Orange UK can now claim to offer all Premier League soccer matches over its mobile TV service. The telco had already offered Sky Sports channels, which hold the rights to 92 live games, in its £5-per-month BSkyB bouquet. Now it has added the sports channel lineup from Setanta, which has rights to 46 games, for another £5. Setanta scored a coup before the season’s August start when it outbid BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) for some of those matches, but the splitting of the rights in the TV world has meant fans who previously only took out Sky Sports TV packages must also now subscribe to Setanta’s £9.99 offering – this duality is now replicated on the mobile.
Yet offering the complete match roster is pretty much the holy grail for mobile-toting husbands forced to endure a Saturday afternoon Christmas shopping instead of at their local footy match. The build-up of sports rights is pushing back profitability for the Irish pay-TV firm, which last month took another 130 million euros funding (£90 million), as The Guardian notes.