Rugby World Cup to be on Free to Air (RTÉ)

Clareman

Good news

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2010/1221/worldcup_rte.html

RTÉ Sport has secured Ireland's free-to-air television broadcast rights for the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand, it was announced today.

RTÉ Sport will broadcast live 13 key matches, including all of Ireland's Pool matches, the final, the bronze final, both semi-finals, all four quarter-finals and the opening match.


All 13 matches will also be simulcast and available for catch-up on RTÉ.ie.

In addition, all of Ireland's games will be broadcast exclusively live on RTÉ Radio.


Mike Miller, Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) managing director said: 'RWCL is delighted to be extending its association with RTÉ Sport to broadcast Rugby World Cup 2011 throughout Ireland.


'RTÉ is recognised as a leading broadcaster of quality sports coverage and with its extensive broadcast experience of Rugby and commitment to the game RTÉ will ensure the perfect platform for RWC 2011 to reach out to an extensive audience across Ireland.'


Ryle Nugent, RTÉ Group Head of Sport, said: 'We are delighted to have secured these rights to ensure that the Irish public will enjoy live free-to-air coverage of all of Ireland's games at Rugby World Cup next year.


'The tournament showcases the best teams in the world and fans can look forward to following the Irish team's progression every step of the way on all of RTÉ's platforms.


'The awarding of these rights to RTÉ is recognition by RWCL of the quality of our sports coverage and we look forward to sharing what is set to be a momentous sporting occasion with the Irish public.'


Rugby World Cup 2011 kicks off in New Zealand on 9 September and will feature the top 20 teams in the world competing across 48 tournament matches.


The final will be played on 23 October at Auckland's iconic Eden Park.

OldRio

Lets hope it is broadcast in HD.

Clareman

ITV and the BeeB usually have the rights as well, so even if RTÉ hasn't introduced HD by then we'll have options

DH2K9

I thought Setanta had secured the full rights to the World Cup. Does this mean RTE have exclusive rights to the big matches or are Setanta showing those games as well?

Digifriendly

Clareman wrote: »

ITV and the BeeB usually have the rights as well, so even if RTÉ hasn't introduced HD by then we'll have options

ITV have held the UK rights since 1991 tournament. BBC only had rights to first World Cup.

Minstrel27

OldRio wrote: »

Lets hope it is broadcast in HD.

Clareman wrote: »

ITV and the BeeB usually have the rights as well, so even if RTÉ hasn't introduced HD by then we'll have options

RTÉ Two should be broadcasting in HD by the summer. They are currently upscaling on DTT.

Also good to see that TG4 will be showing 24 games on delay. Handy for those not staying awake all night

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2010/1221/1224286052398.html

sock puppet

DH2K9 wrote: »

I thought Setanta had secured the full rights to the World Cup. Does this mean RTE have exclusive rights to the big matches or are Setanta showing those games as well?

Setanta are showing every game afaik. They're just subletting coverage to RTE. From what I've read it says they'll be showing the same games and if there's a fixture clash Setanta 1 will show the secondary game.#

edit: I wonder how that's gonna work though as aren't all the games being played at different times?

ambid

Disappointed by this. I find RTE's coverage to be poor. MuGuirk is a dreadful host, Daire O'Brien is lightweight, and don't get me started on Hook :mad:

In fairness O'Shea and Pope are interesting when not interrupted by McGuirk. Tony Ward has a very odd turn of phrase but is reasonably insightful I suppose.

Please God RTE will bring in Bill O'Herlihy, Emmet Byrne, and Matt Williams to get their rugby coverage up to the excellent standard of their soccer and GAA coverage.

Chances of this happening...?

JustinDee

ambid wrote: »

Please God RTE will bring in Bill O'Herlihy, Emmet Byrne, and Matt Williams to get their rugby coverage up to the excellent standard of their soccer and GAA coverage

Bill O'Herlihy???

ambid

JustinDee wrote: »

Bill O'Herlihy???

Yeah. I think O'Herlihy is the best anchor man on sport. Asks lots of good questions, doesn't hog the limelight, and gives the pundits time to analyse the game properly. He used to do rugby years ago on RTE.

McGuirk just talks over the analysts and interrupts them all the time. He is dreadful.

thomond2006

I think Setanta will be broadcasting every world cup game in HD. I think I'll be ordering it for the RWC.

CouchSmart

Setanta all the way - Matt Williams, Emmet Byrne, Liam Toland, Ciaran Fitzgerald. They have the best pundits going. I'm guess that all the matches RTE bought will be shown on Setanta 1 otherwise won't most people already have the game free-to-air? (Setanta Ireland being free?)

