Going back to the Rugby League World Cup, and some people can't understand why Sky didn't bid. One reason may be, could Sky justify paying money for it? All but one of the big games are on the BBC in the pool stages, the big one on Premier being Australia v New Zealand.
Another issue affecting the rugby league world cup is the way the tournament has worked since its inception in 1954. Just four teams took part then, and over the years, the tournament has, until the 1995 competition, featured a maximum of 5 teams. In the 70s and 80s, and lastly 1992, there was no tournament as such; instead, teams played each other once at home and once away, but the chosen game was played as aprt of a test series, e.g. the 3rd test between great Britain and Australia at Sydney in 1988 was a world cup match as well.
The fact other nations couldn't take part until the 1995 tournament (the first proper tournament since 1972) showed the lack of interest in some of the smaller games, a sad fact that remains to this day.
Contrast that with Rugby Union, whos first world cup was in 1987. 16 nations took part, and in fact, for many years, smaller nations regularly played bigger nations in test matches (Wales 28-24 japan Cardiff 1982 for example), which helped close the gap slightly in 1991 and 1995, and in both 2007 and 2011, smaller nations beat big nations, notably Tonga beating france in 2011. Thus, these games earn more interest, as there is more chance of an upset.
And the way this tournament is structured, namely the top two from each of the four groups go to the 1/4 finals, and these teams, plus the 3rd placed team in each pool, qualify for the next world cup, means that even small teams have something to aim for, making their games even more interesting, even against big teams, as mentioned above.
Sadly, perhaps Sky couldn't justify the big fee they would have to pay, and I'd therefore be interested to see how much both the BBC and Premier paid for the rights.
No doubt about it the RL World Cup hasn't had the greatest of histories and isn't exactly an event the nation is waiting for, while international rugby league has for whatever reason just never really taken off in the same way the club game has.
Moving on to football and just wondering who currently broadcasts Republic of Ireland games in Ireland - is it Sky? Anyhow, the EBU have won the rights to qualifying games for 2016/2018 in 30 European territories including the Republic of Ireland, with a commitment that games in that country will be covered free to air (if I read correctly), so presumably on RTE. The UK rights will be awarded separately - and I guess having the four Home Nations will complicate things slightly though I'm sure the FTA broadcaster will get "first pick" - aka England.
No doubt about it the RL World Cup hasn't had the greatest of histories and isn't exactly an event the nation is waiting for, while international rugby league has for whatever reason just never really taken off in the same way the club game has.
Moving on to football and just wondering who currently broadcasts Republic of Ireland games in Ireland - is it Sky?
Anyhow, the EBU have won the rights to qualifying games for 2016/2018 in 30 European territories including the Republic of Ireland, with a commitment that games in that country will be covered free to air (if I read correctly), so presumably on RTE. The UK rights will be awarded separately - and I guess having the four Home Nations will complicate things slightly though I'm sure the FTA broadcaster will get "first pick" - aka England.
I do wonder whether ITV could bid for the first pick, which would usually be England, with BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC NI bidding respectively for the next picks. Meaning all games would be free to air?
The only way I could see that possibly happen is if the Home Nation rights for home games are put out to tender on a nation by nation basis - otherwise Sky or BT would surely be favourite for second pick rights.
It remains to be seen how UEFA approach these - with their "week of football" plan where each fixture list is played over three days (Thu-Sat, Sun-Tue) I thought they'd do something similar to the Champions League selling the first pick for each day within the "match day" then the rest likely to pay TV. However looking at what they've done with the EBU deal it looks like they might sell Home games to an FTA bidder, away games as a second package then presumably the rest of the games as a package - so their might effectively be eight packages in the UK featuring Home and Away games of each home nation, and then packages for the remaining games. If they are sold that way you would have to fancy the BBC picking up some rights along the way - though it seems that BBC Scotland/Wales/NI have to bid for their own rights rather than through BBC Sport.
No doubt about it the RL World Cup hasn't had the greatest of histories and isn't exactly an event the nation is waiting for, while international rugby league has for whatever reason just never really taken off in the same way the club game has.
That's because only three countries really take it seriously - Australia, NZ and England. There are a host of second-rate top tier nations (Papua New Guinea, Wales, France etc) but none of them are even close to the quality of the top three. It's a minority sport for all but a small number of people in the North of England and south-eastern Australia. There's no appetite for expansion (see the failed attempt to get a Super League team started in Wales, the Crusaders), and the view amongst rugby fans in general, even people like me who have a passing interest in League, is that League is a less subtle, less nuanced version of the game. It's just Rugby Union 7s but with 13 players. It served a purpose pre-1995 in that it was open, and professional, but since 1995 and since England and Wales have had sustained success in the Six Nations and World Cup 2003, union has remained the dominant force.
What's the bet the RFL wanted Sky to have the tournament, and must then be disappointed that Sky either didn't bid, or didn't put in an offer that the RFL wanted?
No doubt about it the RL World Cup hasn't had the greatest of histories and isn't exactly an event the nation is waiting for, while international rugby league has for whatever reason just never really taken off in the same way the club game has.
Moving on to football and just wondering who currently broadcasts Republic of Ireland games in Ireland - is it Sky?
RTE and Sky.
Its slightly interesting how that happened - the FAI awarded the live rights to home games to Sky, but with the ensuing outcry, the government rushed through the listing legislation afterwards and listed all of the Republic of Ireland's competitive games, effectively giving RTÉ the rights back. Sky still have exclusive rights to home friendlies, though. Away friendlies formerly were normally broadcast on RTÉ but these days tend to end up on Setanta.
That brings me nicely to the rugby league - notwithstanding that it's a sport most Irish people would be unaware even exists - presumably with Premier Sports picking up the UK rights Setanta will pick up the Irish rights - they hold the Irish rights to the NRL and the Co-operative Championship (though goodness knows what numbers they get to either). The Ireland v Australia game in Thomond Park will probably get some curious viewers at any rate.
It's a minority sport for all but a small number of people in the North of England and south-eastern Australia.
Come to a town that hasn't got a Football club in the league, and you'd see how popular Rugby League is, it's a well known fact that the DW Stadium in Wigan is more of a sell out for RL than football. Sad fact is it's never caught on in the South or the rest of the UK and probably never will, this being reflected in the TV rights.
Full presentation anchored by Suzi Perry, with analysis from Gary Anderson. Lee McKenzie in the pits, and Ben Edwards on commentary. No sign of David Coulthard or Eddie Jordan during the coverage (EJ returns this weekend). Still, pretty decent effort considering we had earlier presumed that they would continue the 5 Live commentary arrangement. Certainly an attractive option for the F1 junkie, particularly considering Gary Anderson's input . . .
Full presentation anchored by Suzi Perry, with analysis from Gary Anderson. Lee McKenzie in the pits, and Ben Edwards on commentary. No sign of David Coulthard or Eddie Jordan during the coverage (EJ returns this weekend). Still, pretty decent effort considering we had earlier presumed that they would continue the 5 Live commentary arrangement. Certainly an attractive option for the F1 junkie, particularly considering Gary Anderson's input . . .
Yep, not bad. For FP2 Lee McKenzie was replaced by Jennie Gow, who was very busy doing lots of interviews up and down the pit lane. A bit of a shame there was no co-commentator though. They mixed it up quite a bit last season - sometimes it was Ben Edwards commentating, sometimes James Allen, and they usually had the 5 live co-commentator.