Sky only buy rights on a UK and Ireland basis, although sometimes it buys them on a non-exclusive basis for ROI, like the Autumn Internationals will be when they take over those. However the implication in the article is that they will have exclusive rights for these games in both states - mention is made of highlights shows for both BBC and RTE.
IIRC in previous years Sky have often shown pre-World Cup games at the Millennium Stadium as the BBC rights only cover the autumn series. Last time around somehow the Wales v England game was effectively treated as an England "home" game being staged in Cardiff rather than a Wales home game. I'm sure if you go back in this thread far enough you can find me moaning about it.
Now there is some strange one-off situation happening with Ireland v England in August where for the first time an Ireland home game will be exclusively live on Sky Sports, nothwithstanding the fact that the IRFU's deal for home internationals is with RTÉ. Apparently this is due to the legal fiction of it being an "England home game being played in Ireland". Go figure, the IRFU are telling us its' a one off situation and a stipulation insisted on by the RFU so England will play the match. Wierd. Most rugby fans will grin and bear it and either go to the game or go to the pub.
In other news very annoying that England's world cup warm up games in Cardiff and Dublin have for some reason been dubbed "home" fixtures and are hence on Sky rather than the BBC.
Last edited by Brekkie on 8 February 2015 5:04pm - 2 times in total
Confirmed today that Setanta have retained the second and subsequent pick rights to the Champions League and won the exclusive rights to the UEFA Europa League in the Republic of Ireland for 2015-8.(previously they had second and subsequent pick rights, with 3e having first picks). Which really means that BT can go ahead and show its coverage in Ireland too.
Sky only buy rights on a UK and Ireland basis, although sometimes it buys them on a non-exclusive basis for ROI, like the Autumn Internationals will be when they take over those. However the implication in the article is that they will have exclusive rights for these games in both states - mention is made of highlights shows for both BBC and RTE.
Well. B*gger me. On a weekend when the WRU monumentally got it wrong on so many levels, they then throw this in our face. My grandad will not be happy.
While there's a lot of kerfuffle about the next rights package for the Premier League, just a quick question about the current one:if BT have the Saturday lunchtime package, how have they ended up with two midweek games this week?
Under the new agreement, BT secured two of the seven packages on offer, showing 28 Saturday lunchtime games, including the opening game of the season, and 10 matches taking place on bank holidays or midweek evenings.
I guess they've been piling so many games on bank holidays that I'd entirely failed to spot any of the midweek games until now...
Under the new agreement, BT secured two of the seven packages on offer, showing 28 Saturday lunchtime games, including the opening game of the season, and 10 matches taking place on bank holidays or midweek evenings.
I guess they've been piling so many games on bank holidays that I'd entirely failed to spot any of the midweek games until now...
Think there are only 3 or 4 midweek fixture dates in the calendar thanks to the Champions League, League Cup, FA Cup replays and international windows occupying most of them. There are further occassional one-off fixtures (usually rearranged) - and they seem to have ended up on Sky in the past as they were effectively their pick from the weekend it was originally supposed to take place.
I really don't understand the logic in how the midweek and Bank Holiday games are bundled in separate packages, especially the latter. To me would make more sense to split them so each pack contains one of the two midweek fixtures and two of the four Bank Holiday fixtures.
Certainly the Six Nations and Wimbledon from 2018, F1 from 2019, racing from 2017 and Premiership rugby (from 2016/17 I think). Is there much else out there of real value at the moment?
At the other end of the scale still doesn't seem to be a UK broadcaster for the European Games this summer - not having a full athletics or track cycling programme, plus no rowing, really limits our medal changes and therefore the appeal. It does seem to have been mainly pay-TV operators on the continent who have snapped up the rights but it's definately more of a Eurosport event than Sky or BT I'd have thought.