Setanta UK collapsed with £550m debts

The British arm of sports broadcaster Setanta collapsed last year owing nearly £550m to its creditors, including the Football Association and the Scottish Premier League, it has emerged.

According to the final report published by Setanta's administrator Deloitte, the broadcaster had outstanding bank loans of £261m and unsecured debt of £288m when it went bust in June 2009.

Deloitte said that unsecured lenders will receive just 2p for every pound that they have claimed back from the defunct operator, reports City AM.

Setanta took the bold move of challenging Sky in the UK's pay-TV sports market, signing up around 1.2m customers to its Setanta Sports 1 and Setanta Sports 2 channels.

However, the broadcaster slipped into trouble after it took on more than £1 billion of sports rights but failed to grow its customer base to a level that made the business sustainable.

After private equity backers Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital declined to back Setanta UK in a £100m refinancing project, the company was put into administration.

Neville Kahn, Lee Manning and Nick Edwards of Deloitte were appointed joint administrators to Setanta Sport Ltd and Setanta Transmissions (UK) Ltd.

At the time, Kahn praised the "huge effort" made by the Setanta management, but it had not been enough to save the business. Around 200 employees were made redundant from the Setanta UK operation as Deloitte wound up the business.

In July last year, the administrator hired Canis Media to sell off Setanta's nine vacant slots on Sky's electronic programming guide, including one being purchased by Sky for the launch of Sky Sports 3 HD.

Despite the collapse of its UK operation, Setanta has continued to operate in its Setanta International and Setanta Ireland businesses.