From a small garage start-up to a powerhouse of sports coverage, South African Super Sports is the benchmark for coverage of live rugby. Anyone traveling through Asia will have undoubtedly watched rugby courtesy of Super Sports, perhaps not realizing that the satellite feed is most likely illegal.
Bowing to the rugby tv gods, Super Sports will, at the end of this month, reduce their satellite footprint and beam only into the African continent.
The rather oversize satellite dish, which quite inexplicably found its way onto my rooftop here in Hong Kong, will fall silent and the light of rugby will darken across the lengths of India, China and other corners of Asia. And millions of sports fans will look towards other sports to follow, with football being the likely winner.
So the coverage for Super 14 and Tri Nations and limited coverage is now in the hands of the Australian Network, who do a fair presentation, but certainly not in-depth coverage of rugby.
So all is good and well at least for the next two weeks.
At the end of the Super 14, Australian Network cannot beam out Super 14 into Asia, and all rugby coverage will cease by the end of the year.
But the rugby TV gods have a plan to expand the game – they have sold the Asian rights to Ireland based Setanta. Or more precisely, to three Irish blokes – Michael O’Rourke, Leonard Ryan, and Mark O’Meara.
Nice.
Setanta is famous for losing USD$200 million in 2009 and bringing frustration to countless sports fans around the globe by messing up live games and constantly whining, then spectacularly losing exclusive television rights in multiple markets.
The end of Setanta seemed certain when its ineptness pushed it into administration in June 2009. Somehow, it managed to resurrect itself, with service now resuming in the UK.
Yet the antics continue with their entire US operations closing in February 2010.
And what are Setanta’s plans for rugby coverage into Hong Kong? There is no plan, but they are hoping they might be able to find a partner so that they can at least show the World Cup in Hong Kong.
Well, that’s a relief.
How did Setanta get these rights? How is the game supposed to grow if rugby enthusiasts have to go to extraordinary lengths just to watch a game?
Rugby Zone (formerly mediazone) offered a partial solution: Fee based internet feeds. But live games are presented in an epileptic inducing, low quality jittery “stream”. The saving grace used to be in the ability to download games which then offered the chance to get a relatively good version of the game.
However, this has been removed as an option.
I simply want to watch rugby games and we want the option to watch replays or download games when the time-zone doesn’t suit. And many of us are more than happy to pay for it.
But where in this wired Earth can we do this?
All is not well with the State of Rugby Union in Asia.
Touko
Guest
... Yes, and sadly they continue to make life miserable for rugby fans in Asia. Rugby not available in Vietnam or Cambodia or Thailand (except perhaps with expensive special satellite links). Unless, that is, you're prepared to put up with expensive pay per view internet that is so hopeless that it makes the idea of waterboarding sound like fun. Thanks Setanta (you're hopeless). And thanks SANZAR (you're arseholes). Alas, the only way I get to watch the rugby these days is through illegal bit torrent downloads. I wonder if that's what SANZAR intended to achieve with their stupid sellout of the rugby rights to Setnta?!
kovana
Guest
Umm.. why?
Brian
Guest
yawn....
Katipo
Guest
I have been told by the Australian Network that they will be showing Wallaby tests this year. I have no details about which games though or if that extends to tri-nations matches not involving Australia. Well done to Australia at the London Sevens. yes, this seems to have been totally overlooked by the Aussie media. Maybe they will pick up on sevens after the 2016 Olympics?
