Pro14 to leave FTA TV?

b.gud

https://twitter.com/huwthomas/status/970986715706986498

This is a bit of a blow, had been hoping that would still be able to get a load of the games via FTA

thomond2006

b.gud wrote: »

https://twitter.com/huwthomas/status/970986715706986498

This is a bit of a blow, had been hoping that would still be able to get a load of the games via FTA

That's a big wedge of TV money gone.

molloyjh

thomond2006 wrote: »

That's a big wedge of TV money gone.

Yep, that's bad news.

connemara man

thomond2006 wrote: »

That's a big wedge of TV money gone.

not good not good at all.

and it will as an extension mean less TMOs

Buer

Hopefully S4C pick up the slack and increase their share of broadcasts although I don't see them being in a position to do so to the same level as BBC.

From the statement on the Pro14 website, I get the impression the league were seeking increased money for the coverage. Hopefully they're able to secure increased figures generally.

prawnsambo

Buer wrote: »

Hopefully S4C pick up the slack and increase their share of broadcasts although I don't see them being in a position to do so to the same level as BBC.

From the statement on the Pro14 website, I get the impression the league were seeking increased money for the coverage. Hopefully they're able to secure increased figures generally.

If they were seeking increased money, would that not imply that they already had an offer?

Is Rugby becoming more or less popular? I would have thought more but between this and the six nations struggling to get sponsorship it's hard to know what is going on.

Tigerandahalf

The Brexit effect may be making broadcasters reluctant to over commit.

Sports sponsorship has taken a hit across the water and if the pound weakens further there will be less funds for the provinces in Ireland.

I wonder will Sky re enter and pick up games especially if they can get all Welsh and Scottish games.

There had been suggestions that Welsh crowds could be improved by putting the games behind a pay wall.

The Cardiff and Swansea soccer teams probably have more of an effect.

Buer

prawnsambo wrote: »

If they were seeking increased money, would that not imply that they already had an offer?

Increases from their last deals. I'm just guessing though.

After the successful expansion into South Africa the Guinness PRO14 is continuing to grow in strength with unprecedented interest leading to rising attendances, increased broadcast viewers and an upsurge in social media engagement.

As PRO14 Rugby plans for the exciting seasons ahead, the Championship has overseen a highly-competitive tender process with multiple Pay and Free to Air operators across the UK & Republic of Ireland bidding for the broadcast rights in those territories.

PRO14 Rugby is currently concluding negotiations for these rights ahead of the 2018/19 season and will confirm the final position to partners and supporters once the formal agreements are in place.


Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/2018/03/06/pro14-rugby-statement-broadcast-tenders/#8xbW1scGLeSEskt8.99

awec

I hope that is only BBC Wales and not BBC NI as well. Would be a complete disaster.

Hope the league isn't overplaying it's hand here. The South African teams have come in but the product on offer is certainly no better.

irishbucsfan

awec wrote: »

I hope that is only BBC Wales and not BBC NI as well. Would be a complete disaster.

Hope the league isn't overplaying it's hand here. The South African teams have come in but the product on offer is certainly no better.

I think you guys might be in trouble, rumours are rumbling that UK rights are gone to pay-tv. Alba and BBC NI are gone as well.

awec

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I think you guys might be in trouble, rumours are rumbling that UK rights are gone to pay-tv. Alba and BBC NI are gone as well.

Well this is a massive step backwards.

Is this the Premier Sports rumour? That would be embarrassing for the Pro14 to end up there.

Tigerandahalf

Wales Online saying bbc have lost out but a highlights show on Sunday evenings a possibility.

Premier Sports (eir sports) might be going for the uk rights too and push some games onto their freesports channel on satellite.

Burkie1203

awec wrote: »

Well this is a massive step backwards.

Is this the Premier Sports rumour? That would be embarrassing for the Pro14 to end up there.

Yup
https://twitter.com/JackoRugby/status/971014925861773312

awec

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Yup
https://twitter.com/JackoRugby/status/971014925861773312

This is an incredibly dumb move by the league for the sake of a few quid.

lotmc

BBC issues a statement saying..... "We're proud of our record of covering live Pro14 rugby across television, radio and online and we offered a significantly increased financial bid in order to safeguard these rights on a free-to-air basis for hundreds of thousands of viewers in Wales, and across the UK"

Its somewhat understandable that Pro 14 were looking at the massive difference between TV money for the Aviva Premiership and the French Top 14, and have tried to squeeze more money from broadcasters.

