In more good news for rugby fans, free-to-air provider SBS has reportedly secured the rights to two of the Wallabies’ upcoming Spring Tour Tests.
While this weekend’s match against Scotland will remain solely in the domain of pay TV, the following weekend’s match against France, as well as the marquee fixture at the end of the tour against England, will both be shown on SBS.
The match in between the two against Ireland, fresh off their incredible upset win over the All Blacks in Chicago, has not been picked up by SBS.
Both matches will be shown live and in high definition on SBS and will also be streamed online for free via SBS On Demand.
The game against France takes place on Sunday, November 20, with the broadcast starting at 6:50am (AEDT), while coverage of the England Test is slated to start at 1:25am (AEDT) on Sunday, December 4.
ARU CEO Bill Pulver was evidently pleased with the announcement, although was disappointed more of the tour isn’t available on free-to-air TV.
“Although the whole tour won’t be broadcast on free-to-air television, this gives all fans in Australia the opportunity to watch the Tests against France and England, both of which promise to be great games.
“Unfortunately when it comes to Wallabies matches on the Spring Tour, the ARU play no role in the broadcast negotiations as they are negotiated between the home union for each Test and Australian broadcasters.
“It is a disappointing outcome that not all of the Wallabies Spring Tour matches are available on free-to-air television but with all Tests being screened by beIN Sports and the addition of the England and France matches on SBS, there are options available for fans to watch each Test.”
SBS’s director of sport, Ken Shipp, lauded the announcement.
“SBS is pleased it can bring the very best of world rugby to Australians free-to-air,” he said. “Globally, sport is recognised as a way to bring people and communities together – not to mention it is also very much a part of Australia’s DNA.”
The lack of broadcasting options of the Spring Tour had come under fire from fans prior to Australia’s first game against Wales, with it emerging that both the France and England games would not be shown on either free-to-air or pay TV.
However, after the backlash from Wallabies fans, BeIN Sport announced they would be showing all of the spring Tests on their dedicated channel on Fox Sports.
That announcement still, however, left rugby fans unable to dish out the $50 required for a Foxtel subscription in the dark.
While Channel Ten hold the rights for all of the Wallabies’ domestic, Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup Tests under the ARU’s new broadcast deal, they do not have the rights to show the Spring Tour games, as the rights for those games are negotiated between broadcasters and the respective home unions.
The latest news will now see SBS fill a large portion of that free-to-air void.
SBS Wallabies’ Spring Tour broadcast schedule
Sunday, 20 November at 6.50am AEDT: France vs Australia Live from Stade de France, Paris
Sunday, 4 December at 1.25am AEDT: England vs Australia Live from Twickenham Stadium, London
castrogiovanni
Guest
"ARU CEO Bill Pulver was evidently pleased with the announcement, although was disappointed ... 'Unfortunately when it comes to Wallabies matches on the Spring Tour, the ARU play no role in the broadcast negotiations as they are negotiated between the home union for each Test and Australian broadcasters'." Clown. The ARU needs to learn how to properly promote the sport and to work with broadcasters to reward fans and grow support. When first class/state cricket faded from free-to-air television, Cricket Australia realised it needed to do something. This is why they pay Channel 9 to broadcast the Matador Cup and also absorb the expense of streaming all Sheffield Shield matches live. They also went 50/50 with Channel 10 over the expense of broadcasting WBBL on free-to-air - which ended up rating much, much higher than expected (so I don't think Cricket Australia will need to subsidise that again). If the ARU were truly concerned, they should have approached Channel 10 (or SBS, or whomever) long ago and said 'how can we help to make this happen?' Wake up Pulver! Things aren't that black and white anymore.
Terence Redmond
Guest
Well done but well over due!
John
Guest
Thank you SBS for picking up two games, however not seeing Ireland play the Wallabies is extremely disappointing. This is the one game most Australian Rugby fans yearn to watch. Quite honestly, watching England play rugby is about as exciting as watching Donald Trump'and Hillary Clintons debates, which were all free to air BTW, how has the ARU once again distanced its fans. Pulver must go.
frank the tank
Guest
Hate to say it but I rather enjoy the UK commentators. Insightful and non-parochial. Can only take so much of Matt Burke talking about his glory days or comparing himself to current players (cringe).
