2024/2025 Not Heineken Cup

[PCPhil]

It's not been on Sky Sports for years. Sky shot their load getting the summer tours. Premier will have loads of rugby if they get EPCR with URC & Top 14 already on it for next season. It'll be cheaper than Sky Sports as well.

In know it's not been on sky but just making the point that there is no way I am shelling out twice for pay per view. If you could just buy the particular interests you want from each provider it would be great. But they don't want that.

And I'm just saying that if its rugby you're interested in then Premier will have a lot of the tournaments. Just missing the English on TNT.

No Autumn internationals

[SaintK]

I read that Premier Sports seem to be the front runners in the bidding for TV rights in the UK.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/premier- ... up-rights/

EPRC confirmed today that Premier Sports has been awarded the TV rights for the next 3 years
Bollocks! Only Prem Rugby on TNT now
Decisions, decisions...........hmm

[inactionman]

I read that Premier Sports seem to be the front runners in the bidding for TV rights in the UK.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/premier- ... up-rights/

EPRC confirmed today that Premier Sports has been awarded the TV rights for the next 3 years
Bollocks! Only Prem Rugby on TNT now
Decisions, decisions...........hmm

I found I watched a lot more Premiership last season than Champions Cup, it'll always be my preferred competition.

(This may or may not be coincidental with Bath not putting in a strong European performance for years - the last I remember was Toulouse almost a decade ago)

[duke]

I read that Premier Sports seem to be the front runners in the bidding for TV rights in the UK.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/premier- ... up-rights/

EPRC confirmed today that Premier Sports has been awarded the TV rights for the next 3 years
Bollocks! Only Prem Rugby on TNT now
Decisions, decisions...........hmm

I found I watched a lot more Premiership last season than Champions Cup, it'll always be my preferred competition.

(This may or may not be coincidental with Bath not putting in a strong European performance for years - the last I remember was Toulouse almost a decade ago)

I thought they went reasonably well this year - did the business at home and weren't outclassed at Toulouse, certainly better than some of the feeble performances of the past few years.

[OomStruisbaai]

How was Thomas du Toit at Bath? The Wallabies will be happy he starts on saturday.

[inactionman]

EPRC confirmed today that Premier Sports has been awarded the TV rights for the next 3 years
Bollocks! Only Prem Rugby on TNT now
Decisions, decisions...........hmm

I found I watched a lot more Premiership last season than Champions Cup, it'll always be my preferred competition.

(This may or may not be coincidental with Bath not putting in a strong European performance for years - the last I remember was Toulouse almost a decade ago)

I thought they went reasonably well this year - did the business at home and weren't outclassed at Toulouse, certainly better than some of the feeble performances of the past few years.

Last season was such blessed relief after so many seasons of poor performance.

Just a shame the European campaign was ended in the last 16 - in an absolute hurricane - against an Exeter side I thought we had the beating of. That wind was mental.

I've got high hopes for the coming season, although I'm more hopeful for another trip to Twickenham than for Cardiff - it was a great performance and result against Racing at the rec but I can't recall many recent wins away at the French sides?

[inactionman]

How was Thomas du Toit at Bath? The Wallabies will be happy he starts on saturday.

Very, very good.

scrum looked very solid, great defence, workrate and strong over the ball, and scored a few tries in the tight.

[Biffer]

I read that Premier Sports seem to be the front runners in the bidding for TV rights in the UK.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/premier- ... up-rights/

EPRC confirmed today that Premier Sports has been awarded the TV rights for the next 3 years
Bollocks! Only Prem Rugby on TNT now
Decisions, decisions...........hmm

I found I watched a lot more Premiership last season than Champions Cup, it'll always be my preferred competition.

(This may or may not be coincidental with Bath not putting in a strong European performance for years - the last I remember was Toulouse almost a decade ago)

Premier Sports will have 310 live games a year across URC Epcr and T14

[inactionman]

EPRC confirmed today that Premier Sports has been awarded the TV rights for the next 3 years
Bollocks! Only Prem Rugby on TNT now
Decisions, decisions...........hmm

I found I watched a lot more Premiership last season than Champions Cup, it'll always be my preferred competition.

(This may or may not be coincidental with Bath not putting in a strong European performance for years - the last I remember was Toulouse almost a decade ago)

Premier Sports will have 310 live games a year across URC Epcr and T14

To be honest my problem last year was overload - I usually record a match or two to watch on a saturday night after the kids are down, but I just couldn't keep up.

At least with the Premiership it was all meaningful from a self-interested team perspective - the battle for top 4/playoffs involved all but two teams. An Irish team vs a French team is interesting of sorts, and the rugby generally good, but it's not quite the same thing.

