Connacht rugby on Setanta Sports

siltirocker

Of the first 50 matches of the season, 43 will be televised on Setanta Sports. Of the 7 not being televised, 6 include Connacht and only 3 Connacht games will be televised by them.

Connacht v Ulster, Munster v Connacht, Connacht v Leinster.

:(seriously wtf?

Kalashnikov_Kid

Im not surprised...sure they nearly went bust a while back

wixfjord

In fairness thats just business and viewers. Ive nothing against connacht but they are one of the worst in the ML and one of the worst supported. Why would setanta show them as much as Munster or Leinster? I would obviuosly like to see them televised more, but its not going to happen.

siltirocker

Kalashnikov_Kid wrote: »

Im not surprised...sure they nearly went bust a while back

Who? Connacht? No they didn't!

wixfjord

siltirocker wrote: »

Who? Connacht? No they didn't!

No Setanta. They are still on the brink I think and had to get rid of their English operation and two channels if Im correct.

siltirocker

wixfjord wrote: »

In fairness thats just business and viewers. Ive nothing against connacht but they are one of the worst in the ML and one of the worst supported. Why would setanta show them as much as Munster or Leinster? I would obviuosly like to see them televised more, but its not going to happen.

I understand that, but 3 measly games compared to minimum of six for all other teams including Dragons.

siltirocker

wixfjord wrote: »

No Setanta. They are still on the brink I think and had to get rid of their English operation and two channels if Im correct.

The way is was phrased as regards my OP I believed he was speaking of Connacht Rugby, i could be wrong though. Setanta going down wouldn't affect match allocations.

Digifriendly

Setanta seem to have cut back their coverage a bit - some matches in Ireland/Scotland have BBC2W/S4C listed as host broadcaster rather than Setanta Ireland on ML website. Maybe the Setanta cameramen find it too cold in Galway and unlike Mrs Doyle they don't 'like the misery!'
(Reference to thread few months ago!)

[Jackass]

Connacht and Setanta both nearly went bust (well, in Connachts case, the IRFU were trying to shut them down as a professional outfit, this was met with too much opposition, and rightfully so, and hence came the term "development province" - a watered down semi-professional outfit that receives a fraction of the funding and is used to blood young players in regular top flight rugby).

As for the matches being televised, it probably has a lot to do with the tiny number of subscribers from Connacht, it wouldn't be worth their while as there is far more interest in other games and thus far more advertising revenue to be had, plus attendence at Connachts games is nothing short of a disgrace at times....500 people showed up for their opening game v the Ospreys last season...which incidently, wasn't even televised anywhere...

siltirocker

[Jackass] wrote: »

As for the matches being televised, it probably has a lot to do with the tiny number of subscribers from Connacht, it wouldn't be worth their while as there is far more interest in other games and thus far more advertising revenue to be had, plus attendence at Connachts games is nothing short of a disgrace at times....500 people showed up for their opening game v the Ospreys last season...which incidently, wasn't even televised anywhere...

I cant see any particular reason Setanta subscribtions being lower in Connacht (bare maybe population), seeing as 90% of subscribtions would be to pubs.

As regards the att. at Connacht games, 1. I blame Connacht rugby for the absolutely useless advertising and promoting, same with local media.
2. 1830 Sportsground, city centre, Friday evening. Not physically possible if you work on Fridays.
3. Also impossible to get to Connacht games if you're outside Galway city. I have many die-hard Connacht rugby fans around the province that due to times, the venue and occassionly lack of knowledge of games (no advertising or official fan club/newsletter) only made it to one or two Saturday evening games.

Shame, seeing as teams like Corinthians, Buccaneers and Westport often get great local support at home games

Robbo

I think that this season the games will be moved back to 7 or possible 7:30 pm.

Aidric

It makes perfect sense as far as I'm concerned. Connacht have been consistently at the bottom of the table, not many people want to watch their brand of Rugby.

buck65

The brand that defeated Munster and Leinster last season?

I feel sorry for Connacht and their plight, their grounds are a dump - inaccesible and shabby - they frequently have to scrimp and scrape to get players. They often punch above their weight in Europe and were desperately unlucky in at least 3 of last years ML games to be pipped at the post.
Compared to the likes of the Sprays,Cardiff, Munster,Leinster's resources - Connacht do quite well.
Plus the game against Munster in Thomond was really enjoyable where both teams really went at it in all out attack. This "brand" to me is preferable to watching the likes of Glasgow, Dragons or the Scarlets

Riskymove

but this is Setanta Ireland now and they should be prioritising games from Ireland provinces

if 4 out of 5 games are shown each week why shouldn't they show all 4 irish teams?

