Setanta to show Magners league

Riskymove

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0709/1224250317274.html


RUGBY NEWS : SETANTA SPORTS have confirmed their two existing sports channels will broadcast the Magners League for the coming season but the television rights will go back to tender ahead of the 2010/11 campaign.

Setanta Ireland will televise most of the 50-plus matches live with Setanta Sports 1 also showing some games. The company recently went into administration yet remains afloat in Ireland but Setanta Sports 2 and Setanta Golf are no longer available.
Meanwhile, Ulster and Munster have confirmed next month’s pre-season matches. Ulster, under a new coaching ticket headed up by director of rugby David Humphreys, will host the Newcastle Falcons on Friday, August 21st and Italian club Viadana five days later before an away friendly against Mike Ruddock’s Worcester Warriors on August 28th.

The Sale Sharks face league champions Munster in Musgrave Park on Friday, August 15th, with London Irish arriving in Cork a week later before an enticing trip to Welford Road to play English champions the Leicester Tigers on Friday, August 28th.

On the same night (7pm kick-off) London Irish end their mini-tour of Ireland against Leinster back in their old Donnybrook fortress.

The previous week, Michael Cheika takes his squad, minus the Lions contingent, to Nice for a training camp and a match against Nice Cote d’Azur on Saturday, August 22nd.

Connacht are expected to announce their pre-season programme next week and should also confirm the recruitment of two new players.

Five players have already come in – Bernie Upton, Mike McComish, Jamie Hagen, Miah Nikora and Brian Tuohy – but this hardly covers the 13 who departed at the end of last season.

* Jonny Wilkinson will be allowed to participate in England’s elite squad training camp in August despite its proximity to the start of the French season, his Toulon club confirmed yesterday.

“We have signed an agreement with the Rugby Football Union, we shall not stop him from taking part in the camp nor in any future training sessions,” club chairman Mourad Boudjellal said.

Wilkinson was named in the 32-man England squad that will assemble for their first training session of the season from August 9th-14th, just weeks before the French championship starts.




PRE-SEASON FIXTURES:


Friday, August 14th: Munster v Sale Sharks, Musgrave Park, 7pm.

Friday, August 21st: Ulster v Newcastle Falcons, Ravenhill, 7.30pm.

Munster v London Irish, Musgrave Park, 7pm.

Saturday, August 22nd: Rugby Nice Cote d’Azur v Leinster, Nice, TBC

Wednesday, August 26th: Ulster v Viadana, Ravenhill, 7.30pm

Friday, August 28th: Worcester Warriors v Ulster, Sixways, 7.30pm.

Leinster v London Irish, Donnybrook, 7pm.

Munster v Leicester Tigers, Welford Road, TBC.

remus808

Excellent news!!

ScrubsfanChris

I don't know wether to be happy or angry, on one hand I'm happy to see that a good number of matches will be broadcast, but on the other hand I think it would have been great if RTE had made a bid for the Magners League games and for BBC Wales to show a few more. I know that the Magners League has grown a huge amount since Setanta took over the rights, long gone are the days when you might catch a match some Friday night on TG4. So now I think its time for it to jump back to terrestrial tv where the viewership would increase massively, increasing sponsorship price deals and therefore making much more money for the Magners League.

Diabhal Beag

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

I don't know wether to be happy or angry, on one hand I'm happy to see that a good number of matches will be broadcast, but on the other hand I think it would have been great if RTE had made a bid for the Magners League games and for BBC Wales to show a few more. I know that the Magners League has grown a huge amount since Setanta took over the rights, long gone are the days when you might catch a match some Friday night on TG4. So now I think its time for it to jump back to terrestrial tv where the viewership would increase massively, increasing sponsorship price deals and therefore making much more money for the Magners League.

I agree with all of this

[Jackass]

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

I agree with all of this

I agree that Magners needs to become more mainstream.

However the free to air Setanta channel was great for this, but it's a shame RTE seem crippled when it comes to bidding for sporting events. Wheter it's crippled by finances (a government backed agency - who lost most rights in the "boom time") or by incompitnece I'm not sure. I personally believe it's a healthy dollop of both.

Without the help of government intervention, all of our international sporting rights would be gone in football and soccer, all the provincial rights, both Magners and Heineken Cup gone, GAA even, with TV3 landing the Leinster final ahead of RTE as a perfect example.

They're a joke of a broadcaster. Unfortunatley, unless the Irish branch of Setanta can find investors or be bought by a big network over the next year, the future broadcasting of Magners League looks very bleak.

I don't think RTE have the capacity to even host 2 games a weekend and fit it in the schedule...is The Late Late show or Ryan Tubberdys old show (whatever will replace it) going to make way on Friday or Saturday nights for rugby?

Forget RTE...as much as I'd love to see Popey and Hook covering Magners games live on a Saturday night, it's a pipe dream.

I'd like to see a one hour long magazine match of the day type show on Sunday / Monday nights dedicated to Magners League on RTE or TV3 or both (isn't against the head now gone and TV3 are launching the Rugby Show or something?)

