Sky to carry on with Setanta, criticises UK TV business

UK pay-TV operator BSkyB will continue to carry the Irish Setanta Sports channel while its founders attempt to salvage the business, which went into administration last week.

Sky has agreed a weekly extension to the carriage deal while negotiations over the future of Setanta take place and, according to local reports, has agreed a staggered system of repayments for outstanding money it is owed by Setanta.

Separately, Sky chief operating officer Mike Darcey has told a London conference that the UK TV industry has failed to explore dynamic and new business models because of a culture of dependency that discourages risk taking and encourages a reliance on old, ad-supported models. Criticising UK regulator Ofcom’s recent moves to make it wholesale its channels on pre-set terms, Darcey said these plans could impact its investment in original programming.