Would you pay to download Pro12 games

[Fan with smartphone]

I'd like to have seen more coverage of the AIL on terrestrial TV. I know we have ATH but it's not really enough as Dave has said. One live marquee game a week, with highlights from the other games around that would give more depth to it and target new audiences. I think it'd be a good way to improve the standing and possibly further improve the quality of that level. Maybe it's niche TV, but it'd be a good thing. It is a small loss maker ok for the TV folk, but would've been good to make it a stipulation for some of the international rights being divided out rather than basing that on just purely money, although I am aware money is the bottom line with a pro sport.

There should also be a proper, decent highlights package of the European cup on terrestrial TV. Sky and BT probably don't want to let that out too far, but if you take the MoTD model (mentioned above), it basically acts as an add and a trailer for the content on their platforms. The European cup also needs to grow outwards to include more teams. If big cities like Cardiff and Edinburgh aren't even in the competition, are their supporters likely to even bother with it? Who is that good for? Maybe it suits some premiership teams in the short term, but restricting your market reach seems ridiculous behaviour to me.

Anyway, those are different matters, I'm totally with dave on what he is suggesting. Although would more so pay for a pro 12 channel on my TV. Kind of like MUTV or NFL season pass or whatever. That's what would personally work for me, I don't know if it's what suits others and maybe it would cost the pro 12 too much of a fortune to have one of those channels, but it seems the cleanest and simplest thing. A yearly subscription or something with highlights and special features, but still having the games available free to air in country of the competing team. That way it'd be minimal outgoings for the matches - the commentators and coverage is provided by the national broadcaster. All they'd have to do is put money into the features and so on. If there was under 20 6nations or junior World Cup (annual competitions) content on there too I think it would get enough content and enough audience to be viable. Pro 12 have a product which when i go to a game or hand over money I feel like I'm not just paying to consume, I'm paying to support it. That's a rare enough thing. It was the complete preserve of the GAA previously, but (despite some ongoing noble aspects) it is sadly losing it's way. The lesson of the gaa is that the grassroots up model is the way to go though rather than top-down. TV plays a part in that. I know New Zealand have the all black brand from the top, but it seems to me their success and sustainability are built from the ground up. They just also have the best roof.

Last thing re: the TV experience. TV3 and ITV during World Cup. Heavens above give us continuous adds at the bottom of the screen if you must, rather than constantly interrupting the coverage. My main memory from the last World Cup is that add "kimosabe jump on it, jump on it. Apache, jump on it." And the kids going mad dancing to it. I don't even know what the fuch the add is for, but when you are minding the youngsters and want to be engaged about this one in 4 years competition, you lose a bit of affection for the brands trying to use it to sell their wares after the 30th dance of an evening. There's gotta be a more mutually beneficial way folks.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I know the comp is spread across a lot of channels and two languages

Which of Irish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Italian and English are the 2 languages you mean?

Knew someone would pick me up on that and really hope you're not being serious. English and Italian were obviously the two I meant. If we're being realistic about rolling out a highlights programme as I've suggested then it'll be hard enough to make it in those two languages never mind anything else. Chances of it beng in Italian would be minimal really.

[arsebiscuits1]

I would pay to watch them live (in a manner of speaking)

With Sky and BT competing for the decent rugby games and word of Eir coming in it is getting ridiculous

I am also not going to be paying in excess of 60 a month given I don't watch Golf, Football, Wrestling, F1 or any of the other stuff they want to flog me.

I only want to watch rugby. In the UK there is way to rent a Sky Sports channel for £7 for 24 hours. I would do this happily

[johng]

I know the comp is spread across a lot of channels and two languages

Which of Irish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Italian and English are the 2 languages you mean?

Knew someone would pick me up on that and really hope you're not being serious. English and Italian were obviously the two I meant. If we're being realistic about rolling out a highlights programme as I've suggested then it'll be hard enough to make it in those two languages never mind anything else. Chances of it beng in Italian would be minimal really.

I wasn't being serious but I assumed you meant English and Irish. Seeing as we are in Ireland.

The league is broadcast in all 5 of those languages. Where is the bit that makes it "obvious"? I'm "obviously" a bit focken tik

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Sorry, thought you were being pedantic/difficult.

I meant that if a MOTD style programme was to be created then English and Italian would be the two languages you'd need to cover everyone.

[COYBIB]

On one of the other threads Dirk Sticker and Riocard911 were pointing out that the Pro12 YouTube channel wasn't all that good. It led me to think, if the Pro12 offered a download service where, for either an seasonal subscription, say €20, or a per match basis, say €2, you could download and watch the previous weekends games once the weekend was over, would people be interested?

Personally i think that the Pro12 should produce its own hour-long highlights and magazine show and distribtute it online.

Obviously there are rights to work out between the league, broadcasters and clubs, but most games are already available via the various broadcasters streaming services - this is a way of bringing it all together, compensating for and removing those games in geo-locked territories, and doing so in a way that is legal, easy for the supporter, good value for the supporter, and pays for the process for the broadcaster.

Basically, iTunes for rugby

I'd pay an annual subscription of €50.

In the UFC, there is a service called fight pass, you can watch any fight, from any year, they produce their own TV shows and media content such as magzine shows and other bits of media content.

