Edinburgh Rugby Supporters Club

[Loops]

This article was in today's Daily Mail :

SRU Fumes At Beeb's No-Show For Scots.
by Rob Robertson

The Scottish Rugby Union have threatened to play 'hardball' with BBC Scotland over the rights to screen next year's autumn Tests following the broadcasters' decision not to show live coverage of the national team's matches in Argentina. Rugby chiefs were furious that the BBC did not broadcast the first Test against the Pumas in Rosario and pleaded in vain for this Saturday's game to be shown live.

BBC Scotland have sent out a senior radio broadcaster and a senior television journalist to cover day-to-day events on the tour, but have so far refused to change their Saturday night television schedules to cover the match, which kicks off at 8.10pm British time.

A source close to the SRU said: 'Many within the rugby world can't understand why the BBC have not covered both Tests live.
'We told them about the games in good time and believe there is a demand for the game to be shown in Scotland.
'We were very surprised when they refused to show the first Test and, so far, it looks likely they will not show the second one either.
'The BBC have secured the rights for the three autumn tests in Scotland this year against New Zealand, South Africa and Canada but no deal has been done for 2009 and some within the union may be thinking it's time to play hardball with the BBC over the rights for these games because of the way they have ignored television coverage of the tour of Argentina.
'As we expected, STV also refused to broadcast the game but we are genuinely surprised at the BBC's decision not to show the games.
'We will keep talking to the BBC for as long as we can to try to convince them of the importance of the match to Scottish rugby and the demand from their licence payers to show it.'

A BBC Scotland spokesman confirmed last night that Saturday's game would be broadcast live on BBC Radio Scotland, with edited highlights shown on television news bulletins at a later date.

[superl99]

Truly appalling, and really backing up the assertions of the recent report that the BBC doesn't give a monkey's about people outside London. You would expect this sort of behaviour from commercial stations, but the BBC is supposed to cater to the wishes of its license payers. Grr!

[Derrick Lee's #1 Fan]

[Crichton Gunner]

While they are not willing to show the Scottish inetrnational rugby team in action, they have frequently been willing in the past to show live England soccer internationals (which must have a very limited audience in Scotland) and live English FA Cup matches (which must have an even more limited audience here). It's the same old story - if it's not football, BBC Scotland (who are based in the soccer-daft city of Glasgow) are not much interested. It's quite interesting to note that a lot of the "sports" bulletins on BBC Radio & TV in Scotland consist of nothing other than football, as if it's the only sport that anyone is interested in.

[Baggage]

This clashes with one of the Wendyball games, I can see the BBC throwing money away on televising a minority game in a minority sport

[Arlene]

Scottish Rugby today confirmed that the second summer test against Argentina on Saturday will be broadcast live online only.

Scottish Rugby has made extensive efforts to lobby terrestrial and satellite/cable broadcasters in order to secure live broadcast coverage for this weekend’s Argentina game and is very disappointed by the lack of any meaningful interest in televising this weekend’s game live.

Mediazone -the same company that broadcasted the first test- will make the crunch tie available on their website www.mediazone.com/rugby with English commentary at 8.05pm GMT for which a pay per view fee of $9.99 (£5.10) will be payable by credit card to Mediazone – detailed terms and conditions can be found on the Mediazone website.

Live streaming will begin five minutes before kick-off (8.10pm) and the match will be available to download two to four hours after the match ends.

In addition, BBC Radio Scotland will broadcast two hours’ live coverage of each game from 8-10pm on 810 MW.

Chief Executive of Scottish Rugby, Gordon McKie, said: “We are extremely disappointed that despite highlighting the importance of Saturday’s match, and the high level of public interest to see the game, the match will not be televised live in the UK.

“Despite our strenuous efforts there has been no meaningful interest from any terrestrial and satellite/cable broadcasters to show this vital international Scotland game to our many supporters.

"We intend to take our serious concerns over this matter to the appropriate stakeholders."

[MikeyBlair2004]

superised they havent considering they have beaten the likes of us england ireland and france whilst pushing nz close

[val3]

I suspect they (the BBC) hadn't even thought about it - given that Sky have the rights to the English matches abroad and BBC Wales/S4C sort out the Welsh matches between then.

Anyone got an address /email that we can all bombard with our complaints ??

[Baz]

What would be wrong with the game being shown on BBC Interactive? If the tennis can be shown there then surely the Scotland game can be too, this way it doesn't interfere with their scheduling

[djsxv]

Well the reason is obvious for those who wish to open their eyes.

The BBC is a London based organisation, and like it or not Scotland is merely a county - at best. There is absolutely no reason, nor benefit, as far as the BBC is concerned to invest any effort in showing the Scotland game.

Of course, a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation would have a different agenda ...

... are your eyes still closed or are you seeing the light??

[Loops]

[Crichton Gunner]

[Legless]

[Baggage]

[Fanscene]

The problem is the same that football has. Any England game that is shown comes out of the budget for the whole of BBC while Scotland, Wales and N Ireland comes from the regional budgets which is the same for all regions.

They may play hardball for 2009 Autumn Internationals but will Sky give any more money to us! Then we'll go cap in hand to BBC.

Same happened for Magners coverage BBC Scotland not willing to spend money for anything other than football. In wales there big teams are with the english so no cash is spent on it!!

At least the website is advertising mediazone