Sommet Sports goes off air

UPDATE: A couple of readers have asked if Sky TV will pick up any Sommet Sports content, which includes AFL and content drawn from English Premier League side Liverpool's club channel.

Sky TV spokeswoman Kirsty way says Sky will take a look everything on Sommet's schedule for possible pick ups.

However, Liverpool's club channel content is not an option.

The Premier League restricts broadcasters to drawing content from no more than four club channels, Ms Way says. Sky signed on with Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur* to offset the loss across-the-board Premier League coverage when Coliseum Sports Media launched PremierLeaguePass.com last year.

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EARLIER: Sad news today for sports fans. Sommet Sports will cease transmission at midday today.

Sommet Sports Ltd was placed in liquidation this morning. Victoria Toon of Corporate Restructuring has been appointed liquidator.

Ms Toon could not be immediately reached for comment, but a statement released by Sommet Sports says the channel was suffering an "acute funding shortage."

NBR understands it was broadcast transmission provider Kordia that moved to shut down the channel.

According to Companies Office records, the sole shareholder is Sommet Sports Broadcasting Ltd, which lists a UK address. Sommet Sports Ltd's head office is in Auckand.

The niche broadcaster launched in July last year on Freeview's channel 14 and Sky's Channel 69.

Its line up has included AFL games, English soccer (via a Liverpool FC TV hookup), German soccer, MotoGP and various motor racing, action sports and extreme sports events. 

A statement posted to Sommet's Facebook page quotes director Andrew Reeve saying:

Being the ‘new kids on the block“, we also struggled to gain a strong foothold with most advertising agencies. This coupled with an acute funding shortage has left us with the sad reality of having to make the difficult call.

I would like to thank OMD, Spark, McDonalds, KFC and Fiat Chrysler group for their support and belief in our vision of delivering ‘Free Sport for Kiwis'.

Mr Reeves did not immediately return NBR's call.

Traditional TV broadcasting is an expensive business, even for a barebones operation. When NBR last checked in Freeview charged a $100,000 annual administration fee, rising to $150,000 in a channel's second year, and $200,000 in the third.

And Freeview's broadcast partner Kordia charges around $1.8 million a year to place a high definition digital channel on Freeview’s terrestrial service and $500,000 for a standard definition digital delivered via satellite.

Then of course viewers these days like ondemand options too (not something Sommet has added). And you've got staff costs, programming costs and the need to market your wares. Sommet did a bit on the promotional front. It got my son watching after Sommet's logo was embazoned on his gear for KiwiKick, an AFL NZ effort to get Aussie Rules into our primary schools. But although it got some good word of mouth, but it never blipped onto Nielsen's radar.

Sommet was a brave attempt to expand free-to-air sports choice. But I suspect these days only those with an broadband-first strategy like Coliseum Sports Media have a shot at success. CSM has snaffled online English soccer, French rugby and US and European golf online rights, then shopped around for free-to-air broadcast partners.

ckeall@nbr.co.nz

Follow @ChrisKeall

* The complicated broadcasting rights landscape saw Sommet hold rights to Tottenham's European games.