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Premier Sports Ireland CEO is hopeful broadcaster can secure new deal to keep showing Champions Cup
‘Vast majority accept they aren’t going to get everything for free’: Ryle Nugent on changing attitudes to TV sports coveragePremier Sports Ireland CEO Ryle Nugent with rugby analyst Ian Madigan.
Premier Sports broadcasts live football and rugby including Uefa club competitions, the English Premier League, the United Rugby Championship, Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup. Photograph: Brendan Moran/SportsfileRyle Nugent, chief executive of Premier Sports Ireland, is confident the channel will be able to secure a new deal with European Professional Club Rugby for exclusive coverage of the “You’re in a situation that you can never be sure, but as we sit today, I would be hopeful that we’ll be able to extend our coverage,” said Nugent.
The subscription channel is entering the last season of an existing three-year deal with tournament organisers EPCR. Nugent added: “I think the minimum any deal now would be is three . . .
There are some trends and some rights now to extend deals beyond that traditional window of three years. There are pluses and minuses for the federations. ”‘A great fit’: Ian Madigan says Leinster should look no further than Felipe ContepomiSouth Africa go 2-1 up on New Zealand after another ferocious clash in Johannesburg This is the second season of a four-year deal for the URC.
Although TG4 have first and third pick of matches in every second round, Premier Sports 1 broadcasts all URC games. It also has exclusive rights to selected fixtures, including matches involvingThey have all Champions Cup games bar three pool ties due to scheduling, but none of these involve Irish sides. They also have the rights to showPremier Sports have become the dominant broadcaster in the Irish rugby market and they also have rights to Top 14 games.
“I think we are in a good place. It’s been evolution, not revolution,” said Nugent.
“We’re really going into our third season of it being fully focused on the Irish market. The Premier Sports 1 channel in Ireland is completely different to the Premier Sports 1 channel in the UK and that’s as a direct result of the rights that we’ve acquired. And it’s made us very relevant and very important in the Irish broadcasting landscape.
“That’s a positive for us, in the short to medium term, and that’s really as far as you can go in the broadcasting business. You never know what’s going to happen next. ” Although there will be some additions – broadcaster Claire Thomas has been brought on board – Nugent firmly believes continuity makes for the best TV punditry.
“It’s not easy going on air. Forget about for broadcasters. For ex-players, it takes time. You have to understand the medium.
You have to understand what your role is. You have to figure out what you can and you can’t do. You have to figure out all the technology and the bits and pieces that are going on in your ears while you’re trying to have conversations.
“But crucially, it’s about chemistry. Chemistry is not something that you flick a switch with. Chemistry is something that comes with flying hours. We are in an era of immediacy.
And I understand that. But I also think we’re very clear that we have pinned our colours to a group of analysts, presenters, etc . . . that I believe in.
“I think our coverage last year was exponentially better than it was the year before. And that’s because people are now understanding each other and their roles and what’s expected of them – Mads , Zeebs , Ferris, Trimble. And then you add in Barclay and Shanklin and all that gang from Scotland and Wales, and we’re mixing them up every week.
” Nugent was the chief rugby commentator with RTÉ when the station last broadcast the Champions Cup final in 2006, but. He doesn’t believe exposure on terrestrial TV is as important for the sport as it used to be.
“Back in 2006 there was this sense that if it went behind the paywall, it disappeared. I think we are now at a point where the vast, vast majority of people accept that they aren’t going to get everything for free and that they have to pay for a certain amount of sport.
“The whole competition was on RTÉ at that point and then it went to Sky. That was 20 years ago. The landscape has changed.
”‘Vast majority accept they aren’t going to get everything for free’: Ryle Nugent on changing attitudes to TV sports coverage‘A great fit’: Ian Madigan says Leinster should look no further than Felipe ContepomiMOST READJon Rahm among early Irish Open arrivals forced to take cover from wild Atlantic welcomeRise in child poverty; Ireland’s most prosperous town; and the Irish unity debateTwo months after receiving half a shed from Homebase, customer’s patience is wearing thin
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