Canadian_Rugger
Bench Player
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2004
- Messages
- 505
- Country Flag
- Club or Nation
One of the biggest problem with getting quality rugby on free to air television in North America is the lack of stoppages within a given game to allow for commercial breaks. Canadian rugby internationals used to be shown regularly on free tv in Canada; TSN, Sportsnet, the Score, TV5 and CBC all at one point all covered rugby. Sportsnet would even show Super 12, NPC, and Currie Cup matches every week on Sundays, and they also showed the Rugby World Cup and all the IRB Sevens series. TV5 would show the French Six Nations matches, while the Score, TSN, and Sportsnet all showed Churchill Cup, and Canadian Test matches.
This all stopped a few years ago because; unfortunately due to rugby's lack of pause they could not show many commercials to cover there costs. Canadian rugby fans are forced to watch all their rugby over the internet now as the national team does not get coverage on television anymore. The occasional club game will be showed on local television but that is all.
North American sport relies on television breaks to make money, the NFL, baseball, CFL, NBA are all geared to make money off commercials. Ice Hockey much like rugby did not have many breaks to play commercials but that has changed now to with the introduction of TV time outs which happen once a period for 2 minutes at a time. Traditionally the NHL has been a spectator driven sport but with the introduction of TV timeouts that is changing.
I believe for professional rugby to continue to grow in markets like North America, I will include Australia in this as well because I think the NewsCorp model the Super 14 employs is flawed, rugby needs to be on free to air tv... for this to happen it needs to adopt a North American model of broadcasting sport. It would surely help Canada and the US get more rugby on tv as it would allow for broadcasters to take more of a risk on rugby, and it would allow the casual fan an opportunity to see the game.
What I am suggesting is, Around the 15 min mark, 30 min mark, 65 min mark and half time pro rugby teams take a 2 min pause in the game for commercial breaks. This would help with rugby getting on free tv more and would open the game to more casual fans. Hardcore fans will pay for a subscription to Setanta, Sky sports, Fox... whatever it may be but Casual fans will not.
In North America the majority of rugby players are High School and College students, putting rugby on free to air is the only way that rugby is affordable for the majority of these people.
Opinions?
This would not turn rugby into the NFL, Commercial breaks have been a welcome addition to professional ice hockey, they happen once a period and it helps keep broadcasters coming back.
This all stopped a few years ago because; unfortunately due to rugby's lack of pause they could not show many commercials to cover there costs. Canadian rugby fans are forced to watch all their rugby over the internet now as the national team does not get coverage on television anymore. The occasional club game will be showed on local television but that is all.
North American sport relies on television breaks to make money, the NFL, baseball, CFL, NBA are all geared to make money off commercials. Ice Hockey much like rugby did not have many breaks to play commercials but that has changed now to with the introduction of TV time outs which happen once a period for 2 minutes at a time. Traditionally the NHL has been a spectator driven sport but with the introduction of TV timeouts that is changing.
I believe for professional rugby to continue to grow in markets like North America, I will include Australia in this as well because I think the NewsCorp model the Super 14 employs is flawed, rugby needs to be on free to air tv... for this to happen it needs to adopt a North American model of broadcasting sport. It would surely help Canada and the US get more rugby on tv as it would allow for broadcasters to take more of a risk on rugby, and it would allow the casual fan an opportunity to see the game.
What I am suggesting is, Around the 15 min mark, 30 min mark, 65 min mark and half time pro rugby teams take a 2 min pause in the game for commercial breaks. This would help with rugby getting on free tv more and would open the game to more casual fans. Hardcore fans will pay for a subscription to Setanta, Sky sports, Fox... whatever it may be but Casual fans will not.
In North America the majority of rugby players are High School and College students, putting rugby on free to air is the only way that rugby is affordable for the majority of these people.
Opinions?
This would not turn rugby into the NFL, Commercial breaks have been a welcome addition to professional ice hockey, they happen once a period and it helps keep broadcasters coming back.