Setanta to Stamp out Clichés (but Sell Scottish Football Short)

By: Daryl | June 5th, 2009

Bit of a mixed PR bag for Setanta Sports today. On the good side, they’ve brought some much needed innovation to football broadcasting. I’m on Setanta Sports/Special1 TV has been a huge success (Shut up Dave) and having John Champion tweet the FA Cup final was an interesting way to get some attention.

And for tomorrow’s Kazakhstan vs England World Cup Qualifier Setanta will try arguably their boldest move yet: Football commentary without cliché.

Here’s how it will work, according to Frank PR: Setanta.com users have voted on the 10 most annoying cliché crimes in football commentary:

1. “At the end of the day” (18%)
2. “On paper…” (16%)
3. “A game of two halves” (14%)
4. “This game needs a goal” (12%)
5. “There are no easy games in international football” (10%)
6. “For a big lad, he’s good with his feet” (9%)
7. “A funny old game” (8%)
8. “This free-kick is in Beckham-range” (7%)
9. “Setting out their stall” (4%)
10. “End-to-end stuff” (2%)

Setanta commentary team John Champion and Chris Waddle have pledged to avoid using any of the above phrases for Saturday’s Kazakhstan vs England game. And to make it count, the company is donating £5,000 donation to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, with £100 deducted from the total for every time a cliché is used.

(Hopefully, the two men will make up the difference should they find certain phrases unavoidable).

Will definitely make the commentary a little more interesting, and maybe even help nudge the art of football commentating forward a littele. So great great PR move by Setanta.

Not so great is the situation in Scotland, where Setanta are having trouble coming up with the money promised to Scottish Premier League clubs in exchange for TV rights. The SPL has had to step in and pay the 12 clubs £3m each from its own coffers, and the two choices going forward appear to be: a) re-negotiate with Setanta, or b) get rid of Setanta and find another broadcaster.

Which smells an awful lot like the beginning of the end of ITDigital, when they couldn’t afford to pay the English Football League clubs. I feel a little bad for Setanta that an excellent PR story has been dampened with a very very bad one. But I suppose that’s the price you pay for promising payments you can’t deliver.