Still, I might get Premier sports just to be able to catch a few Edinburgh games - I get to Murrayfield so infrequently I could probably only name half of the starting XV.

[SaintK]

How was Thomas du Toit at Bath? The Wallabies will be happy he starts on saturday.

Very, very good.

scrum looked very solid, great defence, workrate and strong over the ball, and scored a few tries in the tight.

He was outstanding.
Made the Premiership team of the season

[OomStruisbaai]

How was Thomas du Toit at Bath? The Wallabies will be happy he starts on saturday.

Very, very good.

scrum looked very solid, great defence, workrate and strong over the ball, and scored a few tries in the tight.

He was outstanding.
Made the Premiership team of the season

No relief for the Wallaby scrum.

[Paddington Bear]

Is there a way of getting Sky Sports, TNT and Premier without spending silly money? Very frustrating

[Sandstorm]

Is there a way of getting Sky Sports, TNT and Premier without spending silly money? Very frustrating

There’s those USB sticks you can buy for £99 apparently….

[GrahamWa]

The Walrus has spoken, so I'm even more in favour of the move to Premier Sports.

The announcement on Thursday that the Investec European Champions Cup has found a new broadcaster should in theory have resulted in the sport banking significant sums, and been accompanied by a wave of enthusiasm from the armchair armies.

My colleague Alex Lowe revealed details in The Times of the deal that European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), which runs the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup, has signed with Premier Sports for three years. It will cost subscribers £10.99 a month.

By Saturday, more than 130 of our subscribers had commented on the story. The thumbs-down came in epic proportions. It was impossible to find one person in full favour. Some wrote about the demise of rugby, the sheer confusion as competitions change broadcast hands so regularly.

And the cost. While the £10.99 a month may seem bearable, so many rugby fans are already paying two or even three subscriptions to other broadcasters for different events. Too much. Too little free-to-air rugby.

The size of the deal itself, typically for secretive old rugby, is not being revealed — so we can be forgiven for concluding that, because no sums are being made public, they must be smaller than we think. And the philosophy? “Delivering money back to the clubs was at the heart of our tough negotiations,” said Jacques Raynaud, the EPCR chief executive officer, from his organisation’s Swiss base (handy if Switzerland is ever inclined to play the sport).

Presumably — after the “tough negotiations” — the competing clubs will be rolling in it. Industry experts tell us that Premier Sports has about 480,000 subscribers; Sky has 6.4million and TNT, the previous broadcaster of European rugby, has 4.3million. And so it is very hard to imagine how the new deal could yield a windfall for the clubs.

Why was it chosen for Europe? Easy. Because it was there, and so thank God for it. There were no other serious contenders for what is meant to be the pinnacle event for the club game. TNT backed out of negotiations but will continue to broadcast the Gallagher Premiership. It will also broadcast every single one of the autumn internationals this year.

Some of us found Premier Sports extremely basic in its early years, but its coverage of existing sports is fine, not too fawning and gushing, and it employs some very good people. Welcome. But everything indicates the weakness of the once-wonderful tournament.

This year’s final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was majestic, with Toulouse and Leinster brilliant. Yet the Champions Cup is faded. It was a magnificent addition to rugby, and for some years was even eating into the long lead of the international game. It was covered beautifully in the heyday of televised rugby in the reign of the estimable Martin Turner, the producer at Sky Sports. In that era, the channel’s Rugby Club was unmissable for fans of all kinds.

Sky revolutionised the coverage of rugby, but, partly in sheer frustration at the unfocused bungling of rugby chiefs, cut back on its coverage. It now shows games from the extremities, although, happily, will be back in harness for the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia next year.
Advertisement

When TNT took over the European events they were already tarnished. Prize money for such a major event has always been execrable. Saracens won the European title three times in four years and received a pittance.

And when the English clubs led an assault on the old structures of EPCR to gain more authority, they won, but scandalously failed to push on. It seemed that as soon as they had more power, they ignored the whole thing.

More recently EPCR has messed around with the format — it takes so long to warm up now — failed to finalise significant deals, missed the essentials of what made it great and, in a spectacular blunder for the ages, imported South African teams to the competition.

This was utterly ludicrous in terms of time and distance, ludicrous in terms of geographical premise and, last season, the full horror became apparent when teams visiting from South Africa, or teams travelling all that way for one game, understandably fielded second teams. Unpunished, of course.

Both the European competitions and the United Rugby Championship, which also admitted South African teams, are horribly lacking in focus. All they should have done was allow the South Africans to play in their own Currie Cup and then, to produce one winner, have some form of play-off for the Michael Mouse trophy. But they have wrecked Europe by fielding non-European teams.

