30-11-2023, 10:05 AM
Yeah, so there’s been no official announcement yet, at least by Viaplay - Premier evidentially rushed a press release out to the Glasgow media confirming it though! Would be surprised if Premier made a loss from the transaction. There’ll no doubt be an announcement from Viaplay after the bell tonight when those Q3 results finally come out. It had to be said that several books could be written on the Setanta / Premier story now, they are the cat with nine lives of the broadcasting business, and to be returning for a third stint in the UK is extraordinary, if not unanticipated in the circumstances.
Interesting to see what happens now, in terms of the re-integration of Premier Ireland and UK. Most of the rights they have are still shared. Premier Ireland seemed to be only starting to find its feet as a standalone operation, having recently resumed studio coverage of URC games involving Irish teams (yes, from a studio right next door to where Viaplay UK were presenting separate coverage of the same games). They had resumed taking Viaplays commentary after having separate commentary for a while - Ryle Nugent has been frequently heard. They’d also picked up some ROI-only rights - RWC warm up games not involving Ireland being the big one, but they also had Wimbledon and schools rugby.
Being based in the same building will help with reintegration of course, and it’s good to see the Dublin based staff will keep their jobs.
The social media has been awful - they didn’t have any for months, then set one up and dropped it. That unfortunately is par for the course with Premier who are not great on the promotional front.
Interesting to see what happens now, in terms of the re-integration of Premier Ireland and UK. Most of the rights they have are still shared. Premier Ireland seemed to be only starting to find its feet as a standalone operation, having recently resumed studio coverage of URC games involving Irish teams (yes, from a studio right next door to where Viaplay UK were presenting separate coverage of the same games). They had resumed taking Viaplays commentary after having separate commentary for a while - Ryle Nugent has been frequently heard. They’d also picked up some ROI-only rights - RWC warm up games not involving Ireland being the big one, but they also had Wimbledon and schools rugby.
Being based in the same building will help with reintegration of course, and it’s good to see the Dublin based staff will keep their jobs.
The social media has been awful - they didn’t have any for months, then set one up and dropped it. That unfortunately is par for the course with Premier who are not great on the promotional front.