Pro 14 TV rights

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Pro 14 TV rights

Postby New Gunner on Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:12 am

According to Wales Online (I know, the same guys who announced Nakarawa would be leaving Racing for the Dragons)...

Sky Sports bid for the UK & Ireland rights from 2018, but lost Ireland to Eir Sport. Their strategy was Islands-wide, so Sky have pulled out of the bidding. BT Sport is thought NOT to be interested, having won the exclusive rights to the European Champions & Challenge Cups from next year, and already having the Aviva Prem.

So it is thought that Premier Sports (subscription channel available for extra through Sky) are in the hunt, with the BBC regions. TG4 is likely to have some Irish games free to view also. Overall it is 'hoped' that the combined deals will mean an increase on the current rights.

All speculation of course. Concerning if the Pro 14 TV revenue is static, as the gulf with England and France will widen further if so.

I'm surprised if BT Sport doesn't make a bid after the cosying up to the SRU and WRU, and the opportunity to pad out their schedule a bit, personally I'll be a bit hacked off if I have to consider a third Sports pay TV package (although could be the prompt to ditch Sky Sports).

I think there had been some talk of fairly dismal viewing figures on Sky, for whom the Irish clubs were the biggest draw anyway. Of course, alongside TV money you have to consider development of the supporter base (and accessibility) through free-to-air.

Thoughts?
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Re: Pro 14 TV rights

Postby Oldsalt on Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:49 am

Considering the performances I saw from the Pro 14 teams in the hunt over the weekend I know which league I would prefer to watch. Scarlets were outstanding on Friday evening.
Sky are so biased towards certain teams and Barnes still is so unprofessional as a commentator/pundit he still cannot get players names correct.
Winston Churchill said that going to sea was like going to prison but with a chance of drowning!
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Re: Pro 14 TV rights

Postby artie fufkin on Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:56 pm

The current pro14 national broadcasting offering isn’t helping to promote the league. The BBC despite having 7 teams from the UK to cover have left it up to the regions to cover the teams resulting in a very fragmented approach which does little to reach beyond the club’s fanbase. The league really need to get a grip on the broadcasting landscape to include tv/social media/broadband as part of its co-ordinated approach to growth. A single broadcaster provides money and a place to fix to but it is a model of coverage that doesn’t take into account how sport is consumed by viewers.
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Re: Pro 14 TV rights

Postby joe soap on Tue Jan 23, 2018 12:20 am

artie fufkin wrote:The current pro14 national broadcasting offering isn’t helping to promote the league. The BBC despite having 7 teams from the UK to cover have left it up to the regions to cover the teams resulting in a very fragmented approach which does little to reach beyond the club’s fanbase. The league really need to get a grip on the broadcasting landscape to include tv/social media/broadband as part of its co-ordinated approach to growth. A single broadcaster provides money and a place to fix to but it is a model of coverage that doesn’t take into account how sport is consumed by viewers.


BBC outside "the regions" has no interest in pro14. National BBC doesn't exactly cover top level English pro rugby either, so what we get from regional BBC is more than the majority of UK license paying rugby fans get.

The AP has a joined up approach made easier because it is one union, one country, and has gone to Pay TV for live rugby. Pro14 has to accommodate several unions across several countries, and therefore several broadcasters, much much more difficult. And for much smaller audiences

They have been very poor (to put it mildly) and very slow to find better solutions but lets hit them with relevant criticisms
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