Shocking Sky Sports Coverage

[Sir Speedy]

:ranting: So, there are a few weeks left until the top 4 battle for a place in the final, and Sky Sports have decided to broadcast one Guinness Premiership clash (Bath v Saracens) where two other cracking and decisive games should be aired this weekend. Harlequins v Sale, yes I'm biased here, is one, as the loser will not make it to the top 4, and London Wasps v Gloucester, the winner to pretty much make it into the top 4. Instead, they've broadcasted some mid-season Super 14 clashes (4, I think) that have relatively little importance in comparison to the matches in the GP this weekend. If the fixtures for these broadcasts were announced before the season started, then surely they should be changing them, especially when important clashes such as these will be missed. No offence to Bath or Saracens either, but in contrast to Glos - Wasps and Quins - Sale, it is a less important game.
Is anyone else annoyed by stupid fixtures like these? They are showing them to the UK for goodness sake, surely they can scrap three of the S14 games for something of more importance to the British? I don't know what tv channels are in the Southern Hemisphere, but there's got to be other ways to watch the S14 games for them, since, barring a few people who have moved to Europe from the SH, most people in England/Britain will want to be watching the climax to the Premiership!
/RANT.

 

[getofmeland]

To be perfectly fair to Sky Sports they have to plan the games by Christmas, and if you look back at Christmas the League totally different to what it does now, with Sarries up in the Top 4 fighting against Bath and Glous.... Wasps were just sneaking around the edges, and so were Sale and Quins...

The only slating that needs to be done is the slating on the lack of games, because personally I would like to see 2 games a weekend from the Guinness Premiership on Sky but there are certain restrictions from Premier Rugby on how many they can show....

 

[Sir Speedy]

It's not just that, it's the fact we get little highlights of these games, barring 30 second clips on The Rugby Club each Thursday. Then we get long and pointless interviews and discussions summing up the game they put live ANYWAY!

For example, after the Bath - Saracens game today, they'll be showing Guinness Premiership highlights 11 o'Clock tonight...of the very same game...WOOPDIEDOO! :mellow:

 

[Prestwick]

This is the problem. Someone, somewhere is not pushing this to either Sky or the BBC as much as they should be doing. Someone needs to grab these TV Execs by the scruff of their necks and tell them what **** is going down..

 

[Canadian_Rugger]

not really surprised ... they would much rather show **** ball

 

[Thingimubob]

always hated sky, buggers took Lost away from me, as well as a lot of good rugby. Don't get why they got the Cardiff City - Barnsley FA Cup Semi either...
but yeah, if you compare this to BBC Wales and S4/C, it's just pants. Between teh two of them, they tend to show at least 2 Welsh ML games every weeken. Not all the time, considering that they can't always show away matches (for example, they can't show games at the Sportground, Connacht, because Setanta have the rights there) but they still show a lot. They show every one of the Welsh EDF games (so that's at least 12 games) as well as the Semis and Final (but the BBC show them anyway). So maybe Sky should take a leaf out of their book when it comes to broadcasting domestic Rugby.

 

[An Tarbh]

S4C have shown plenty of away Welsh games in Ireland where Setanta have the rights so not sure what the problem is there.

As for the Cardiff Barnsley semi-final being shown on Sky, BBC have first choice and chose the Portsmouth game as they felt it was the bigger tie.

Getting back to the Premiership coverage, both BBC and Sky have been poor to say the least, I also don't think it's a question of not showing 1 Super 14 game and showing another Premiership match, there's no overlap of fixtures, bar South Africa but still no need to cut Super 14 coverage to accomodate an extra game, as Charlie said if there are restrictions from Premier Rugby then they need to sort them out with Sky cause there's too much good rugby being missed out on by paying punters.

 

[pithater1]

I must say that Setanta have been really spoilling us with the ammount of coverage they've been giving the Leinster matches. I honestly can't recall the last time they didn't cover one live.

 

[Nidhogg]

Sky

I really hate companies like Sky and Canal+, buying all the rights to sporting events. I don't mind having to pay a little money to see live rugby, footie, etc, but I DO mind having to go through all the hassle to arrange for sky, just because I didn't have the blessing of being born on a bloody island.

How will rugby (in europe) ever grow beyond the UK and France, if it isn't readily available to people of all nations?

 

[An Tarbh]

I must say that Setanta have been really spoilling us with the ammount of coverage they've been giving the Leinster matches. I honestly can't recall the last time they didn't cover one live.
[/b]

I've been pretty ****** at their coverage to be honest, especially Leinster games, too often have they put the big games on Setanta 1 instead of Setanta Ireland.

 

[MunsterMan]

I must say that Setanta have been really spoilling us with the ammount of coverage they've been giving the Leinster matches. I honestly can't recall the last time they didn't cover one live.
[/b]

Llanelli Vs Munster :ranting:

 

[Prestwick]

This is quite ironic considering the good that the other five nations did when they (quite rightly) lynched the RFU for signing away broadcast rights to SKY.

Sky

I really hate companies like Sky and Canal+, buying all the rights to sporting events. I don't mind having to pay a little money to see live rugby, footie, etc, but I DO mind having to go through all the hassle to arrange for sky, just because I didn't have the blessing of being born on a bloody island.

How will rugby (in europe) ever grow beyond the UK and France, if it isn't readily available to people of all nations? [/b]

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotemain'>
I must say that Setanta have been really spoilling us with the ammount of coverage they've been giving the Leinster matches. I honestly can't recall the last time they didn't cover one live.
[/b]

Llanelli Vs Munster :ranting:
[/b][/quote]

Hardly a match of any importance but they did stick the Munster Leinster game and the Edinburgh Leinster games on Setanta 1 and I'm sure there's been others as well.

 

[Vambo]

Overall I think Sky do a good job for (both codes of) rugby but there is always gonna be room for improvement.
I love the S14 coverage and wouldn't mind them increasing that as well as the premiership if I'm honest. I don't think however that two live Premiership games a week is too much to ask for so it would be nice to see something worked out there. Most weeks though they do show two games don't they? Friday night and then Sat or Sun afternoon.

Would be nice to get the kind of coverage that the SH gets though wouldn't it? Am I right in thinking that virtually all S14 and NRL games are either shown live or delayed?

 

[dundeesmiffy]

I think a big part of it was that all the games were on at the same time, I have Telewest so I didn't have the advantage of the red button, but I think it would have been good to watch some of the more...important matches, like Quins v Sale, which was the game I was hoping to see.
Gloucester - Bath was a really good match, despite the minuscule scoreline.
I'm kind of happy I didn't see Quins Sale, mainly because I don't want to admit that Sale are weakened when they don't have there big names in the back row at the disposal.

 

[Gay-Guy]

Would be nice to get the kind of coverage that the SH gets though wouldn't it? Am I right in thinking that virtually all S14 and NRL games are either shown live or delayed? [/b]

They are all shown live on sky as they never play two games at once.

Delayed on free to air...though not every one of them.

Delayed coverage for on sky for those who missed the live version and repeated covergae if you have the rugby chanel on sky.

Rugby coverage over here in NZ has made recorders obsolete.