The position in Ireland is not resolved yet, seemingly. Pro14 Rugby said on its website it had overseen a "highly-competitive tender process" with multiple pay and free-to-air operators across the UK and Republic of Ireland bidding for the broadcast rights. So, TG4 may also be ditched if Premier Sports / Eir chip in with a significantly higher offer.

irishbucsfan

It would want to be a considerably larger bid from Premier Sports for me to be happy with this...

molloyjh

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Yup
https://twitter.com/JackoRugby/status/971014925861773312

Well this takes away one of the biggest gripes a lot of Welsh have with the league anyway, so there's that.

Bazzo

awec wrote: »

Well this is a massive step backwards.

Is this the Premier Sports rumour? That would be embarrassing for the Pro14 to end up there.

I'm a little confused as to why it's a massive step backwards?

The rumour is that BBC offered a significant increase and were still outbid for the rights. I'm sure it's certainly annoying for Ulster fans in particular who have been well served by the BBC coverage but a large increase in TV rights money is hardly a step backwards.

Buer

awec wrote: »

This is an incredibly dumb move by the league for the sake of a few quid.

It was always going to be the way. Highest bidder wins in television rights. No league in the world is going to turn down the money to keep their games on terrestrial broadcasting.

Given the massive gap between the money received in France and England against what the Pro14 teams receive, I would imagine they had to spend all of a nano-second thinking about it.

awec

Bazzo wrote: »

I'm a little confused as to why it's a massive step backwards?

The rumour is that BBC offered a significant increase and were still outbid for the rights. I'm sure it's certainly annoying for Ulster fans in particular who have been well served by the BBC coverage but a large increase in TV rights money is hardly a step backwards.

Because nobody has a Premier Sports subscription. They are moving from massive potential viewer numbers to tiny potential viewer numbers.

Who is going to pay a tenner a month for 1 or 2 pro14 games at the weekend?

Looking at the actual bid money is just so short sighted. The league will not grow on Premier Sports.

errlloyd

So is TG4 Gonzo too?

Are we gonna see more than 3 game televised per week?

awec

Buer wrote: »

It was always going to be the way. Highest bidder wins in television rights. No league in the world is going to turn down the money to keep their games on terrestrial broadcasting.

Given the massive gap between the money received in France and England against what the Pro14 teams receive, I would imagine they had to spend all of a nano-second thinking about it.

Great, they can spend all their extra money trying to market a league that nobody watches.

irishbucsfan

Buer wrote: »

It was always going to be the way. Highest bidder wins in television rights. No league in the world is going to turn down the money to keep their games on terrestrial broadcasting.

Given the massive gap between the money received in France and England against what the Pro14 teams receive, I would imagine they had to spend all of a nano-second thinking about it.

It's not as simple as "highest bidder wins". There is intangible value in the game being on free-to-air. I'm sure PS will be showing some games free on their channel, for example.

irishbucsfan

errlloyd wrote: »

So is TG4 Gonzo too?

Are we gonna see more than 3 game televised per week?

We don't know about Ireland yet. BBC only said they lost out on UK rights.

awec

If you're a UK based Nascar, NHL and Pro14 fan this is probably brilliant news in fairness.

errlloyd

Yeah, I mean I got into rugby as a child watching Celtic league on Tg4. That's why I am here. FTA has sold them every piece of merch, every ticket, every subscription that I have bought since.

And subjected you guys to around 7000 posts worth of my ****. Blame FTA.

Bazzo

awec wrote: »

Because nobody has a Premier Sports subscription. They are moving from massive potential viewer numbers to tiny potential viewer numbers.

Who is going to pay a tenner a month for 1 or 2 pro14 games at the weekend?

Looking at the actual bid money is just so short sighted. The league will not grow on Premier Sports.

And Premier Sports are just bidding for the craic? Obviously they think they can get enough viewers for it to be worth their while to put in a significantly increased bid.

errlloyd

awec wrote: »

If you're a UK based Nascar, NHL and Pro14 fan this is probably brilliant news in fairness.

o0O <- actual picture of that Venn Diagram

irishbucsfan

Ah here, NHL is good craic

awec

Bazzo wrote: »

And Premier Sports are just bidding for the craic? Obviously they think they can get enough viewers for it to be worth their while to put in a significantly increased bid.

