They didn't see it coming?

Setanta have hit the headlines because they can't afford to pay the football clubs what they promised them for the broadcasting rights.*

Isn't this more or less exactly the same as what happened with ITV Digital back in 2002?

* The BBC sports reporter mentioned that Setanta's revenues were dropping because the economic downturn had hit them twice over - it affects advertising revenues (the main reason why broadcasting rights to sporting events have any value) - and a lot of their income came from pubs, where people like to watch games, but people now have less money to spend in the pub; add on the smoking ban and you can see why that source of income has dried up...

Now that would be a headline: "Smoking ban sounds death knell for British football".