But the main goal would be something like Setanta, but really up its game with pundits and studio quality and location i.e. at the game, Sky Sports go all out for GP and Heineken Cup, whereas Magners lives with Neill Francis in a portocabin in Dublin watching the game on TV then giving woeful analysis of it at half time, and it's embarresingly biased towards Leinster and Munster.

I'm happy just to have Setanta and the valuable coverage they give, but I'd love to see a buy out of the rights, an overhaul of the quality of coverage and pundits and really take Magners to a new level on TV with dedicated high quality coverage. If sky sports took it on and gave it equal footing with the GP, that would be the ultimate sucsess.

We can all dream I suppose.

Crash

I'll take Setanta and knowing that i'll be able to see all the matches I want over RTE and getting only a small number.

Junior

I love(d) watching Soccer AM on Saturday mornings - it seemed to be run by a set of football fans for football fans, even if something a little more condensed time wise could be created for rugby fans it would be mint !

Mossy Monk

[Jackass] wrote: »

However the free to air Setanta channel was great for this

Setanta has no free to air channel.

[Jackass]

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Setanta has no free to air channel.

Well....non-subscription channel anyway...wasn't Setanta Ireland part of the most basic cable package? If you have a TV point in your home (and have paid your licence of course ) you could get Setanta Ireland a long with all the other basic channels like BBC & Channel 4 etc.

thomond2006

[Jackass] wrote: »

Well....non-subscription channel anyway...wasn't Setanta Ireland part of the most basic cable package? If you have a TV point in your home (and have paid your licence of course ) you could get Setanta Ireland a long with all the other basic channels like BBC & Channel 4 etc.

the what now?

Digifriendly

Will Setanta Ireland be able to cover games in Scotland as well as Ireland next season? These games were on Setanta Sports (UK version) last season. Where will they be this season or will Edinburgh's/Glasgow's home games not be covered at all?

Diom

Setanta Ireland is free on NTL. Thank God that they are showing the games this season. It's brilliant being able to go to the Connacht games, and then watch the repeats of the other Friday night games on the telly on Saturday!

Riskymove

and for those interested setanta Ireland will also have 33 premier league soccer games on sat 3pm

danthefan

Riskymove wrote: »

and for those interested setanta Ireland will also have 33 premier league soccer games on sat 3pm

That's good news, I was happy enough with the ML but that's a bonus. They've gone from the brink to being healthy enough in Ireland it seems.

P_1

I think Setanta can broadcast ML matches in the UK on the Racing Channel (I know it's meant to just broadcast horse racing). They had UFC 100 on it last week. Maybe thats a way for them to show the matches in Wales and Scotland.

Digifriendly

pithater1 wrote: »

I think Setanta can broadcast ML matches in the UK on the Racing Channel (I know it's meant to just broadcast horse racing). They had UFC 100 on it last week. Maybe thats a way for them to show the matches in Wales and Scotland.

Matches in Wales covered by Setanta were always those already being shown by BBC2W/S4C and so were a simulcast. Matches in Scotland however were a different matter as Setanta UK showed these games using their own cameras/production teams etc. So it will be interesting to see what happens in new season to games where Edinburgh/Glasgow are at home.

justsomebloke

AFAIK it is setanta ireland that have the rights to the magners league so they can still show them in the uk if another channel is willing to broadcast it for them however as such at the moment there will be no magners league matches available to watch in Scotland which is a shame and will be a further decline to scottish rugby

Digifriendly

Joe the Santa wrote: »

AFAIK it is setanta ireland that have the rights to the magners league so they can still show them in the uk if another channel is willing to broadcast it for them however as such at the moment there will be no magners league matches available to watch in Scotland which is a shame and will be a further decline to scottish rugby

Thanks for this. Scottish rugby as you rightly indicate is already in decline (compare Glasgow/Edinburgh's crowds to others in ML) and if there is no live coverage of matches in Scotland this will only further the decline. When you hear about the uproar over football SPL live rights and compare that to rugby it just indicates the low profile the oval ball game has in that country. Let's hope BBC or STV step in. Even if BBC Alba (similar to S4C) covered ML live it would give the game much needed exposure.

Digifriendly

Belfast News Letter reports today that Setanta Ireland will continue to show ML fixtures this coming season in both Scotland and Ireland. However it also says that some matches at Ravenhill will be covered by both BBC2W and S4C. See - http://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/RUGBY-Setanta-Ireland-confirms-deal.5490434.jp
As regards matches in Scotland how will viewers there be able to watch Setanta Ireland's coverage? Will they be able to subscribe to what is essentially a channel for Irish viewers? Also article states that more of Ulster's home games will be covered by BBC2W/S4C than in the past. This infers that Setanta Ireland will probably reduce the number of games in which they are the host broadcaster from Ravenhill , possibly to cut costs and avoid the financial problems their UK arm faced recently.