I'm sure they think that.

irishbucsfan

Bazzo wrote: »

And Premier Sports are just bidding for the craic? Obviously they think they can get enough viewers for it to be worth their while to put in a significantly increased bid.

I'd say they thought the same thing back when they were Setanta Sports.

Sangre

(UK customer here) What the hell is Permier Sports? Literally never heard of it.

Tigerandahalf

I think TG4 and S4C may still be showing a single game each weekend.

WalesOnline mentioned that there was no comment from S4C and there were rumours before that TG4 would still have some involvement.

FreeSports on satellite will be going HD shortly and with the possibility of a game each weekend on that channel with English commentary it may not be so bad.

Because of the amount of games it is possible Premier/eir will sub let games out to broadcasters which may be where TG4 and S4C come in. However that would mean Scotland and NI losing out.

Wait and see I guess.

There really is a need for these pay sport providers to launch on satellite and allow you to sign up without the need for sky. The casting is another option but I find the quality inferior to tertestrial/satellite.

awec

Sangre wrote: »

(UK customer here) What the hell is Permier Sports? Literally never heard of it.

http://www.premiersports.com/

They show things like NHL, NASCAR, european football, under 20s tiddlywinks and the croquet championships.

They are basically Setanta sports, but now they focus on niche sports that other broadcasters aren't really arsed about.

Tigerandahalf

There is an app in the play store called Premier Sports Player. It seems you can chromecast the channels and it has a catch up service too.

Does anyone know whether eir broadband subscribers would have access?

It was handy having the games on tg4 and the bbc and s4c but only one channel was in HD and only two were fully in English.

awec

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

There is an app in the play store called Premier Sports Player. It seems you can chromecast the channels and it has a catch up service too.

Does anyone know whether eir broadband subscribers would have access?

It was handy having the games on tg4 and the bbc and s4c but only one channel was in HD and only two were fully in English.

I don't think so.

Premier Sports is a UK thing, it's basically Eir Sports 2 in Ireland.

Jack Kanoff

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

There is an app in the play store called Premier Sports Player. It seems you can chromecast the channels and it has a catch up service too.

Does anyone know whether eir broadband subscribers would have access?

It was handy having the games on tg4 and the bbc and s4c but only one channel was in HD and only two were fully in English.

If you have eir broadband you can download the eir sport app to your tablet and you have eir and BT sport as part of your broadband package.

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

I don't think so.

Premier Sports is a UK thing, it's basically Eir Sports 2 in Ireland.

And all eir broadband customers get that and BT Sports for free. With Sky losing almost all of its NH rugby coverage that means I can bin Sky Sports and no longer have to pay a sub for my sports channels.

AFAIK there are around 1m eir broadband customers in Ireland. I wonder if we'll see a similar deal (or if there is already a similar deal) with BT broadband customers in the UK.

awec

molloyjh wrote: »

And all eir broadband customers get that and BT Sports for free. With Sky losing almost all of its NH rugby coverage that means I can bin Sky Sports and no longer have to pay a sub for my sports channels.

AFAIK there are around 1m eir broadband customers in Ireland. I wonder if we'll see a similar deal (or if there is already a similar deal) with BT broadband customers in the UK.

Premier Sports has nothing to do with BT in the UK.

BT customers can't get Premier Sports.

Also you are probably in the tiny fraction of people who subscribe to Sky purely for rugby union.

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

Premier Sports has nothing to do with BT in the UK.

BT customers can't get Premier Sports.

Also you are probably in the tiny fraction of people who subscribe to Sky purely for rugby union.

That may be, but the point is that there are around 1m households who in Ireland that will have free access to the league with this deal. With 7 games per week it is very feasible that Premier Sports will have them scheduled so they can show 4 of them (1 Friday, 2 Saturday, 1 Sunday for example) meaning most games will get aired.

The big question then is the UK fan base. But FTA has been going the way of the dinosaur in pro sports for years now anyway. It was inevitable this was going to go the subscription route. Premier Sports costs all of £10 a month, so it's not the end of the world.

Former Former

molloyjh wrote: »

And all eir broadband customers get that and BT Sports for free. With Sky losing almost all of its NH rugby coverage that means I can bin Sky Sports and no longer have to pay a sub for my sports channels.

AFAIK there are around 1m eir broadband customers in Ireland. I wonder if we'll see a similar deal (or if there is already a similar deal) with BT broadband customers in the UK.