S4C is also available on sky and they show some welsh teams so you might get some connacht games there too

Kalashnikov_Kid

siltirocker wrote: »

The way is was phrased as regards my OP I believed he was speaking of Connacht Rugby, i could be wrong though. Setanta going down wouldn't affect match allocations.

Nope I was referring to Setanta.

I think it was mentioned in another Setanta thread that they should have put more ML games on pay per view, but if they have now dropped 2 sports channels thats a non-runner

sock puppet

Presumably they'll show the other 3 interpros in the second half of the season too? Then Connachts 4 trips to Wales will probably be televised also. That's only 10 matches if Setanta don't add more fixtures for the second half of the season. Understandable but it must be very annoying for Connacht supporters.

chupacabra

Its a sad state of affairs alright, i have unending respect for Connacht fans with the way their province is treated by pretty much everyone, i try to make a few games a year as i really like Galway and the trip up is nice (from Tralee).

Riskymove

while I have sympathy its not different really to how the smaller clubs are handled by TV generally across sports, how many Hull games are televised in comparison to Man Utd

how many italian rugby games do we get to see

how much screen time does Tiger woods get as oppossed to Shane Lowry?

Digifriendly

Riskymove wrote: »

how much screen time does Tiger woods get as oppossed to Shane Lowry?

We don't know the answer to this until this weeks WGC Championship when for the first time both will play in the same tournament but we can easily guess!

Zzippy

Robbo wrote: »

I think that this season the games will be moved back to 7 or possible 7:30 pm.

7pm according to paper this week. Hopefully the half hour change makes a difference to people who would like to come see the games.

Aidric wrote: »

It makes perfect sense as far as I'm concerned. Connacht have been consistently at the bottom of the table, not many people want to watch their brand of Rugby.

I knew it would be a mistake giving you a chance and not putting you on ignore before. Ah well, we live and learn. Click...

wixfjord

Zzippy wrote: »

7pm according to paper this week. Hopefully the half hour change makes a difference to people who would like to come see the games.



I knew it would be a mistake giving you a chance and not putting you on ignore before. Ah well, we live and learn. Click...

Im not a big fan of Aidric as a poster, but thats a fair comment.

Zzippy

wixfjord wrote: »

Im not a big fan of Aidric as a poster, but thats a fair comment.

The bit about "their brand of rugby"? Said poster is clearly forgetting the 10-man rugby that Munster perfected and stuck with up to recently, or the ****e that the likes of Dragons have produced for a long time now. Connacht don't have half the talent or resources of other provinces, but still try to play attacking rugby and move it through the backs. Fionn Carr was top try scorer in the ML last year with 12 tries, and he played wing/full back.
His comment was ill-informed and thoughtless, and in no way fair.

justsomebloke

I think the main thing to remember about this is that setanta are ONLY able to show to matches in Ireland now and will probably be doing well if they are still broadcasting past this year as a lot of Irish subscribers will probably jump ship to espn as they will have more money so the viability of it maybe in question soon enough. so with that in mind not showing more Munster games is quite an interesting tactic as you would assume that they would at least try and at least get what money they could from there

wixfjord

Zzippy wrote: »

The bit about "their brand of rugby"? Said poster is clearly forgetting the 10-man rugby that Munster perfected and stuck with up to recently, or the ****e that the likes of Dragons have produced for a long time now. Connacht don't have half the talent or resources of other provinces, but still try to play attacking rugby and move it through the backs. Fionn Carr was top try scorer in the ML last year with 12 tries, and he played wing/full back.
His comment was ill-informed and thoughtless, and in no way fair.

Yes but you seem to forget that Munsters 10 man rugby was winning rugby, theres the difference. Trying to play attacking rugby and playing good rugby is different. For example, the Ospreys last season tried to offload and throw the ball around a bit, but some of it was painful to watch, compared to the Munster of old. The ****e that the likes of the Dragons have produced as you say is on the same level as what Connacht have produced obviuosly, because they are at the same level in the league, if not the Dragons are stronger.

I would watch Connacht play if it were on, but not over Scarlets Blues, or Glasgow Ospreys for example, because the rugby is better.

siltirocker

wixfjord wrote: »

I would watch Connacht play if it were on, but not over Scarlets Blues, or Glasgow Ospreys for example, because the rugby is better.

Ah not Glasgow, c'mon, , , and Scarlets are pushing it!