In Brief
Guest
The funny thing about soccer is that not only is the most popular game in the world, it is also the most hated.
In Brief
Guest
If any of the guys you nominated are commentating, I for one won't be watching .
In Brief
Guest
Yes and no - netball is more popular than you insinuate, and rugby is more popular than you make out. In countries like Madagascar and Sri Lanka rugby is the number one (Madagascar) or number two sport (Sri Lanka) both in terms of playing numbers and spectators. It is also popular in Georgia and some other unlikely countries such as Japan, but yes, in many of the 120 it is a niche sport.
concerned supporter
Guest
@Milan, But soccer is such a boring, tedious game to watch.It is OK to play. NIL NIL,
peterm
Guest
"That announcement still, however, left rugby fans unable to dish out the $50 required for a Foxtel subscription in the dark." I think $50 is one month's sub only, and to get it you normally have to sign up for 12-24 months - and, you will have to wait until your TV is connected to a satellite dish by an electrician (which can take 2-3 weeks, from my experience) anyway, well done SBS once again - remember a few years ago when they got the rights to the Ashes - it was bloody wonderful !
Unanimous
Guest
After you've spent several sentences comparing soccer and rugby, I thought I might continue your theme. I asked people who Messi and Ronaldo are, and they didn't know. I then asked them who Folau and Barret were, and two of them knew Folau, but no one knew Barret. .
Dave_S
Guest
Let's be realistic. Rugby is played in a lot of countries but not played or even supported by very many people, outside a small handful of countries, it's about as popular as netball. Happy to see SBS covering it but there is no argument for SBS to cover it simply because they also cover soccer, which is the only truly world game of the football codes
Bakkies
Guest
Milan Rugby wouldn't have got in the Olympics if it didn't have a global footprint. Just look at the criteria that the IRB has to meet. So get that chip off your shoulder.
farnarkel
Guest
The AFL is only played in Australia, so I think even you, Milan, can't claim that to be a "world game". NRL is largely only played in Australia, with a few minor outposts in NZ, PNG, France and England - hardly a world game. Rugby is played in many more countries than either the AFL and NRL, so I'd suggest that it is more of a world game than these two sports. Agreed that it is nowhere as popular as Football, but perhaps Rugby can claim to be the next popular sport after football (?) based upon the number of countries that have a national Rugby team.
Milan
Guest
ken catchpoles legs - 'rugby is the other world game' are you having a laught mate? there is only one world game and that is football my dear boy. rugby can not light a candle to the worlds great game so bring yourself down from your self made pedestal. Ask anybody who messi or ronaldo are and then ask them who folau or barrett are. If you want to go down the tired old road of the rugby world game v nrl and afl then do it if it makes you feel better. other than that dont even think about comaring oranges and apples
Unanimous
Guest
You can see the Scotland game live and free on the beIN web site. There is a free trial that runs out on Monday. I watched the Wales game on it and the streaming was good - only maybe three times did the picture become blocky for a second or two. You can pay about $17 I think to watch the other games of the tour, and other countries tour games also. BeIN may keep the rights to the Ireland game to still pick up a fair bit of the $17 from the diehard fans, while pocketing the extra cash from SBS.
Unanimous
Guest
The ARU could have made it part of the negotiations for the tour. In the past coverage of these tours was patchy, and a little bit of forsight would have been useful, and enabled coverage. Once they negotiated the tour, they just have to trot out the rubbish ecuses.
Sandgroper
Guest
Awesome news, I rate SBS coverage over the commercial stations as they seem to get commentators who can string two words together, regardless of their playing history and accented English. We as a group (Rugby fans ) should congratulate SBS management en masse and give them the feedback that supports their brave decision! Appropriate day for this to happen too.
The Saint
Roar Guru
Why couldnt they leave the France match and pick up Ireland?
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The rights were never in the control of the ARU or Pulver. They were the property of the host nations to sell to broadcasters. Seriously, this isn't a hard concept to grasp. SBS has since acquired these games from BEin Sports who the host nations sold the rights to. Pulver had no involvement and therefore cannot be held accountable for something he didn't have a say in.
Bfc
Guest
Can Pulver take any credit...? Methinks not...I suspect someone agile in our SBS simply realised there was an opportunity while Ch10 etc were 'asleep at the wheel'...