[Newshound47]

www.thesun.co.uk 

Major sporting event watched by millions under threat of disappearing from free-…
RUGBY fans could be forced to part with their hard-earned cash to watch the next…
  Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Looks like the next one might partly on Pay Tv.

[Rdd]

I’m not sure that there’s actually a story there, other than World Rugby doing what every sporting body does with broadcast rights, which is to tender them. Of course that means there’s a possibly ITV might lose them. That doesn’t necessarily translate into “the tournament is going behind a paywall”.

[Scratch_Perry]

I’m not sure that there’s actually a story there, other than World Rugby doing what every sporting body does with broadcast rights, which is to tender them. Of course that means there’s a possibly ITV might lose them. That doesn’t necessarily translate into “the tournament is going behind a paywall”.

But it may be time for ITV to bite the bullet and get the BBC to come on board to ensure the events under the World Rugby umbrella remain on free-to-air television (these would include men and women's 15-a-side and 7-a-side World Cups and the junior equivalent of those genders, as World Rugby bundle all their rights together, similar with the ICC for cricket).

[Brekkie]

This story comes around every 8 years when the rights go out, especially as the cycle usually begins with an event with an unfriendly time zone. This time 2027 in Australia and then 2031 is in the US, though I suspect most games will be scheduled to be European friendly.

---

I mentioned in another forum that maybe the ITV punditry team regarding the England games needs freshening up, but how can you upgrade on World Cup winners (Maggie Alphonsi maybe)?  Good point about John Barclay and Sam Warburton, so ITV may have to look for "relevant equivalents" as regards England games.

You upgrade by getting better pundits with more personality - Maggie and Ugo Monye are much more interesting to watch but their best English pundit is being wasted in the hosting role - David Flatman is proven to be decent in that role.

Frankly rugby moves on so quickly a 20 year old victory is not that relevant.  The big issue is all three are incredibly dull when together - don't necessarily need to axe them but they should not be used together.

[Jon]

But it may be time for ITV to bite the bullet and get the BBC to come on board to ensure the events under the World Rugby umbrella remain on free-to-air television (these would include men and women's 15-a-side and 7-a-side World Cups and the junior equivalent of those genders, as World Rugby bundle all their rights together, similar with the ICC for cricket).

I don’t think BBC Sport would really want them. Basically when ITV buys into something they’re generating advertising revenue they wouldn’t otherwise have. If the BBC buys into something it likely means something else loses out.

[Yorksman]

We nearly got to see how the scoreboard would cope with a century.

[Brekkie]

Yes, twice now we've got to 96.

Somebody pressed the wrong button for the first try too and gave it to Italy. Quickly corrected, though perhaps they knew what was coming and felt Italy needed the points.

[Jon]

We nearly got to see how the scoreboard would cope with a century.

Presumably the first digit will become a 1 and the others will shift to the right. 

It won’t have been been forgotten and even if it had they’d have sorted it by now. It is after all probably much less rare to get 3-digits in Rugby than 2 digits in football.

[Nobby]

Presumably the first digit will become a 1 and the others will shift to the right. 

Are you an insider?

[Jon]

Are you an insider?

No.