Digifriendly

Joe the Santa wrote: »

I think the main thing to remember about this is that setanta are ONLY able to show to matches in Ireland now and will probably be doing well if they are still broadcasting past this year as a lot of Irish subscribers will probably jump ship to espn as they will have more money so the viability of it maybe in question soon enough. so with that in mind not showing more Munster games is quite an interesting tactic as you would assume that they would at least try and at least get what money they could from there

While this is what Setanta have stated that Setanta Ireland will only broadcast to viewers in Ireland, ML website have them as host broadcaster for matches in Scotland which still raises the question as to how viewers in scotland will watch matches in their home country. Will be interesting to see how this pans out. My own thinking is that Setanta Sports 1 (other Setanta channel) will duplicate some of Setanta Ireland's output and show it to viewers in UK. Agree entirely with you about Setanta's uncertain future.

wixfjord

siltirocker wrote: »

Ah not Glasgow, c'mon, , , and Scarlets are pushing it!

Youve obviously never seen a welsh derby. Scarlets and Glasgow beat Stade and Tolouse last year, and both have some great young players. Id rather watch them than Connacht, wouldnt you?

Zzippy

wixfjord wrote: »

Yes but you seem to forget that Munsters 10 man rugby was winning rugby, theres the difference. Trying to play attacking rugby and playing good rugby is different. For example, the Ospreys last season tried to offload and throw the ball around a bit, but some of it was painful to watch, compared to the Munster of old. The ****e that the likes of the Dragons have produced as you say is on the same level as what Connacht have produced obviuosly, because they are at the same level in the league, if not the Dragons are stronger.

I would watch Connacht play if it were on, but not over Scarlets Blues, or Glasgow Ospreys for example, because the rugby is better.

Ah ok, so a boring brand of rugby is ok to watch if its a winning boring brand of rugby... sad but true I suppose.
To get back to the topic, if Setanta Ireland are only transmitting games to Ireland, would it not make commercial sense for them to show more games involving Irish provinces? They certainly won't get too many subscriptions from Connacht going on their programming schedule anyway. Instead we'll probably get one ML game on a Friday instead of the 2 we got before, and we'll have to make do with cheap bought-in programmes covering such exciting sports as drag racing, and endless repeats of The Hub. I can't wait!

I won't miss the home games on tv as I'll be at them, but it was always great to be able to see some of the away games, even delayed transmission.

Mostly the Connacht games broadcast have been away from home where our performances have been dire by any standards and in particular when compared to our home performances.We tried to play decent rugby last season at times but there is only so much of that you can do.The end product is the important thing and more often than not with us good work goes unrewarded and then we get hit with a sucker punch.

On a separate point does anyone know when we will be confirming our squad?Harlequins away next week in a friendly and the squad still hasn't been announced?

siltirocker

Borders no.2 wrote: »

Mostly the Connacht games broadcast have been away from home where our performances have been dire by any standards and in particular when compared to our home performances.We tried to play decent rugby last season at times but there is only so much of that you can do.The end product is the important thing and more often than not with us good work goes unrewarded and then we get hit with a sucker punch.

On a separate point does anyone know when we will be confirming our squad?Harlequins away next week in a friendly and the squad still hasn't been announced?

It was meant to happen last week, but a mate of mine in the branch says that Bradley is was planning to delay because he wanted to confirm a big name signing(but my mate reckons it fell through). So i don't know!

Also heard that Nikora threw a wobbler when he realised that Keatley was going to be the starting fly-half for the first few of the season. When he signed a few believe he joined on the promise of week in - week out pro rugby!

sock puppet

siltirocker wrote: »

Ah not Glasgow, c'mon, , , and Scarlets are pushing it!

When on form Glasgow can be a very entertaining team to watch. The Scarlets on the other hand seem to get worse with each passing match.

siltirocker

siltirocker wrote: »

It was meant to happen last week, but a mate of mine in the branch says that Bradley is was planning to delay because he wanted to confirm a big name signing(but my mate reckons it fell through). So i don't know!

Also heard that Nikora threw a wobbler when he realised that Keatley was going to be the starting fly-half for the first few of the season. When he signed a few believe he joined on the promise of week in - week out pro rugby!

Interesting stuff.The Nikora thing sounds about right as he looked to have a good profile and moving to Connacht to bench most weeks looked a strange career move.However if he examined the Connacht team before joining I suppose he would have known that Keatley was no.1 choice at 10.

Hard to know what big name signing would come to us with Bradley in charge.We were meant to get in a back row and a wing/centre but I'm getting worried now that an already paperthin squad will be down to the bare bones before the season even starts.

I don't have any faith in Bradley to get things sorted before the season begins.

siltirocker

Borders no.2 wrote: »

However if he examined the Connacht team before joining I suppose he would have known that Keatley was no.1 choice at 10.

Well P*** G****** told me that Bernie Upton expected a feckin' mini parade when he came over! hah!:pac:

Hard to know what big name signing would come to us with Bradley in charge.We were meant to get in a back row and a wing/centre but I'm getting worried now that an already paperthin squad will be down to the bare bones before the season even starts.

I don't have any faith in Bradley to get things sorted before the season begins.

He gave up the year before last if you ask me.