Ah, rugby on TV. It’s discussed more than rugby itself. The galaxy of firms covering the sport is incredible. It is wonderful for exposure, though the real big deals are elusive. Not so in France, where vast free-to-air deals cover the monster French scene, with four major concerns involved.

Of course, the teeming landscape allows even more former players to join the party. Rugby is so fortunate in its presenters and commentators. A transfer for the BBC’s superb Hazel Irvine to the sport would be excellent, but rugby already has Jill Douglas, Sarra Elgan, Ross Harries, Phil Steele; fabulous commentators such as Andrew Cotter, and a veritable torrent of others.

The summarisers are less good, the number of ex-players people tolerate to sit there and say nothing of any note and to call their old team “us” is incredible. Dame Laura Kenny, so brilliant at the Olympics, has surely set a new summarising standard.

Already you could listen to Bernard Jackman, Alan Quinlan, Sir Clive Woodward, Benjamin Kayser, Sam Warburton, Rocky Clark, Philippa Tuttiett, Martin Johnson and Austin Healey till the cows come home, as long as they keep away from fawning, which is detestable. Sometimes you sensed that the summarisers on the Olympic swimming were at the point of jumping into the pool alongside the GB athletes. Let’s hope the Premier Sports crew leave their bias at home.

There is so much rugby to watch. But that does not necessarily mean that the sport is raking it in. How much the companies are paying is the sign of success, and at present, except in runaway France, it is not nearly enough.

He does make a few good points but he must have ctrl C+P'd much of the same old shit he continues to spout.

[Slick]

Yeah, thought similar.

They really have fucked the HC if the best deal they can get is Premier Sports.

And, much as I quite like having the Saffers in the URC I agree they shouldn’t be in the European comps. Denigrating the URC has been his little pet project for the last couple of years though

[OomStruisbaai]

Yeah, thought similar.

They really have fucked the HC if the best deal they can get is Premier Sports.

And, much as I quite like having the Saffers in the URC I agree they shouldn’t be in the European comps. Denigrating the URC has been his little pet project for the last couple of years though

When will you realize the Saffers have nothing to do with the format. It was broken before we arrived.

[Slick]

Yeah, thought similar.

They really have fucked the HC if the best deal they can get is Premier Sports.

And, much as I quite like having the Saffers in the URC I agree they shouldn’t be in the European comps. Denigrating the URC has been his little pet project for the last couple of years though

When will you realize the Saffers have nothing to do with the format. It was broken before we arrived.

I do realise, I agree

[PornDog]

Yep. Some of the criticisms of Saffa involvement are valid, but its the format that undermines everything that was once great about the competition. Go back to 6 game groups, quarters, semis and a final. Or just knock the whole thing on the head. Right now its so shite that its really not worth persisting with in its current form!

[clydecloggie]

The format is beyond shite but Finals weekend is the best weekend in the rugby year imho. Let's not knock it on the head completely.

[OomStruisbaai]

The competition is just a copy of the soccer one. The two sports differs a lot and the reason why the rugby version dont work that well. Top rugby clubs like Toulouse and Leinster will win most of the time but in soccer a top club can lose to any one depending on the day.

The best form will be to break it up in 4 pools x 4 or 5 teams, playing 3 or 4 games against teams in the pool and the winner of each pool go into the business end.

[assfly]

If you don't like the format, then don't watch until the knock out games.

[SaintK]

If you don't like the format, then don't watch until the knock out games.

Oh yeah that’ll make it better and fit for purpose

[SaintK]

The Walrus has spoken, so I'm even more in favour of the move to Premier Sports.

The announcement on Thursday that the Investec European Champions Cup has found a new broadcaster should in theory have resulted in the sport banking significant sums, and been accompanied by a wave of enthusiasm from the armchair armies.

My colleague Alex Lowe revealed details in The Times of the deal that European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), which runs the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup, has signed with Premier Sports for three years. It will cost subscribers £10.99 a month.

By Saturday, more than 130 of our subscribers had commented on the story. The thumbs-down came in epic proportions. It was impossible to find one person in full favour. Some wrote about the demise of rugby, the sheer confusion as competitions change broadcast hands so regularly.

And the cost. While the £10.99 a month may seem bearable, so many rugby fans are already paying two or even three subscriptions to other broadcasters for different events. Too much. Too little free-to-air rugby.

The size of the deal itself, typically for secretive old rugby, is not being revealed — so we can be forgiven for concluding that, because no sums are being made public, they must be smaller than we think. And the philosophy? “Delivering money back to the clubs was at the heart of our tough negotiations,” said Jacques Raynaud, the EPCR chief executive officer, from his organisation’s Swiss base (handy if Switzerland is ever inclined to play the sport).

