If you look at the Sky Sports page for this final weekend of pool action, you’ll notice that in all the pools you can watch a choice of either final match on the main channel or the red button.
Unless that is, you support Glasgow or Bath.
Chris Masoe (or Craig as he is know over at the Scotsman) has opted to remain in France rather than join Glasgow , and now another snub infinitely more heinous has been delivered by those folks we love to hate, Sky. Yes they provide extensive rugby coverage with the odd decent commentator and we are thankful for it. But they could extend it in the right direction a little better.
A case in point is this weekend in where from Pool 3 you can only watch Leinster – who have already qualified – play against Montpellier – who are unlikely to, unless they get a 5 point win against the champions at home.
Yes, that’s correct. Bath vs Glasgow is the only Heineken Cup pool game not on Sky this weekend. Even Leicester vs Aironi, which has a bearing on absolutely nothing, seems to be getting an airing (although not according to the ERC site).
Thanks Murdoch et al. So if you want to post about the Scottish teams being dismissed as second class broadcast-able citizens in a season that saw (but no-one outside Edinburgh did) the once-in-a-generation match between Edinburgh and Racing Metro, or post about Glasgow possibly having to work without benefit of a TMO in a game that is crucial to their European survival, then this would be the place!
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
5 Responses
100% agree. The ERC needs to be more assertive when awarding TV rights. The Heineken Cup is a high-profile product and there’s a significant market for every single game to be covered live somewhere. If one channel makes a tender for the competition but can’t cover all the games then what they’re not willing to show should be made available to networks who can.
Spot on. And as Edinburgh have found, if you expect ITV to pick up slack in their highlights package then unlucky. Leinster or Munster v a French team no bother but games with teams from your supposed catchment area, no chance.
I don’t think its so much a snub to Scottish rugby ( after all Bath is an English prem side) as chasing after viewing figures: big figures = happy advertisers = money. Rugby fans are not used to this as the game has only recently, in the grand scheme of things, gone pro. It would be brilliant if it was the case that broadcasters chose to show the games that had merit rather than the money makers but with 12,000 season ticket holders Leinster games will be the broadcasters choice. Sadly what fans want has very little to do with what the broadcasters will show. Alba making Warriors play on a day totally inconvenient for fans to get to is a case in point. The money men have got their hands on our game and will continue to scheduling in a way that maximizes their profit. It’s an unfortunate evil we will need to endure if we want rugby on our telly. Well that is my view anyway.
Off topic I know but how strange to view the “Scottish Rugby Blog” and have an advert for England Rugby and one of thier sponsors.
Craig, they just serve the ads they see fit the content of the page – at least they are related to rugby somehow…