The failure to pull off a last-gasp rescue package led to Setanta defaulting on the balance of a £30million payment to the Premier League, who terminated their contract for 46 live matches next season with immediate effect.

Those 46 games will now be auctioned off, with Sky favourites to win half of them and ESPN the other 23 when the bidding closes on Monday.

As for Setanta, the disaster which has been looming for several weeks finally struck after efforts to woo US tycoon Len Blavatnik's Access Industries ended in failure - due mainly to concerns over a £50million tax bill due to be paid by the broadcaster.

Setanta still have a contract with the Premier League to show 23 live games a season from 2010 to 2013, but after their failure to come up with the money for next season the company looks close to the point of collapse.

The focus will now shift to the rest of the Setanta's contracts - the Football Association for FA Cup and England games, the Scottish Premier League and the Blue Square Conference.

The US PGA golf tour, boxing promoters, the Indian Premier League and Premier Rugby are all owed cash by the company too.

The Premier League said they had no alternative but to terminate their agreement for next season. Now the fixtures are out, time is at a premium to decide which broadcaster will show which games.

The league said in a statement: "The Premier League has been working with Setanta for some time to help them continue as the broadcaster of 46 UK live matches for the 2009/10 Season.

"The Premier League, in agreement with Setanta, stipulated that certain contractual requirements had to be met on or before Friday 19 June 2009 to allow the preparations for the 2009/10 season to continue unaffected.

"It is with considerable regret that we announce that Setanta has been unable to meet their obligations. As such the existing licence agreement between us has been terminated with immediate effect.

"The Premier League will now go ahead and market the 46 UK live matches for the 2009/10 season."

Setanta has around 1.2 million subscribers, 700,000 short of the 1.9million that industry experts believe they need to break even.

They had suspended new subscriptions last week and also missed a £3million payment due to the Scottish Premier League, but started taking new subscriptions again this week based on hopes of a rescue by Access Industries .

It is understood that Access Industries sealed Setanta's fate after today turning down the offer to take a stake in the company.

Access's investigations into the company's finances found that a £50million VAT bill is still due to be paid to the taxman and that effectively ended Setanta's hopes of a bail-out.

If Setanta do go under, then under a pre-arranged deal, ITV would take over the rights to up to eight England away friendlies for a pre-agreed sum.

The FA Cup would provide more problems but it is understood the FA would approach ITV in the first instance to see if they want to take over any live games. If ITV were not interested, they would approach other broadcasters - both terrestrial and subscription services.

The Premier League are confident they can match the Setanta cash from re-selling the 46 for next season, and the £159million Setanta paid for the 23 Premier League games each season from 2010-13. Even if they are not, the blow would be softened by predicted record overseas TV deals for 2010-13.