got the correct one during my second call.
- The only way I managed to speak to someone was when my credit card changed, so they could no longer collect payments. I left it ages before I answered one of their calls because it came up as "withheld" on caller ID.
- I agreed to pay the difference on the account on the understanding I could have my subscription cancelled. I gave them my details and that was that. 2 days later I got another call demanding payment. Upon explaining the situation, it became clear that apparently some temporary staff had been processing payments but not completing them, meaning they could claim the commission but leave it unpaid to try again at a later date.
- Their policy is to take a further month's payment from you before cancelling, meaning I didn't actually get it cancelled until the start of December, a full 6 weeks from when they started.
- There is no known complaints procedure.
All in all, they're a shower of shambolic schysters. I wouldn't go back to them for all the tea in China after the way they treated me (and others, it has subsequently transpired. My story seems eerily familiar to other people I've spoken to). As far as I'm concerned, they've got exactly what they deserved.
** Insert knob gag here **
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