SCOTLAND’s Rugby World Cup warm-up games at home and away to France and at home to Georgia in August will all be shown live on Amazon Prime Video.
It is understood that negotiations are continuing about the national team’s opening match of the summer, at home to Italy on Saturday 29th July. A decision is expected next week both on that match and on the England-Fiji game in August, which was also omitted from this afternoon’s announcement of games to be shown by the streaming service.
As things stand, Amazon will show 13 live games in August, featuring all of the Six Nations sides.
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO EXCLUSIVE BROADCASTS (all August):
Saturday 5th: Scotland v France, Wales v England, Ireland v Italy
Saturday 12th: England v Wales, France v Scotland
Saturday 19th: Wales v South Africa, Ireland v England, Italy v Romania, France v Fiji
Saturday 26th: Scotland v Georgia, Italy v Japan, Ireland v Samoa
Sunday 27th August: France v Australia.
Martin Anayi (CEO of the URC) was talking recently about having all of rugby going through a single broadcaster, as the current fragmentation was one of the reasons that the sport isn’t attracting new fans as well as it could. Given the cost involved in getting all of Sky Sports, ViaPlay, BT Sports and Amazon, I can see why that is a blocker. Convincing one platform to take on all of them would be a big ask, especially as the matches will go head-to-head on starting times. Is this a further argument for a B&I League? That would really screw over the Italian and South African teams though…
Failing that, I think that ITV or BBC should put together a Rugby Special type programme that covers both the URC and the Premiership. Hour to an hour and a half long on a Sunday or Monday evening. Good exposure for the sport on terrestrial TV. Would get decent viewing figures I’m sure.
Whilst I agree that a Rugby Special type program on terrestrial TV would be most welcome it would almost certainly have to be done in conjunction with the existing broadcasters which would presumably be difficult to negotiate without reducing the income currently received.
However losing some income in order to showcase the game to a far wider audience would in my opinion be a very sensible move.
Whilst I will be at the games i totally agree with Sonsie – I also pay for Sky, BT Sport and Viaplay (URC Coverage). Spreading sports coverage (Whether rugby or football) across more channels may bring in more revenue but its rubbish for the fans if they want full coverage. Don’t know what the solution is.
We do of course also pay our BBC TV licence, which gives us snooker and photos of all the big sporting occasions. To say nothing of the price of Murrayfield tickets these days Ross, but enjoy the games.
What a croc. I already pay for Sky Sports, BT Sports and the URFC channel, whatever it’s called now. Enough is enough.