It's a horrible way to watch rugby though. No record, no rewind, no catch-up.

We've been absolutely spoiled the last few years with the amount of free Pro14 action available.

Ernie Mckracken

So with BT Sports getting all the Euro games next season, Irish rugby fans can see all home games of all 4 provinces with a BT Sports subscription as they carry Eir sports.

But for fans of UK teams (Scottish and Welsh), to get the equivalent you'd need

BT Sports subscription
Premier Sports subscription
and whatever channel picks up the BBC Wales and BBC Alba matches

Is that right?

awec

molloyjh wrote: »

That may be, but the point is that there are around 1m households who in Ireland that will have free access to the league with this deal. With 7 games per week it is very feasible that Premier Sports will have them scheduled so they can show 4 of them (1 Friday, 2 Saturday, 1 Sunday for example) meaning most games will get aired.

The big question then is the UK fan base. But FTA has been going the way of the dinosaur in pro sports for years now anyway. It was inevitable this was going to go the subscription route. Premier Sports costs all of £10 a month, so it's not the end of the world.

This is the UK deal. The Ireland one hasn't been announced.

Anyway, there were more households with access under the current deal than the new deal. A lot more.

It's a tenner a month on top of other subscriptions. For probably 1 or 2 games (4 is a dream - will never happen, Premier Sports are a tiny outfit and would never be able to do a semi-decent job on 4 live games every weekend).

Funnily enough Premier Sports exists because Setanta UK went bust buying rights for mainstream sports and not having enough viewers to support it.

awec

Ernie Mckracken wrote: »

So with BT Sports getting all the Euro games next season, Irish rugby fans can see all home games of all 4 provinces with a BT Sports subscription as they carry Eir sports.

But for fans of UK teams (Scottish and Welsh), to get the equivalent you'd need

BT Sports subscription
Premier Sports subscription
and whatever channel picks up the BBC Wales and BBC Alba matches

Is that right?

And Ulster.

Ulster fans will need

- Premier Sports for some Pro14 games
- BT Sport for Champion Cup
- Sky Sports for Ireland internationals

UK fans who get their TV through BT rather than Sky or Virgin will not be able to watch the Pro14 at all.

Ernie Mckracken

awec wrote: »

And Ulster.

Ulster fans will need

- Premier Sports for some Pro14 games
- BT Sport for Champion Cup
- Sky Sports for Ireland internationals

UK fans who get their TV through BT rather than Sky or Virgin will not be able to watch the Pro14 at all.

Thanks. Premier sports is available on Sky and Virgin isn't it?

awec

Ernie Mckracken wrote: »

Thanks. Premier sports is available on Sky and Virgin isn't it?

Yes. A tenner a month on both. HD is not available on Virgin.

Bazzo

awec wrote: »

UK fans who get their TV through BT rather than Sky or Virgin will not be able to watch the Pro14 at all.

You can pay £10 a month to access the premier sports player online.

awec

Bazzo wrote: »

You can pay £10 a month to access the premier sports player online.

Which as mentioned above, is a completely rubbish way to watch sport. How many people do you think will do that?

Bazzo

awec wrote: »

Which as mentioned above, is a completely rubbish way to watch sport. How many people do you think will do that?

Catch up is available on the player for 7 days. For £12 per month you have access to anything broadcast from them ever. What's so rubbish about it?

EDIT: Can't speak for the rewind but other players I've used have had that functionality so are we certain the premier sports one doesn't? It's also in HD.

awec

Bazzo wrote: »

Catch up is available on the player for 7 days. For £12 per month you have access to anything broadcast from them ever. What's so rubbish about it?

Watching stream vs TV? No pause, rewind, record. Low definition. Prone to bandwidth issues.

I get that people want to put a positive spin on this, but if you want to grow the Pro14 in stature moving the broadcasting rights to a tiny TV operator with a insignificantly sized customer base is not the way forward.

Expecting that Pro14 fans will just start paying a tenner a month for a selection of games each week is pure fantasy stuff. People pay for BT and Sky on the strength of the overall package. Premier Sports have no overall package, it's genuinely garbage.

Ok, the league is going to get more money up front which is ultimately why they've went this way. But viewing numbers are going to be a lot smaller, the number of fans of the league is going to increase a lot slower (if not decrease) and the Pro14 brand is taking a hit.