"We have excellent relations with Setanta"

Lawrence Donegan reports that the demise of sports network Setanta means that the UK rights holder to PGA Tour coverage may be leave the Tour as "the hardest hit sports league."

Where will the PGA tour go now? Sky, which used to hold the rights and bid around £5m-a-year when they came up for auction in 2006, may be interested. But it will not be interested at a price anywhere near that paid by Setanta - especially as it was miffed to lose the contract in the first place.

And this...

It is hard to know for certain because we don't know how the deal with Setanta was structured. But let's say the $103 million was spread evenly over the reported five years; that's $20.6 million a year. Two years have already elapsed, which leaves three years at $20.6 million - a total of $61.8 million. Ouch!