In another victory for Australian Rugby fans, SBS has announced it will be extending its Spring Tour coverage to three games by broadcasting the Wallabies match against Ireland on Sunday Morning (AEDT).
TV coverage of the Spring Tour has slowly increased since the realisation that just days out from the first match that there was no coverage – either on free-to-air TV or pay TV.
BeIN Sports, through Foxtel and Fetch TV then announced it would cover all five of the Wallabies games, plus a number of others during the international window, before SBS, Australia’s special broadcasting service came to the table.
Originally the network was only going to pick up the games against France and England – both of those were seen as marquee games, and even though the French weren’t apart of the spring tour it was at a healthy timeslot.
Following the French game, SBS expanded on the commitment to rugby as the Wallabies take on Ireland.
It means that only two international Wallabies games are exclusive to Foxtel for the entirety of the Tour – the other match being this Friday morning (AEDT) against the French Barbarians, streamed exclusively on rugby.com.au.
The Wallabies have made a brilliant start to their Spring Tour, with the grand slam still being alive after wins over Scotland and Wales in the first two matches, before they also got the better of France.
Ireland are coming off a recent victory against the juggernaut that is the All-Blacks though, so this will be a tough challenge for the Wallabies, and now fans get to watch it on free-to-air.
The coverage on SBS will start at 4:15am (AEDT) on Sunday Morning.
Bakkies
Guest
adult movies too.
soapit
Guest
7am sunday vs 1am monday?
Bfc
Guest
Love our SBS anyway...football, foreign language cinema, in depth news...and now rugby! Just brilliant!
The Slow Eater
Roar Rookie
Well done SBS! And thank you. Whilst beggars can't be choosers, would also be nice if they showed a replay at a more respectable hour.
Dwards
Roar Rookie
No issues with the coverage. Just thought it was a bit funny. Also happy its on FTA. Shame I took out that Foxtel Play subscription though.
OZ Rugby Fan
Guest
I thought the coverage was good on SBS actually, for these games I dont mind having an OS feed at all.
Sam
Guest
SBS have always done sport well, particularly things like their excellent coverage of the Tour de France and Socceroos world cup games. They picked up some of the Ashes tests as well a few years ago and did so without skipping a beat. I think it would be well worth while for the ARU to explore this further. SBS could be an excellent FTA partner.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
They were taking the French feed.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The 4N's final only recorded 75k. So for a game played early in the morning its not so bad.
Sandgroper
Guest
Well done SBS. We should all turn on every TV set in our houses to give them a ratings coup!!! It may help if there was some marketing done across the rugby links to reward SBS.
Paul
Guest
Beggars can't be choosers. Go make a coffee or some brekkie at halftime. I'm just happy its on FTA and recordable, so halftime whatever won't matter a jot when I get up to replay it at a respectable hour
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Yeah I saw that WCR. Georgina Robinson twitted it was slightly lower than the same Fr v Oz game 2 years ago on Ten and fox (131k and 90k respectively). Reckon we will get more this time around as many aussies aren't familiar with SBS (that's OUR channel!) nor BeIn. Welcome to SBS guys! :)
Dwards
Roar Rookie
I wonder if SBS will give us some half way commentary this time or just fill the half time gap with soccer highlights again. Obviously 2 continuous hours at 6am of just Rugby was just too much for the other world game to cope with.
zubrick
Guest
gee thats not too many out of 9.2 million households
jutsie
Guest
According to the News Corp propaganda machine this will be more reason to strip the SBS of its funding as they are not meeting their original Charter requirements.
John R
Roar Guru
Great result
The Saint
Roar Guru
Thanks Paul and Jutsie
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Evidently the SBS broadcast drew in 120k viewers. The BEin broadcast on drew 48k.
jutsie
Guest
I think its Jerome Garc`es
Paul
Guest
Jérôme Garcès