Ireland’s telecoms incumbent, the newly-renamed Eir, is in discussions that could lead to it acquiring pay TV company Setanta Sports, it emerged this week.
Talks are at an advanced stage and the deal is likely to be completed in 2016, subject to various regulatory approvals, the Irish Times reported on Friday, without citing its sources.
The paper said it is unclear at this stage how much Eir would be willing to pay for Setanta. However, it quoted unnamed industry sources as saying the company could be worth up to €20 million.
There has been no official comment from Setanta or Eir, or from Setanta Sports CEO and majority shareholder Micha el O’Rourke.
As the market increasingly moves towards converged and bundled services, Eir needs to bolster its pay TV business, Eir Vision TV, and defend itself against competition from the cable space, namely Virgin Media.
The cableco was formerly known as UPC, but adopted the Virgin Media brand earlier this year. Owner Liberty Global bulked up the business by agreeing to pay €80 million for free-to-air Irish broadcaster TV3 in July.
As well as boosting the telco’s content offering, the deal can be taken as a sign that Eir is gearing up for another IPO attempt, having withdrawn a €3 billion flotation plan last year, the Irish Times noted.
