The IRB, as part of it's Rugby World Cup bidding process, insisted that the RWC matches be distributed as widely as possible across North America in order to help "grow the sport". Companies that in all probability would have put the competitiion on PPV were not ever seriously considered as this would be contrary to getting the maximum distrubtion.

As such, in order to maximize the rights fees paid to the IRB (Rugby World Cup Limited) and maximize distribution the winning bidder would have to be a advertising based channel (TSN) as opposed to a subscription based channel (Setanta).

In 2007 the rights were held by Setanta Sports North America Ltd. who put together a PPV package as well as sublicensing some live and delayed matches to the Setanta Sports Channel Canada (Setanta Sports North America Ltd. and Setanta Sports Channel Canada are related by name only). This will not be the case in 2011 and 2015.

That makes sense, but I think it is a bit presumptuous to say TSN has won rights when there hasn't been any announcement (or even rumours for that matter). NBCU won rights in the United States with most matches airing on Universal Sports, a channel many people don't even have access to. It is available OTA in some markets as a sub-channel, but it is hard to get through satellite.

I think that Setanta has a good shot at getting some rights, with Rogers Sportsnet picking up the final and other matches. I just don't know if TSN will have the interest in spending a lot of money on rugby.

It doesn't look like anyone in Canada has the Broadcasting rights for the RWC, bit of a shame considering CBC were all over the FIFA world cup and Canada weren't even in it!

Anyway if you don't mind delayed coverage ...... you can get the games here (where I get all my Super Rugby from - Go 'canes!).... http://acrossthetasman.com/ I had to revert to torrents after rugbyzone.com lost all their Rugby rights.

For live coverage / streaming try here... www.myp2p.eu/

Go Allblacks!!!!

I'm curious as to why you watch all your rugby online when the Setanta Sports Channel has the Super 15's included in their programming?

Maybe TV5 will have some RWC on, we will have to wait and see.

Found this on the Setanta website and I did see a commercial to the same effect on Setanta once:

http://www.setanta.com/ie/Our-Sports/Rugby/Rugby-World-Cup-2011/

That is the Setanta Ireland website. As far as I know, Canadian rights haven't been sold yet.

I'm curious as to why you watch all your rugby online when the Setanta Sports Channel has the Super 15's included in their programming?
Setanta coverage of anything except soccer is frustrating at best. They only have games Live if there's absolutely no soccer on at that same time and if you follow one particular team there's no guarantees that will be one of the random games they happen to show (either live or delayed).

I use acrossthetasman also, great quality. Only trouble is you of course have to wait till a day or so later to be able to get it. At least it's easy enough to avoid results to anything rugby in Canada though.

Really hope someone picks up the Canadian rights to the RWC and I really hope its not Setanta unless they are able to guarantee all games shown live. I have no trouble subscribing to Setanta or any other premium channel for the length of the tournament, HD TV coverage would obviously be the best scenario.

My backups will be finding a good online stream (again if there is a cost that's fine) which is what I'm doing for the Cricket world cup, or again, across the tasman.

Hmm, would we want live coverage? Looking at the group games, the game times Eastern time will be 1 AM Wednesday, 4:30 AM Sunday, 12:00 AM Tuesday, and 9:30 pm Sunday (well, that one might work).

BC get's a better deal .... 10 PM, 1:30 AM, 9 PM, and 6:30 PM ....

Could be worse ... could be watching in England!

The August friendly against USA at BMO Field in Toronto might be a better chance to see something live!

Hmm, would we want live coverage?

Yes we would.

LOL ... fair enough!

But I think I'll be PVRing most of the games for later viewing.

Yes we would.
++++++1

why are there no announcements yet who will carry the Canadian broadcasts? Does this mean there will be no coverage at all?

If I had to guess, there will be Canadian TV coverage. Setanta/Sportsnet or TSN/TSN2 will make some sort of last minute agreement to carry Canadian games and the playoffs (maybe more in Setanta's case) for a fraction of what the IRB is asking right now. If TSN wins the 2014/2016 Olympics, they might become even more interested since rugby makes its Olympic debut in 2016.

Confirmed: TSN and TSN2 will have coverage of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. All Canadian games, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final. As well as other "key" matches (I assume this means England, Scotland, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, France etc. games).

Awesome - Canada is looking pretty good this week at the Churchill Cup.

Although rugby is going to be in the Olympics it is 7s which is a far different game from the proper 15 man version. Therefore I don't know that you would consider the rugby being played in the RWC to be the same as the Olympic sport.

Well its the same in the sense that if they get people watching it in 2011 and 2015, then they would understand the game by the 2016 Olympics. The only major differences (at least non-tactical ones) are the number of players and the length of the game.

IMHO ping pong is more similar to tennis than 7s is to 15s.

7s doesn't really have scrums, rucks, mauls etc the way that 15s does. The English team for many years would try to just grind the opposition down with their forwards and then let Jonny Wilkinson kick a penalty or drop goal and were barely interested in scoring tries- that is how they won the 2003 RWC. 7s is all about scoring tries.

Like I said, tactically different, but the rules are more or less the same. 7s does technically have scrums and rucks, but they kind of suck compared to 15s because there aren't many players.

My point was that to new rugby fans, the World Cup will help to get them interested for rugby at the 2016 Olympics. They won't really notice the differences. Those who are already fans will be watching both anyway.

Confirmed: TSN and TSN2 will have coverage of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. All Canadian games, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final. As well as other "key" matches (I assume this means England, Scotland, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, France etc. games).
Awesome, thanks for the heads up! I'm excited that TSN has the rights, and with all finals and the Canada vs NZ pool match showing, I just have to source the remaining 3 NZ pool matches which isn't bad. Even better if they consider any of them "key matches". I found this link with some info: http://canadiansportsfan.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/tsn-to-broadcast-rugby-world-cup/