A report in the Irish Daily Mail today by Consumers Affairs Correspondent Ferghal Blayney says Britain's Channel 4 is favourite to get 23 of the 46 matches the Premier League terminated from Setanta with Sky Sports getting the other 23. Sky would then have the same number of matches as it will have from 2010/11 season onwards. Channel 4 would be expected to bid again for the 2010/11 season onwards if, as expected, Setanta goes bust.
There is speculation that Channel 4 would have to axe Big Brother after its current contract runs out in order to buy these Premier league rights, which are obviously very expensive.
Channel 4 are also reducing their programming budget by £60 million, therefore basically making it a straight decision between Big Brother or Premier League football.
The bids are officially confirmed on Monday, and we'll find out soon what the result is.
More details here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...e-matches.html