Irish sports rights company Setanta and BSkyB have agreed a deal that will allow pubs, clubs and sports centres throughout the UK to receive live Premiership matches from August 2007 as part of one subscription.
Sky will now become the effective seller of Setanta channels, along with its own, throughout all commercial premises in the UK.
The deal does not relate to private households.
Setanta, which was founded by Dubliners Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan in 1990, does not have the support staff or backup needed to sell its own services to entertainment venues throughout the UK.
The value of the deal was not disclosed, nor was the price of the joint subscription. However, the agreement does herald increased co-operation between Sky and Setanta.
Setanta moved into the top tier of sports rights companies last week when it bought two packages of live games, worth €576 million, from the English FA Premier League.
The company's founders have long spoken about their close working relationship with BSkyB, even though the companies have competed on several occasions for sports rights.
From August 2007, venues in the UK will not have to buy separate subscriptions for Setanta and BSkyB's services.
In the recent auction, BSkyB won four packages, while the Irish company won the remaining two. Between them the companies paid £1.7 billion (€2.5 billion) for the rights. Among those who lost out were NTL and Disney-owned network ESPN.
Under the deal, announced yesterday, Sky will be able to show all 138 live Premiership matches per season from August 2007, without needing a separate subscription.
Trevor East, director of sports at Setanta, said: "Setanta's strategy is to make our programming services available on all platforms. We're delighted to have agreed a deal with Sky that will give us access to their pubs and clubs for both the FA Premier League." The new pubs and clubs agreement builds on an existing deal between Sky and Setanta, under which commercial customers received Setanta's live coverage of the Scottish Premier League as part of their Sky subscription.
Watching live matches in pubs or clubs remains popular in Ireland and Britain. In the UK 2005/06 season, fans made an average of 6.1 million visits per week to watch Sky Sports on screens outside their homes, up from 5.4 million per week the previous season.