PhatPiggins

ambid wrote: »

Disappointed by this. I find RTE's coverage to be poor. MuGuirk is a dreadful host, Daire O'Brien is lightweight, and don't get me started on Hook :mad:

In fairness O'Shea and Pope are interesting when not interrupted by McGuirk. Tony Ward has a very odd turn of phrase but is reasonably insightful I suppose.

Please God RTE will bring in Bill O'Herlihy, Emmet Byrne, and Matt Williams to get their rugby coverage up to the excellent standard of their soccer and GAA coverage.

Chances of this happening...?

I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking this. I'd much rather pay to watch it then get it free from RTE.

Hopefully Setanta can produce a quality production similar to their ML programmes last season.

ITV's rugby efforts are usually cat as well.

icdg

sock puppet wrote: »

Setanta are showing every game afaik. They're just subletting coverage to RTE. From what I've read it says they'll be showing the same games and if there's a fixture clash Setanta 1 will show the secondary game.#

They're required to offer coverage to free to air broadcasters of any games Ireland are in, because they're on the "Crown Jewels" list (the Broadcasting (Major Events Television Coverage) Act 1999 (Designation of Major Events) Order 2003, to give it its proper name).

Why they allowed the other games to be sublet as well I don't know, but I recall they did the same thing with the 2007 World Cup where TV3 got the terrestrial rights.

Its good news in any case. TV3 have no standing rugby commentary team and had to put one together especially for the last world cup. I don't think they've shown a single game of rugby since.

And if you really hate both RTÉ and Setanta, ITV will also be showing the tournament and UTV normally opt-out for Ireland games if there's a clash with another game the network have decided to go for (i.e. if England are playing at the same time).

thomond2006

RTE will be fine considering the lamentable TV3 coverage back in '07.

Getting Setanta because I want to see the other teams.

DH2K9

JustinDee wrote: »

Bill O'Herlihy???

He did broadcast deferred coverage from the first match in the Aviva. the inter provincials one.

JustinDee

ambid wrote: »

Yeah. I think O'Herlihy is the best anchor man on sport. Asks lots of good questions, doesn't hog the limelight, and gives the pundits time to analyse the game properly. He used to do rugby years ago on RTE.

McGuirk just talks over the analysts and interrupts them all the time. He is dreadful.

Bill hasn't a clue of rugby union and given his past appearances (such as this summer's O2 Challenge), I'd say not much interest either so he's no better than the current panel.
All you need is the game anyway. Panels tend to just spend their time stating the obvious. I just fast forward past them.

Digifriendly

thomond2006 wrote: »

RTE will be fine considering the lamentable TV3 coverage back in '07.

Getting Setanta because I want to see the other teams.

Out of intertest is Setanta free in ROI or do you have to pay? If you have to pay why not get Freesat and watch it on ITV1/4 FTA?

Minstrel27

CouchSmart wrote: »

Setanta all the way - Matt Williams, Emmet Byrne, Liam Toland, Ciaran Fitzgerald. They have the best pundits going. I'm guess that all the matches RTE bought will be shown on Setanta 1 otherwise won't most people already have the game free-to-air? (Setanta Ireland being free?)

Setanta Ireland is not FTA. It is only free via the UPC cable network. It costs €16 per month or something like that to watch it via Sky.

It will be RTÉ and ITV for me.

jd007

What matches will ITV be showing? Is it just the Scotland, Wales and England matches?

trackguy

JustinDee wrote: »

Bill hasn't a clue of rugby union and given his past appearances (such as this summer's O2 Challenge), I'd say not much interest either so he's no better than the current panel.
All you need is the game anyway. Panels tend to just spend their time stating the obvious. I just fast forward past them.

He doesn't need to have a clue. He probably doesn't know a whole lot about football, only what his researchers give him (As Apres Match point out, he is always looking at his notes!)

He has gone on the record before as saying he loves covering rugby. He would do a much better job than McGurk in my opinion. He asks good questions and knows how to start an argument - a very good quality!

McGurk doesn't really do alot right.

Matt Williams - the future of Rugby coverage!

Minstrel27

jd007 wrote: »

What matches will ITV be showing? Is it just the Scotland, Wales and England matches?

All of them.

JustinDee

trackguy wrote: »

He doesn't need to have a clue. He probably doesn't know a whole lot about football, only what his researchers give him (As Apres Match point out, he is always looking at his notes!)
He has gone on the record before as saying he loves covering rugby. He would do a much better job than McGurk in my opinion. He asks good questions and knows how to start an argument - a very good quality!

