Not that many matches were shown on ITV4 this time.
If The Mail is to be believed they will retain the rights for 2019 with their coverage of this tournament as host broadcasters having gone down incredibly well with World Rugby.
Yes. How much of a part did ITV Sport play in the host broadcasting operation? I assume it was largely freelancers actually match producing and directing?
Only a pity that you had to be a Pay-TV subscriber to get the ITV4 matches in tolerable picture quality. (HD is pay TV only and their SD quality is like watching YouTube on dialup)
For the few matches I wanted to see I used the NowTV Box's ITV Player App and played the live ITV4 channel feed which was much better, sourced from ITV4HD, than Freeview SD.
Only a pity that you had to be a Pay-TV subscriber to get the ITV4 matches in tolerable picture quality. (HD is pay TV only and their SD quality is like watching YouTube on dialup)
For the few matches I wanted to see I used the NowTV Box's ITV Player App and played the live ITV4 channel feed which was much better, sourced from ITV4HD, than Freeview SD.
I'd probably put up with the SD artefacts to get a 50Hz feed. 25p sport is lousy to watch IMO. And as the NowTV box is 60Hz - you get 25p at 60Hz - which is even worse. Close to unwatchable for me.
Not that many matches were shown on ITV4 this time.
If The Mail is to be believed they will retain the rights for 2019 with their coverage of this tournament as host broadcasters having gone down incredibly well with World Rugby.
Yes. How much of a part did ITV Sport play in the host broadcasting operation? I assume it was largely freelancers actually match producing and directing?
A bit of extra gold on the effects for the final today. And they won't get any credit as they're ITV but think their coverage of this tournament has been brilliant this year, easily their best coverage of any Rugby World Cup.
They did a great job for a broadcaster that has no regular live rugby. TV3 were abysmal, but alas, the RWC which should be the showcase, has come to be associated with awful coverage from Irish broadcasters for three tournaments running. With Virgin Media viewers not having access to ITV's coverage that has been really obvious for the first time.
Having the Premiership highlights week in week out has undoubtedly helped, although this time they relied far more on getting the best talent they could from across the channels. They had a far better portfolio of commentators than they had for the football World Cup last year.
They did a great job for a broadcaster that has no regular live rugby. TV3 were abysmal, but alas, the RWC which should be the showcase, has come to be associated with awful coverage from Irish broadcasters for three tournaments running. With Virgin Media viewers not having access to ITV's coverage that has been really obvious for the first time.
I think abysmal is a bit harsh - I thought the panel discussions with Keith Wood, Matt Williams and Shane Jennings were well up to scratch, and Stuart Barnes and Liam Toland were excellent summarisers.
Where TV3 mucked up was missing Paul O'Connell being stretchered off while showing ads - that was unforgivable.
The panel were reasonably good - Keith Wood and Matt Williams (sorely missed from Setanta) in particular, but they were barely given time to do their job. Some half time breaks barely had 60 seconds of analysis. The immediate cuts to adverts at the half time and full time whistle were not forgivable.
Stuart Barnes was excellent, as always, and looking forward to him back paired with Miles Harrisson on Sky again.
They did a great job for a broadcaster that has no regular live rugby. TV3 were abysmal, but alas, the RWC which should be the showcase, has come to be associated with awful coverage from Irish broadcasters for three tournaments running. With Virgin Media viewers not having access to ITV's coverage that has been really obvious for the first time.
I think abysmal is a bit harsh - I thought the panel discussions with Keith Wood, Matt Williams and Shane Jennings were well up to scratch, and Stuart Barnes and Liam Toland were excellent summarisers.
Where TV3 mucked up was missing Paul O'Connell being stretchered off while showing ads - that was unforgivable.
I think abysmal is actually fair. (1)Over half the population had only access to an TV3 SD picture (2)on average there was 2 minutes more advertising at the half time breaks than ITV so no time for any real analysis. (3) That Paul O Connell moment. (4) Matt Cooper! (5) there are actually a lot more but I haven't all day to list them.
Having said that there was some stuff they did okay, such as the panel. But then again there was also 'The Sin Bin' possibly one of the worst sport themed chat shows ever (and there's lot of competition for that title)
It was supposed to be a real game changer for TV3 with the majority of the audience tuned in having not watched the station for years if ever. They ended up losing Millions on the operation and annoying huge sections of the public. TV3 did get record breaking figures but I would think that the overall Irish audience was much higher as a lot of people watched the big matches on ITV HD.
I do think you overestimate the people tuning in to the UK channels. Only about 10% of viewers find the HD channel when it's on the EPG so if they have to tune in to it it's going to be even less, barely significant I'd have though.
Not now. But in previous tournaments ITV viewership would have been far higher - particularly in analogue days when most viewers still had UTV on preset 5. Even in the last tournament UTV was still on EPG 110 on what was then UPC (now Virgin Media).
Though the group stages were finished when it happened, access to ITV4 HD was removed for ROI Sky viewers during the tournament. And as previously mentioned, the (SD only) version of ITV4 that is on Virgin Media in Ireland has all sports blocked.