Live international rugby in the New World – it’s about time
Sat, Jan 23, 2010, Posted by Vic Drover 
I think it was around the time of the 1995 World Cup that I started following rugby and looking for it on TV.
At that time in Canada, I remember a 2-hour show that came on once a week (sometimes, at least) with a few highlights from the semi-pro teams and one test match shown on tape delay (usually a week or more old).
The only way to watch live rugby on TV was to find a local pub with a satellite feed. When I moved from the East coast to the Canadian Rockies, Oscar’s Pub was very close to our rugby club (Druids RFC) and would broadcast the Five Nations Championship (now the Six Nations, the premier tournament in the Northern hemisphere) at 7AM along with a good English fry-up and a few pints.
In 2002 I emigrated to the US. Even in down-state New York, where rugby is very popular, watching live rugby remained limited to pubs with satellite feeds and expensive admissions fees. It was essentially ignored by both network and cable TV.
With the growth of the internet and the wide bandwidth offered by most high-speed ISPs, online services such are RugbyZone are excellent options for seeing live rugby. But getting it on a TV is not trivial, and the quality is not appropriate for anything other than a small computer screen.
So after a wait of nearly 15 years, it seems that myself and many other rugby union fans here in the ‘New World’ can finally get some live-rugby broadcast satisfaction. Yesterday, BBC America announced that they will be broadcasting five matches from the 2010 Six Nations Championship.
Time Warner Cable in Wisconsin broadcasts BBC America on channel 225 (Regular Definition) and 1225 (High Definition), and the following matches are scheduled:
- Wales @ England (London) – 6-Feb, 12:00 PM (EST)
- Ireland @ France (Paris) – 13-Feb, 11:30 AM (EST)
- Ireland @ England (London) – 27-Feb, 11:00 AM (EST)
- Wales @ Ireland (Dublin) – 13-March, 9:30 AM (EST)
- England @ France (Paris) – 20-Mar, 9:00 AM (EST)
Interestingly, matches involving Italy or Scotland are visibly absent from the schedule. Its not clear wether this is due contractual restrictions with the Scottish and Italian Rugby Unions and/or venues.
One possibility is that BBC America made a strategic decision to showcase only the most exciting matches to gauge interest for this type of programming here in America. Since Scotland and Italy consistently finish at the bottom of the Six Nations tables, it makes sense to omit these teams. In addition, the matches chosen for broadcast are historically exciting contests.
Whatever the reason for the limited-yet-live coverage of the Six Nations, us colonials should feel quite content with this welcome development of increased rugby coverage. I challenge all our readers to contact both BBC America and your local TV provider and ask for more!
In addition, I’ve started this online petition to forward to BBC America and BBC Canada once all of the matches above have been aired.
If enough people send their support, maybe we’ll get more rugby internationals and maybe even some domestic rugby on TV.
For starters, the annual USA Sevens tournament (Feb 13 & 14, 2010 in Las Vegas) deserves full, live coverage in the coming years. At least then I can watch two full days of live international rugby from my living room and won’t have to leave my wife back in Badgerland on Valentines Day 
Tags: Canada, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Six Nations, USA, Wales
what about Setanta on DirecTV?? well worth the $15/month
Yes, a few folks have mentioned that. But to my knowledge the
internationals are on tape delay. With particular reference
to the Six Nations, the BBC holds the broadcast rights, which is
why the 6N matches on Setanta are always the next day.
Yes, a few folks have mentioned that. But to my knowledge the internationals are on tape delay. With particular reference to the Six Nations, the BBC holds the broadcast rights, which is why the 6N matches on Setanta are always the next day.
Setanta is available in Canada from some cable TV providers. Does anyone know if that's the case in the US? It's not available on Time Warner.