Nah.
If you're presenting a sports panel you should know about the sport in question. Neither of the two above do.

trackguy

JustinDee wrote: »

Nah.
If you're presenting a sports panel you should know about the sport in question. Neither of the two above do.

Who would you suggest?

JustinDee

trackguy wrote: »

Who would you suggest?

I don't really care, to be honest. Don't think there's much of a choice.
I usually record on another channel if possible (particularly if in HD) and just watch the game itself.

So never mind me. I'm just ranting

thomond2006

jd007 wrote: »

What matches will ITV be showing? Is it just the Scotland, Wales and England matches?

Minstrel27 wrote: »

All of them.

Really? Then Setanta can go fu..

Minstrel27

Yep. ITV are the sole broadcaster for the whole of the United Kingdom.

Digifriendly

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Yep. ITV are the sole broadcaster for the whole of the United Kingdom.

Correct - between ITV1 and ITV4 as with last RWC evey match will be covered live.

Teej

ITV4 blocks transmission in the ROI of the Tour de France because TG4 has the rights so they may do likewise with the RWC.

Would be interested to know if TV3 even bid for the rights

Minstrel27

Teej wrote: »

ITV4 blocks transmission in the ROI of the Tour de France because TG4 has the rights so they may do likewise with the RWC.

That wont happen to anyone watching the World Cup on ITV4 with a satellite dish. UPC customers will have Setanta to fall back on if ITV4 games are blocked.

DH2K9

ITV 4 games will defiantly be blocked because they block games from the Europa League if Setanta or TV3 have the game.

Digifriendly

DH2K9 wrote: »

ITV 4 games will defiantly be blocked because they block games from the Europa League if Setanta or TV3 have the game.

Interesting to note that RTE's HC highlights programme last Saturday was not blocked here in NI via satellite.

icdg

DH2K9 wrote: »

ITV 4 games will defiantly be blocked because they block games from the Europa League if Setanta or TV3 have the game.

Not necessarily, they don't block their coverage of the Heineken Cup despite RTÉ having the highlights rights here.

Remember also that the ITV channels (though not their HD versions) are free to air on satellite, meaning you can't block transmissions to Ireland without blocking them to the UK also.

Also remember that for the Home Nations:
- If a game Ireland is playing in is on ITV4, it will likely also be shown on UTV.
- If a game Scotland is playing in is on ITV4, it will likely also be shown on STV.
- If a game Wales is playing in is on ITV4, it *may* also be shown on ITV1 Wales. This would have happened in the past, but is less clear this time since ITV1 Wales is under the control of ITV plc and Wales has already undergone analogue switch off.

A few other tidbits from the Irish Times article:
* TG4 will have the right to show delayed coverage of 28 matches between 10:30am-4pm daily.
* RTÉ will also have highlights rights all games in the tournament. This is more important than normal - given the time zone the tournament is taking place in, the evening highlights could concievably end up attracting more viewers than the live games.

DH2K9

icdg wrote: »

Not necessarily, they don't block their coverage of the Heineken Cup despite RTÉ having the highlights rights here.

Remember also that the ITV channels (though not their HD versions) are free to air on satellite, meaning you can't block transmissions to Ireland without blocking them to the UK also.

Also remember that for the Home Nations:
- If a game Ireland is playing in is on ITV4, it will likely also be shown on UTV.
- If a game Scotland is playing in is on ITV4, it will likely also be shown on STV.
- If a game Wales is playing in is on ITV4, it *may* also be shown on ITV1 Wales. This would have happened in the past, but is less clear this time since ITV1 Wales is under the control of ITV plc and Wales has already undergone analogue switch off.

A few other tidbits from the Irish Times article:
* TG4 will have the right to show delayed coverage of 28 matches between 10:30am-4pm daily.
* RTÉ will also have highlights rights all games in the tournament. This is more important than normal - given the time zone the tournament is taking place in, the evening highlights could concievably end up attracting more viewers than the live games.

But there must be different rules for blocking highlights of programmes because they can be shown at any time. If RTE and ITV had live coverage of the Heineken Cup then I'm sure they would have block it on ITV 4.

themont85

JustinDee wrote: »

Bill hasn't a clue of rugby union and given his past appearances (such as this summer's O2 Challenge), I'd say not much interest either so he's no better than the current panel.
All you need is the game anyway. Panels tend to just spend their time stating the obvious. I just fast forward past them.

