After being axed from the ABC after 57 years of free-to-air coverage, the Shute Shield has been thrown a lifeline by Network Seven just days out from the commencement of the 2015 season.
The announcement came at the official launch of the Shute Shield on Monday, with 7 Sport coming on board to broadcast the ‘match of the round’ live every Saturday from 3:00pm.
CEO of NSW Rugby Union, Bruce Worboys, confirmed the news on Tuesday morning, an announcement that brought welcome relief to organisers feeling the pressure of sponsors looking down the barrel at a season with drastically reduced exposure for brands.
The Roar understands that additional coverage for the competition will be provided by sports streaming service BarTV, however the extent of the coverage is yet to be confirmed.
Coverage will commence on Saturday March 21 with coverage of the opening round clash between Eastern Suburbs and Gordon at Woolhara Oval, live on 7TWO.
Seven’s regional broadcaster, Prime Network, will bring the action live to country NSW.
Steve Johnson
Guest
There is a ch7 app that streams the match to phone or tablet
Heather Jenkins
Guest
Hey Fellas - How can we watch today's Shute Shieled game at 3pm in Brisbane. Is there a steaming option?
Elizabeth Thompson
Guest
Ok enough is a=enough whats happened to the broadcast of The Rugby on Saturday afternoons on 7two so fare we were told that it would be shown on 7two but after the 6th round only seen 3 Games make up your minds you either want us to see it around the Nsw Country area or the free to air races personally id like to watch rugby at 3:pm SO 57 years of ABC you cant keep your part get ride of the other crap you throw in its place........
Mick
Guest
Great news of the new coverage. What happened to day. Only horse racing on 7
Peter Leslie
Guest
What happened to the Shute Shield TV coverage on Saturday 18th April? Thought that 7two was going to broadcast all Shute Shield Rugby thoughout 2015... ???
Hoz
Guest
Nation wide? Errr don't think so :( once again WA misses out.
Rod livermore
Guest
I live in regional nsw look forward to the rugby on Saturday afternoons but the audio is not the same can't even hear the refs calls or the crowd it sounds like there's no one there your broadcast leaves a lot to be desired
David Leaf
Guest
Good for NSW but could we have the telecast in Brisbane as well. Since Foxtel has grabbed everything and only broadcasts to 23% of the population, Rugby coverage needs someone like Ch 9 to market it on Gem or Go as the NRL seem to have smarter heads than do the ARU. To develop Rugby the ARU need to have it where it can be seen and Foxtel isn't the place. No wonder the ARU need to have a drug scandal just to remind people that the game is just barely alive and now being overtaken by Soccer. Shame on ABC... joining Channel 10 at the bottom of the also ran pile!
Bakkies
Guest
On the tiny little planet of yours.
Steve Johnson
Guest
Now there's a blast from the past, the Doug Parkinson theme song! The coverage went back to Ch2 from 1983-91 in various formats. I remember it was again shown on delay in the mid to late 80's after Ch2 showed the mungo match of the day live. Ch10 showed the Grand Final only for a few years in the early 90's (no regular season telecast) until Ch2 picked up the 1995 GF when the Canberra Kookaburras played Gordon. Then Ch2 showed it continuously from 1996-2014.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That's actually the reason the ABC cut it's broadcasting. It cost that in Sydney, then the same in Brisbane. They wanted to move to national interest sports broadcasts only.
gatesy
Roar Guru
You've got me there - I know nought about the economics of TV broadcasting. Maybe a Roarer could enlighten us!
stuttergo
Guest
Does anyone know which games Bar TV are covering as it says in the article they are doing some matches as well? Its only good for grassroots rugby to have more exposure!!
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
But it would cost them $50,000 a game in broadcast costs. Which is the barrier. Will they sell $50,000 in advertising per game?
gatesy
Roar Guru
It wouldn;t kill them to put it on one of their other digital channels, such as Seven Two or Seven Mate - hopefully we can pick it up on the catch up channel
Gatesy
Guest
Thank you, William.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
I wouldn't take it too seriously objective. It was a joke. A cheap, bad joke, but still an attempt at a joke.
RT
Guest
I wish they'd do the same in Qld
jon
Guest
Stay tuned for a major sponsor announce today too. Super rugby.
Atawhai Drive
Roar Guru
Quite right, Steve. I remember those broadcasts on Seven. They had a good theme song too, with vocal by . . . was it Doug Parkinson?