Presumably — after the “tough negotiations” — the competing clubs will be rolling in it. Industry experts tell us that Premier Sports has about 480,000 subscribers; Sky has 6.4million and TNT, the previous broadcaster of European rugby, has 4.3million. And so it is very hard to imagine how the new deal could yield a windfall for the clubs.

Why was it chosen for Europe? Easy. Because it was there, and so thank God for it. There were no other serious contenders for what is meant to be the pinnacle event for the club game. TNT backed out of negotiations but will continue to broadcast the Gallagher Premiership. It will also broadcast every single one of the autumn internationals this year.

Some of us found Premier Sports extremely basic in its early years, but its coverage of existing sports is fine, not too fawning and gushing, and it employs some very good people. Welcome. But everything indicates the weakness of the once-wonderful tournament.

This year’s final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was majestic, with Toulouse and Leinster brilliant. Yet the Champions Cup is faded. It was a magnificent addition to rugby, and for some years was even eating into the long lead of the international game. It was covered beautifully in the heyday of televised rugby in the reign of the estimable Martin Turner, the producer at Sky Sports. In that era, the channel’s Rugby Club was unmissable for fans of all kinds.

Sky revolutionised the coverage of rugby, but, partly in sheer frustration at the unfocused bungling of rugby chiefs, cut back on its coverage. It now shows games from the extremities, although, happily, will be back in harness for the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia next year.
Advertisement

When TNT took over the European events they were already tarnished. Prize money for such a major event has always been execrable. Saracens won the European title three times in four years and received a pittance.

And when the English clubs led an assault on the old structures of EPCR to gain more authority, they won, but scandalously failed to push on. It seemed that as soon as they had more power, they ignored the whole thing.

More recently EPCR has messed around with the format — it takes so long to warm up now — failed to finalise significant deals, missed the essentials of what made it great and, in a spectacular blunder for the ages, imported South African teams to the competition.

This was utterly ludicrous in terms of time and distance, ludicrous in terms of geographical premise and, last season, the full horror became apparent when teams visiting from South Africa, or teams travelling all that way for one game, understandably fielded second teams. Unpunished, of course.

Both the European competitions and the United Rugby Championship, which also admitted South African teams, are horribly lacking in focus. All they should have done was allow the South Africans to play in their own Currie Cup and then, to produce one winner, have some form of play-off for the Michael Mouse trophy. But they have wrecked Europe by fielding non-European teams.

Ah, rugby on TV. It’s discussed more than rugby itself. The galaxy of firms covering the sport is incredible. It is wonderful for exposure, though the real big deals are elusive. Not so in France, where vast free-to-air deals cover the monster French scene, with four major concerns involved.

Of course, the teeming landscape allows even more former players to join the party. Rugby is so fortunate in its presenters and commentators. A transfer for the BBC’s superb Hazel Irvine to the sport would be excellent, but rugby already has Jill Douglas, Sarra Elgan, Ross Harries, Phil Steele; fabulous commentators such as Andrew Cotter, and a veritable torrent of others.

The summarisers are less good, the number of ex-players people tolerate to sit there and say nothing of any note and to call their old team “us” is incredible. Dame Laura Kenny, so brilliant at the Olympics, has surely set a new summarising standard.

Already you could listen to Bernard Jackman, Alan Quinlan, Sir Clive Woodward, Benjamin Kayser, Sam Warburton, Rocky Clark, Philippa Tuttiett, Martin Johnson and Austin Healey till the cows come home, as long as they keep away from fawning, which is detestable. Sometimes you sensed that the summarisers on the Olympic swimming were at the point of jumping into the pool alongside the GB athletes. Let’s hope the Premier Sports crew leave their bias at home.

There is so much rugby to watch. But that does not necessarily mean that the sport is raking it in. How much the companies are paying is the sign of success, and at present, except in runaway France, it is not nearly enough.

He does make a few good points but he must have ctrl C+P'd much of the same old shit he continues to spout.

I stopped reading his drivel a long time ago but that article strikes a chord or three

[assfly]

Oh yeah that’ll make it better and fit for purpose

If it stops you from moaning so much then it's worth a punt.

[SaintK]

Oh yeah that’ll make it better and fit for purpose

If it stops you from moaning so much then it's worth a punt.

So you're happy with the format then?
Even allowing for SA teams it's fucking awful

[assfly]

So you're happy with the format then?
Even allowing for SA teams it's fucking awful

I do like it. I will like it even more when a South African team wins it.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Is this the first year teams are having to pay themselves to travel to SA?

