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gmb45
13th June, 2009, 06:43 AM
Sports broadcaster Setanta has said the Premier League may sell off its TV rights if it is unable to arrange new financing.

Setanta holds the rights to broadcast 46 live Premier League games next season

In an email seen by Sky News, the channel says the league has reserved the right to find another broadcaster.

The message, from channel executive Simon Green, says: "The Premier League has reserved the right to re-tender our rights because time is running out for them to find a new broadcaster if we don't close our refinancing successfully."

But Mr Green reassures staff that "[Setanta] are guaranteed to keep the Premier League rights so long as we make the payments that have now been agreed over the next few weeks".

The executive also reveals that an agreement has been reached with the Premier League over a payment due today.

'Time is running out'? Read into that what you will, but it suggests a real urgency on the part of the Premier League to ensure they've got someone warmed up on the bench...

The sports broadcaster's board has spent the day considering a takeover offer from US tycoon Len Blavatnik.

His Access Industries firm has offered ?20m for a 51% stake.

In a statement, the firm said: "Access Industries can confirm that this morning it submitted a proposal to the board of Setanta to acquire a majority interest in Setanta, refinancing the company.

"The Access proposal is subject to a number of pre-conditions being met.

"Access believes that this proposal would secure the future of the broadcaster for customers, football and employees."

It is understood Setanta needed to raise around ?50m to avoid going into administration ahead of a deadline to pay ?30m due to the English Premier League.

The group has already failed to pay ?3m owed to the Scottish Premier League.

The Irish channel, founded in 1990 by Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, has spent around ?1bn in recent years to secure live rights to top sporting events such as the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, US PGA golf and Formula One.

However, it has only managed to attract around 1.2m subscribers, which is understood to be 700,000 less than it needs to break even.

Setanta has confirmed it has stopped taking on new customers as it continues to work on a rescue package.

Its website states: "All of our channels are still broadcasting across all platforms and our subscribers can continue to enjoy our programming.

"However, in the current circumstances, we have decided to temporarily suspend the acceptance of new subscriptions."