That's his style. He does it from the POV of somebody who knows nothing and wants to be educated by the pundits. He does have an interest in the game btw. There is no chance RTÉ take McGuirk off though.

Digifriendly

DH2K9 wrote: »

But there must be different rules for blocking highlights of programmes because they can be shown at any time. If RTE and ITV had live coverage of the Heineken Cup then I'm sure they would have block it on ITV 4.

But as I understand ITV4's highlights of the Aviva Premiership are blocked via UPC. Sometimes RTE's highlights of HC are blocked here in NI and other times they are not.

Clareman

What you could do is get a satellite tuner box that'll pick up all the streams, not just what is being sent by Sky. I have a Dreambox and I have every variation of ITV channel (and channel 4, etc)

JustinDee

Clareman wrote: »

What you could do is get a satellite tuner box that'll pick up all the streams, not just what is being sent by Sky. I have a Dreambox and I have every variation of ITV channel (and channel 4, etc)

Not exactly legal though is it? Its effectively card-sharing over internet.

JustinDee

themont85 wrote: »

That's his style. He does it from the POV of somebody who knows nothing and wants to be educated by the pundits

Oh puh-lease lol
A TV panel needs more than an agent provocateur at the anchor.

Clareman

Common mis-perception is that a dreambox is used only for card sharing, yes it can be used for that, same as your car can be used to knock people down like GTA, but it can be used just a free to air box that allows you to scan and organise the channels as you want them. There are a lot of channels available FTA and you aren't breaking any laws by viewing them.

d'Oracle

I had no idea there was a risk that it wouldn't be Free-to-air....:D

CouchSmart

Not to encourage illegal behaviour or anything but I'd be fairly confident there'll be multiple streams available for all 48 games.

themont85

JustinDee wrote: »

Oh puh-lease lol
A TV panel needs more than an agent provocateur at the anchor.

That's his style. It has been very effective with brilliant ratings for RTÉ and is exactly the model they used when putting together their rugby panel. Although McGuirk can't help himself sometimes and has 'friction' with Hook.

Corsendonk

Will Stuart Barnes and Miles Harrison be borrowed by ITV again for the World Cup?

Minstrel27

JustinDee wrote: »

Not exactly legal though is it? Its effectively card-sharing over internet.

ITV and Channel 4 are FTA. There is nothing illegal about viewing them on a Dreambox.

Hippo

Whatever about the merits or otherwise of bringing O'Herlihy in, McGurk is beyond awful and Hook is a clown. Surely there are alternatives?

Clareman

I would ideally you would need to have 3 people on the panel and someone submitting the topics for discussion. I would imagine that the 3 ideal folks to have would be an ex-front row international to explain what happens in the front row, off the top of my head Frankie Sheehan and Shane Byrne. Then some from second or back rows to explain other stuff such as line outs, breakdown, etc, again off the top of my head, Malcolm O'Kelly and Alan Quinlan. Then the third would be a former back to discuss hair and tanning products, any 2 would do, after all they are all worth it

thomond2006

They probably don't have the budget but RTÉ could take a leaf out of ESPN's commentary. They have a commentator and two analysts, a forward (Ben Kay) and a back (Austin Healey). I've only watched two rugby matches on ESPN but it really works IMO. No analyst talks about a part of the game they know nothing about.

Clareman

I would imagine there's a lot of former players that would be more than willing to be on a panel without breaking the bank, I would imagine the fees Sunday Game pundits get would be more than welcome for a lot of former players.

IMVHO, ideally they should have a "dumb" chair person who asks the pundits to explain things, this is for the casual fan, then have pundits to explain specific parts of the game.
By and large front row is an area of the game that no-one knows anything about except people that played there, I played 6 and don't know what they do, all I knew was to push my prop at an angle if he was under pressure.
Back row/breakdown laws change a lot from season to season, if you want to have someone explain this part of the game you have to have someone that has played as recently as possible, Quinlan has been on a couple of shows already and won't be travelling to NZ, he would be a great addition I think.
Backs get a bad press, Shane Horgan/Denis Hickey might be good people to have on there explaining how hard it is to keep warm while the forwards do all the work.

irishproduce

Clareman wrote: »

Good news

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2010/1221/worldcup_rte.html

Do you see in that opening post, it says they are available for simulcast and available for catch up on rte.ie?
I can't see any of the matches on RTE.ie/Player

Anyone know if they will have the match replayed on the player tomorrow afternoon?
Don't want to get up that early.

Thanks
irish