[OomStruisbaai]

Good news for Chilli, Stormers play Toulon in PE.

[Sandstorm]

Good news for Chilli, Stormers play Toulon in PE.

Can he pick up a Toulon jersey in Walmer on the way to the game?

[OomStruisbaai]

Good news for Chilli, Stormers play Toulon in PE.

Can he pick up a Toulon jersey in Walmer on the way to the game?

He will wear his EP Elephant jersey.

[Sandstorm]

Good news for Chilli, Stormers play Toulon in PE.

Can he pick up a Toulon jersey in Walmer on the way to the game?

He will wear his EP Elephant jersey.

They're really similar

[OomStruisbaai]

One round of URC, then its time for Champions/Challenge Cup.

European Rugby Champions Cup Fixtures 2024-25
All kick-off times/dates UK and Ireland

ROUND 1
Friday 6 December
Bath v La Rochelle (8pm)
Saturday 7 December
Clermont Auvergne v Benetton (1pm)
Sharks v Exeter Chiefs (1pm)
Northampton v Castres (3.15pm)
Stormers v Toulon (3.15pm) Live on France TV
Munster v Stade Français (5.30pm) Live on RTÉ
Saracens v Bulls (5.30pm)
Glasgow Warriors v Sale Sharks (8pm)
Racing 92 v Harlequins (8pm)
Sunday 8 December
Bordeaux-Bègles v Leicester (1pm)
Toulouse v Ulster (3.15pm) Live on France TV
Bristol Bears v Leinster (5.30pm)
ROUND 2
Friday 13 December
Sale Sharks v Racing 92 (8pm)
Castres v Munster (8pm)
Saturday 14 December
Bulls v Northampton Saints (1pm)
Ulster v Bordeaux-Bègles (3.15pm) Live on France TV
Leinster v Clermont Auvergne (5.30pm) Live on RTÉ
Leicester Tigers v Sharks (5.30pm)
La Rochelle v Bristol Bears (8pm)
Harlequins v Stormers (8pm)
Sunday 15 December
Stade Français v Saracens (1pm)
Benetton v Bath (1pm)
Toulon v Glasgow Warriors (3.15pm) Live on France TV
Exeter Chiefs v Toulouse (5.30pm)

[OomStruisbaai]

Pool 1
Stade Toulousain, Union Bordeaux-Bègles, Hollywoodbets Sharks, Exeter Chiefs, Leicester Tigers, Ulster Rugby
Pool 2
Leinster Rugby, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Stade Rochelais, Bristol Bears, Benetton Rugby, Bath Rugby
Pool 3
Northampton Saints, Munster Rugby, Vodacom Bulls, Stade Français Paris, Saracens, Castres Olympique
Pool 4
Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Sale Sharks, DHL Stormers, RC Toulon, Harlequins

[SaintK]

Can't get Premier TV on my television set up.
Not sure whether to buy the package on my iPad and cast it. Though you lose all the pause, rewind and fast forward features.
DEcisions, decisions!!!

[OomStruisbaai]

Can't get Premier TV on my television set up.
Not sure whether to buy the package on my iPad and cast it. Though you lose all the pause, rewind and fast forward features.
DEcisions, decisions!!!

I bought a JVC 16 months ago and now I am struggling. For some reason the JVC only have certain apps like Nexflcks and a lot of othet kak. Cant get DSTV or Evod. Tried to upload them but vokol. Use to stream with a laptop that landed with Jan van Riebeek, running on windows 8.

Now I need to buy a laptop to livestream. Hope Black Friday will ease my pain.

[SaintK]

Can't get Premier TV on my television set up.
Not sure whether to buy the package on my iPad and cast it. Though you lose all the pause, rewind and fast forward features.
DEcisions, decisions!!!

I bought a JVC 16 months ago and now I am struggling. For some reason the JVC only have certain apps like Nexflcks and a lot of othet kak. Cant get DSTV or Evod. Tried to upload them but vokol. Use to stream with a laptop that landed with Jan van Riebeek, running on windows 8.

Now I need to buy a laptop to livestream. Hope Black Friday will ease my pain.

Good luck
£70 here for the competition so just may do it

[OomStruisbaai]

What do the GPS cost you?

[SaintK]

What do the GPS cost you?

Not sure what you're asking
GPS?

[OomStruisbaai]

What do the GPS cost you?

Not sure what you're asking
GPS?

Gallagher Premiership

[SaintK]

What do the GPS cost you?

Not sure what you're asking
GPS?

Gallagher Premiership

£15 per month as part of my phone and internet package for TNT Sport