Everything is streamed, so it's basically youtube for rugby, but every single match is available in full and within a reasonable turn around time from the match and no downloading of content is required, just an account.

Part of this service would also have to have LIVE HD streaming of all television matches.

If all of that was included in a Pro12 package, I would definitely purchase it. But live matches streamed to subscribers on their website and full matches being available to rewatch after the fact are the absolute deal breakers that must be included. In fact, those are the only things required, anything else is bonus.

I would be willing to work with either you can only select one team with which you get access to live stream on match days (so a Leinster fan only gets Leinster games live, but has access to the library of all games) or I would be willing to consider a pay-per-view event, on a Saturday, costs €5 (in additional to already paying a subscription to the library of matches and any other content), and the fixtures would have to be scheduled so that there are 3 in a row, on a Saturday for example, 1.30pm, 3.30pm, 5.30pm or whatever.

[TerenureJim]

I know the comp is spread across a lot of channels and two languages

Which of Irish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Italian and English are the 2 languages you mean?

I presumed he meant Ulster Scots

[riocard911]

I know the comp is spread across a lot of channels and two languages

Which of Irish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Italian and English are the 2 languages you mean?

I presumed he meant Ulster Scots

Jaysus, would you go easy? If any of the Nordies read this string, the discussion could go downhill very quickly..........

[molloyjh]

I'd pay an annual subscription of €50.

In the UFC, there is a service called fight pass, you can watch any fight, from any year, they produce their own TV shows and media content such as magzine shows and other bits of media content.

Everything is streamed, so it's basically youtube for rugby, but every single match is available in full and within a reasonable turn around time from the match and no downloading of content is required, just an account.

Part of this service would also have to have LIVE HD streaming of all television matches.

If all of that was included in a Pro12 package, I would definitely purchase it. But live matches streamed to subscribers on their website and full matches being available to rewatch after the fact are the absolute deal breakers that must be included. In fact, those are the only things required, anything else is bonus.

I would be willing to work with either you can only select one team with which you get access to live stream on match days (so a Leinster fan only gets Leinster games live, but has access to the library of all games) or I would be willing to consider a pay-per-view event, on a Saturday, costs €5 (in additional to already paying a subscription to the library of matches and any other content), and the fixtures would have to be scheduled so that there are 3 in a row, on a Saturday for example, 1.30pm, 3.30pm, 5.30pm or whatever.

Currently the Pro12 has a viewership of around 500k. If you're looking at a service like this then you have to consider how the market are going to watch the games. Most will watch on standard TV broadcasts because they don't have a smart TV, don't want to watch on a laptop or whatever. So any solution will still require TV broadcasters be involved, if not for that reason than to provide the equipment and actual broadcasting ability at the very least. So if the Pro12 were to look at an online subscription service then they would likely have to wave goodbye to Sky as their games wouldn't be exclusive and the already small market would reduce even further. That's going to seriously limit the ability to produce HD coverage. It will also reduce the value of the TV rights due to the decrease in viewers.

Let's say that the Pro12 can reach 150k on this subscription option. That's 30% of the total viewership. Ambitious, but in this day and age possible if done right. At €50 a year that would provide a total of €7.5m annually, which is the same as what Sky are paying now. Then there are the reduced revenues from the other broadcasters plus the increased costs in terms of hosting and administering etc. So the Pro12 would be making even less money than it is now from broadcasting.

What may make more sense would be a monthly charge across all 12 months of €12 per month (€5 per round incl knock-outs). If they can manage 150k subscribers that would total €21.6m per year. Top that up somewhat with the local broadcaster revenues and we might be talking in the region of €25-30m a year. However the Pro12 already bring in around €20m a year in TV rights AFAIK. Given the increased costs regarding the hosting etc this wouldn't see much in the way of improved revenues. And we haven't even covered the cost the investment to set this all up.

To make this feasible (and to start even coming close to competing with the other leagues) you'd really need to be looking at a subscriber base of at least 200k and a monthly fee of at least €15. In fairness if the Pro12 had an online service like that which allowed me to watch any game I wanted whenever I wanted and threw in a weekly round up show as well I'd be willing to pay that €15 a month. Hell if they could do some sort of a deal with the European games where we could get those included as well I'd go so far as to pay €25 a month. That would be pretty much all my club rugby needs (I don't watch much SR and almost no AP or T14 any more) in one subscription. But then I don't watch much other sport so that price may be a bit steep for people who do.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

This stuff has been annoying me again over the last few days. Leinster - Ospreys and Glasgow - Ulster were both huge games and yet they clashed and neither were on Sky.

Next Saturday the Ulster - Ospreys game is on Sky but clashes with our game against Cardiff.

When there are only 6 games every weekend it seems like they could do a much better job of spreading them out and making a big deal out of the big games.

[cormac]

This stuff has been annoying me again over the last few days. Leinster - Ospreys and Glasgow - Ulster were both huge games and yet they clashed and neither were on Sky.

Next Saturday the Ulster - Ospreys game is on Sky but clashes with our game against Cardiff.

When there are only 6 games every weekend it seems like they could do a much better job of spreading them out and making a big deal out of the big games.

I'm guessing they have an obligation to show every team (excl the Italians) and are getting the lesser fixtures out of the way, as they do with their soccer coverage.