I’m constantly astounded by how broadcasters continue to prevent the expansion of rugby globally. Here we go again. Major games kick-off this weekend. Australia vs. England. New Zealand vs. Wales. Both are likely to be incredible games.
So, where to watch them in the US. They only shot for a quality session – it seems – is to head to a pub that might have a Setanta feed. Or, pay $19 and chance your luck with Setanta-i – a service I’ve largely experienced as unreliable.
Rugbyzone weren’t able to secure rights to broadcast on the Web. And Setanta on TV is all but dead in terms of the Fall tours. (They are playing delayed coverage on Sunday evening – and the point is what..? All the hot footage will have made its way to the web by then.
Aside from all of us that follow teams like the All Blacks and the Wallabies,there are over 60,000 players registered with USA Rugby; including over 20,000 high school students. The 570 clubs in the United States are governed by seven Territorial Unions and 37 Local Unions.
I get this isn’t probably a big enough audience to warrant mainstream TV broadcasting but come on… there’s this thing called the Internet. Why prevent rugby being broadcast there and reasonable prices across multiple sites? And its not like we are short on channels…