BENCHMARK, the venture capital firm that paid Setanta about €20m for a 50% stake in the television channel North American Sports Network (NASN), has declared an interest in the broadcasting rights for the English Premiership when the contract comes up for renewal next year.

Ynon Kreiz, the general partner of Benchmark Capital Europe responsible for the Setanta deal, refused to comment on speculation but stated that the rights were “an interesting asset for anyone”.

He added that the Premiership had the type of high-growth criteria that sports media companies “would love to own”.

“We don’t base our interest on the age of the company or the maturity of the market but on future potential and the Premiership definitely fits this profile,” he said.

The media industry has been awash with rumours in recent months that private equity groups were planning to mount a challenge to BSkyB’s dominance of English football rights. Setanta’s alliance with Benchmark, which follows an earlier €7m investment from AIG’s Global Sports and Entertainment fund, adds to the credibility of the Irish broadcaster. It surprised the British media when it paid £35m (€52m) for a four-year deal to broadcast Scottish Premierleague football ahead of the 2004/2005 season.

BSkyB, the satellite operator in which News International, parent company of The Sunday Times, has a 35.3% stake, paid about £110m last week to thwart Setanta’s challenge for the rights to the Football League and Carling Cup and is said to be battling to hold on to Trevor East, its deputy managing director, whom Setanta is seeking to recruit.

The European Commission is pressurising the English Football League to parcel off coverage of the Premiership to competing companies when BSkyB’s current £1.02 billion contract expires.

Kreiz, the former president and chief executive of Fox Kids Europe, joined Benchmark’s London office in January with a specific brief to find suitable investments for its new $375m European media fund.

The NASN deal was his second major investment in as many months. It followed the acquisition in May of a 40% stake in Codemasters, Europe’s largest video game publisher.

“I see a lot of early-stage opportunities for development that could become large franchises given access to our capital and expertise,” he said. “I have known the management of Setanta for a few years now and we were able to conclude the NASN deal very quickly. It is a very smart company, operated by very smart people.”