kovana
Guest
Hey where are the articles about the Australian 7's team winning this morning in London!? They won the Cup final against South Africa!? FROM IRB site. Australia win famous London Sevens title (IRB.COM) Sunday 23 May 2010 Australia win famous London Sevens title Australia have won a first IRB Sevens World Series Cup title since Brisbane 2002 Australia beat South Africa 19-14 in a thrilling final at Twickenham to win the Emirates Airline London Sevens and claim a first Cup title on the IRB Sevens World Series since Brisbane in 2002. With their victory the Australians climb to joint-third in the World Series standings with one tournament to play, the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens at Murrayfield next weekend. In beating closest rivals New Zealand to reach the Cup semi finals Samoa took a giant stride towards a first ever IRB Sevens World Series title and take a seven-point lead from the second-placed kiwis to Murrayfield for the season climax next weekend. In the other competitions Canada beat Portugal at the death in a fine Bowl final and Kenya also needed all 14 minutes to beat France and claim the Shield. England's home title defence came to an end at the Cup quarter final stages when they were beaten by South Africa. Although they lost speedster Clinton Sills to injury early on in the Cup final, Australia forged ahead and Brackin Karauria-Henry's converted try gave them a 7-0 lead that they held until Fabian Juries' opportunist chip-and-chase drew the Boks level on the stroke of half time. The brilliant James Stannard found a gap in the South African defence to put his Australian side back into the lead but again it was Juries who took the ball at full pace and cut back for a 14-12 lead. With two minutes to go, though, it was the tournament's outstanding forward Henry Vanderglas on hand to latch on to another clever Wallaby offload and power over for a 19-14 Australia lead. Cecil Afrika then looked certain to score the winner but was brilliantly tackled by sweeper Stannard. New Zealand did recover from that loss to beat Fiji in the Plate final but to take a ninth World Series crown they will need to win in Edinburgh and hope Samoa do not make the final. Australia were the first side through to the London Cup final, beating Argentina 26-14 to reach their first IRB Sevens Cup final since February 2002. Clinton Sills and Watisoni Votu of Fiji both crossed for hat tricks in a pulsating quarter final which the Wallabies won in the last minute 29-28 and in the semi final against Argentina Sills added two more tries to take his tally to nine for the tournament, but looked to be suffering from a leg injury in the latter stages. The Springbok Seven put in a superb display to beat the impressive Samoans 24-12, Ryno Benjamin, Chris Dry, Cecil Afrika and the returning Fabian Juries all crossing for tries. South Africa earlier beatEngland 17-12 in front of 40,000 fans at Twickenham. With the score at 0-0, England captain Ben Gollings saw yellow midway through the first half and in his absence the Boks took control of the match. MJ Mentz scored a first try and they led 17-0 at the half after tries from Ryno Benjamin and Cecil Afrika. England hit back through Tom Varndell but South Africa slowed play down cleverly and Tom Powell's late try was nothing more than a consolation. New Zealand leave it late to clinch Plate (12 Series points) New Zealand won a famous victory against Fiji in the Plate final, Sherwin Stowers sprinting clear well after the final hooter had sounded to clinch a 26-24 win when Isake Katonibau's try looked to have given Fiji the win with only 30 seconds remaining. In clawing back the victory New Zealand also kept alive their hopes of claiming a 9th IRB Sevens World Series title. They will win the 2009/2010 season should they take the Edinburgh Cup title and Samoa fail to reach the Cup final in Murrayfield, although Samoa do now lie seven points clear. Earlier, Fiji won through to the final by beating Wales 22-10 and England suffered double heartbreak in losing to New Zealand 22-19 in the second semi, Kurt Baker's length of the field try sealing victory in the dying seconds when captain Ben Gollings looked to have inspired a home win. Canada win Bowl (4 Series points) Canada followed a dramatic 22-17 semi final victory over rivals USA to beat Portugal 19-17 and claim the London Bowl title. Sean Duke's supreme pace was a welcome addition to the Canada squad, which was again impeccably led by captain Phil Mack. Portugal hit back to lead 17-12 late on, but Justin Mensah-Coker's try sealed the win. The semi final had finished in even more dramatic circumstances, Mack making an incredible cover tackle at 17-all in extra time before Duke sprinted the length of the field to score the golden try. Kenya win Shield Captain Humphrey Kayange's two tries inspired Kenya to come from behind against France and Dennis Mwanja's score at the death sealed a dramatic 24-21 win in the Shield final for Kenya against France. Earlier the Kenyans came from behind to beat Russia 21-17.
