Lex Gold today admitted that it was with regret that the Scottish Premier League terminated its contract with Setanta Sports - but insisted that Scotland's top clubs have a strong product to offer to potential broadcasters as he predicted a positive outcome.

The league's UK and Irish broadcast TV partner served the Clydesdale Bank Premier League well in recent years, however Gold confirmed that after a third deadline for payment had been missed it left Scotland's top twelve clubs with no alternative.

Speaking at a news conference at Hampden Park the SPL executive chairman said, "We set three deadlines and we wanted to work with Setanta who have been a great partner of ours.

"They have spent £60million in supporting Scottish football and our board were determined to give them every possible chance to work through the problems that they had. That process has been lengthy and intensive but the deadline today was the final deadline so our right reverted to us as of 3pm."

It is intended that the tender process to appoint a new TV broadcast partner will be a swift one with the league confident of a positive resolution in good time before the season starts.

Gold continued: "We aim to do that as quickly as possible given that the football season starts on 15th August. That needs to be carried through quickly.

"We have not been able to get in to formal discussions because the rights have been with Setanta.

"But I believe that, in sporting terms, we have the most valuable sporting product in Scotland and Scotland is important to broadcasters, so I remain pretty hopeful that we will deliver an early outcome."

Setanta Sports had been due to start a new contract from 2010-11 for four years. The SPL remains convinced that it can procure a lucrative deal for its clubs.

"I don't accept that we will have to take a reduced fee," Gold insisted. "We have a product that is valuable in the market place and we will be seeking to see that value covered.

Gold revealed that he has not made any informal approaches to any other broadcasters, today's contractual termination with Setanta having taken place moments before it was announced.

"The clubs have been kept up to date on a regular basis so they are able to make prudent decisions," he explained.

"I believe the clubs recognise the value of the rights we have and feel comfortable that they we will see a return on that.

"I would be hugely surprised if we don't have a broadcast or broadcasters in place for the start of the season, 15th August. I would expect to enter negotiations within days."