[Wayne]

Great news for Rugby fans as NBC and Universal will be airing the next two RWCs. It seems like NBC will only air a couple of games but many (all?) of the rest will be on Universal Sports. Universal is available OTA from Buffalo on 2-2 so it is available for free to those of us in Southern Ontario that have OTA capabilities.

The previous RWC was only available on Setanta and many games were shown on a one day delay basis.

The only issue is that picture quality on Universal is not great as they don't seem to be using too much bandwidth for this sub-channel.


Source http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=478244.html

 

[NB Josh]

Well the final on NBC is great news, I'll actually watch the Rugby World Cup Final for once. I guess that rugby 7s going to the Olympics is really good news.

I wonder if this will make a Canadian sports channel (TSN or Sportsnet) go after Canadian rights, knowing that people who just want to see the final will choose NBC in HD over Setanta in SD. I'd hope that even if Rogers retains rights maybe a few matches will be broadcast on Sportsnet.

 

[Wayne]

The 2007 RWC saw Canada's games on Sportsnet but they didn't show any other games. Going back many years I remember that most or all games have been carried by TSN or Sportsnet - I remember that TSN showed the 1991 RWC.

As long as you can get Universal then you may not gain much by having the games on a Canadian channel, unless that would mean that we would get the games in HD but then there is the question of whether the host broadcaster will even have HD capabilities as NZ likely doesn't have that many HD trucks.

 

[DT1]

Sky NZ is producing all the games in HD

SKY will work with Rugby World Cup Limited to produce comprehensive coverage of all 48 matches, for distribution to RWCL's broadcast partners around the world, with every game originating in high definition.

 

[Wayne]

Sky NZ is producing all the games in HD

Wonderful! I hope to attend Canada's games vs. Japan and NZ so I will see these games in super HD.

 

[NB Josh]

As long as you can get Universal then you may not gain much by having the games on a Canadian channel

That's the problem though, nobody outside of Southern Ontario and the Vancouver area can get this channel.

 

[rdehaven]

That's the problem though, nobody outside of Southern Ontario and the Vancouver area can get this channel.

This may be an option for some of you. I believe that Universal Sports is generally available FTA on AMC1 (103) KU. Unfortunately the footprint of this bird appears to stick very tightly to the US.

 

[Andrew1]

Going back many years I remember that most or all games have been carried by TSN or Sportsnet - I remember that TSN showed the 1991 RWC.

Apparently they also showed the 1987 RWC as well.

At the time of the last RWC I read somewhere that ratings were so bad for 2003 on Sportsnet that they didn't bother in 2007. I'm guessing the RWC charged too much for the North American market making it impossible to make money on it. In the last RWC it was pretty much all PPV. The soccer WC would never allow that as they want to promote their sport as much as possible.

 

[Wayne]

At the time of the last RWC I read somewhere that ratings were so bad for 2003 on Sportsnet that they didn't bother in 2007. I'm guessing the RWC charged too much for the North American market making it impossible to make money on it. In the last RWC it was pretty much all PPV. The soccer WC would never allow that as they want to promote their sport as much as possible.

I definitely remember that all of Canada's games were shown live on Sportsnet in 2007 and Setanta showed the rest of the games - no other games were on Sportsnet.

If I remember correctly the other games in the first round were either shown live or within 24 hours except for some of the more high-profile games such as those involving NZ, England, etc. The knockout round games were PPV live or shown on a delayed basis on Setanta. Personally I don't mind the delayed basis - Setanta shows the Six Nations matches on a game-delayed basis and I don't find it to be too much of a hinderance since you are unlikely to hear the scores of the England-Scotland rugby game by accident, unless you go looking for them. I also tend to watch all TV (even sports) somewhat delayed as it facilitates commercial skipping and improves the efficiency of your sports watching as I can watch an 80 minute rugby game in about 65 minutes. Basketball and hockey games can be watched in under 60 minutes vs. 2.5 hours live.