Stash
Guest
Sorry Cattledog to be the bearer of bad news - still better to know what's coming round the corner. It looks like the Super Sports feed stops on June 1. Real shame - Super Sports is great coverage (though obviously biased towards SA teams aside from Hugh Bladen whom I always consider a fair commentator).
Hobart
Guest
STASH - Setanta leaves Mediazone in the hazy dust. Excellent 24/7 coverage. Doesn't Setanta cover HK on Setanta-i Asia? They claim they do. You should be able to reach them at asia-Setanta-i@setanta.com. Let's know what they say.
Cattledog
Guest
Stash, I woke pretty happy to be alive once again here in Afghanistan, looking forward to the excellent coverage Super Sport provides for the rugby enthusiast. You've burst my bubble in just a couple of paragraphs. With the Super 14 all but over I have been salivating at the prospect of test match rugby over the coming months. This is the worst news I've received since the US announced an offensive in Kandahar! Might have to make that move back to Oz sooner rather than later :(
Stash
Guest
Peteski The streaming of Rugbyzone is pretty awful considering they charge a healthy tariff. Its like watching a MTV version of rugby where the players are blobs throwing around a smaller blob! Not good. Watching replays is good, but they still have streaming problems now that don't allow downloads. Rugbyzone won't play end of year tours - and it looks like they won't be showing South African games outside of the tri-nations and no 6 Nations. Personally, I would like to be able to watch all of those. Surprisingly, they are playing the Barbarians game vs the Wallabies - but not the England, Ireland games coming up in the next couple of weeks. On subject, what's with the Barbarians - more often than not, there's no global coverage - and millions scramble to Justin TV because its NOT available anywhere else. Then the powers that be shut down the feed. So even if their is no coverage of a game in a country (which equals no incoming revenue ) - rugby powers close down feeds - and starve their fanbase.
Peteski
Roar Rookie
I currently have an online subscription for S14 via RugbyZone. It seems to work pretty well as long as you don't mind a 4 hour delay and average quality streaming. Which reminds me, when is Rugby Union going to follow League and broadcast in 1080p?
Stash
Guest
Hobart, Mediazone tech support was really fast. The quality of the feed was awful. What is the Setanta feed like in comparison? Wikippedia says this: "On January 27, 2010, Setanta Sports announced that they had reached an agreement with Fox Soccer Channel to transfer rights to select programming (soccer & rugby) that would be effective as of March 1. In addition, Setanta Sports announced that they will cease broadcasting the channel in the US and Caribbean on February 28, 2010.[9] The channel signed off on March 1, 2010 at 12:00 AM EST". Are you still able to view rugby there through Setanta??! Setanta have just started advertising that they will be showing Super 15 and Tri Nations next year - but the info is limited
Hobart
Guest
That's terrible news, Stash. I went through the Mediazone merry-go-round for a while and for a while it worked. They have an excellent techie support which replies to text questions within a minute or two. But then things started to go haywire with Rights Management. When that was solved I could download and the feed was good. Then the show went to hell and was just a series of stills. They'd refund my money at first but then got sticky about it unless I texted a supervisior. It never got any better for me - and they couldn't solve it - so I quit. I'm based here in the States and Setanta saves my rugby life - it's absolute heaven if you're a soccer fan which I'm not except for next month's WC. So that's me and zillions of rugby fans in North America taken care of but it doesn't solve your problem. The States isn't far enough advanced in IT for us to download off a TV broadcast even if it's allowed. But if you have a pal within Setanta's reach who has an Ipod Nano it's possible for the pal to record a sports program on the Nano, download it to a PC and email it to you. You're living in a city full of techies - check with them and post the advice on The Roar. There's got to be a lot of folks in your situation.
Derm
Roar Guru
Good ole Lenny and Mick - I knew Setanta when it was operating a feed dish out of an office in Upper Mount Street in Dublin. Now they've brought rugby in Asia to its knees - who'd have thunk they would come so far in such short a time? :)