British TV rights for RWC

flogen

Who has the rights in the UK for the RWC?

I know ITV (and as a result UTV in NI) have them, but do Setanta have some rights too, or the digital broadcast rights?

The reason I ask is that in the punditry before the England V. Tonga match started they mentioned people who had the channel on Freeview could subscribe to it by ringing the on-screen number.

I was watching Setanta Ireland, which I know is only available in Ireland, but figured it was a simulcast of Setanta 1 or 2 which is available in Britain... so are these matches being shown over there on Setanta too? Just curious about it.

Washout

Setanta are being very clever and making the pre game show FTV so those with a SKy sub FTV card can view the preview...it gives them the oppurtunity to promote their channels

flogen

So they do have the right to show it in the UK (ITV have terrestrial rights, Setanta have cable/digital rights maybe)??

What you're saying is that people in the UK on Sky, Freeview etc. can see the punditry before the game for free but need to subscribe to see the rest?

AndyP

Setanta have Irish rights only. If you press the i (info) button on the Sky remote for a match on Setanta, it tells you 'available in Ireland only'.

Saruman

All i care about, as a basic sky customer is that i could watch it on UTV with the other channels option for free or for my basic sub i guess.
Good game that, Tonga looked very promising but lost it in the second half.

great at attacking but they had zero defence

flogen

AndyP wrote:

Setanta have Irish rights only. If you press the i (info) button on the Sky remote for a match on Setanta, it tells you 'available in Ireland only'.

Ah, I see... so I guess they're showing the pre-match punditry across the pond too, but cutting away for the match itself?

Can't see any other reason why they might feel the need to sell themselves to freeview customers otherwise!