TV rights for World Cup qualifiers

[Yngwie]

I see that Setanta have won the rights to show Scotland's matches, so they won't be seen in most households.

For those who don't subscribe, don't worry. ITV and STV have the rights to all of England's matches, so you can just watch them instead  :017:

[Heilandee]

IMHO that shouldn't be allowed, from a business point of view i will probably benifit from the decision and where club football is invovled i guess we have to sucumb to money men driving our game,however, at international level,games should be available to all,not just those that can afford it or want, and are able, to go to the pub and view it.Shame on whoever is selling the family silver to the highest bidder  :008: 

Edited to say.....

Just looked into this a wee bit more,it doesn't say they have exclusive on Scotland games,just they will broadcast all away matches,but they do have exclusivity on England away games.....still no right like

"SETANTA SECURES ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

Setanta will be the only place where fans will be able to watch England?s grueling away matches against Croatia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

This means that next season, the 2008/09 season will feature exclusively live coverage of 7 England Internationals (including friendlies), around 25 FA Cup Games, the FA Community Shield and 46 Barclays Premier League games.

We will also be broadcasting all of Scotland?s away qualifiers in Group 9 including Holland, Norway, Macedonia and Iceland, Wales? tricky ties in Russia, Finland and Azerbaijan and most of the away-legs of the qualifiers involving the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Fans wanting to keep up with all the action from all the Home Nations qualifying groups will want to stay tuned to Setanta as we have also got the rights to 72 additional games in the build up to the World Cup. "

Anybody know for certain afore eh get aff meh soapbox?

[Kingsmills]

At least Setanta are providing serious competition for SKY which ought to be good for the SPL, in pure financia terms at least, when those TV rights come to be renewed.

[Alex MacLeod]

To correct a misconception here. Setanta won the bidding war to screen the AWAY matches. Sky won the HOME games. BBC and ITV were only prepared to pay for highlights.

Instead of moaning about the satellite and cable providers screening it all perhaps we should all be challenging the terrestrials on how they do their business.

Remember Grandstand and World of Sport every saturday. Lots of different sports screened but not any more. Why? Cos they'd rather waste their money buying in American and Australian soap cr@p.

[Heilandee]

Lifted from the ITC website..

Sport on Television

The restrictions on any one broadcaster obtaining exclusive rights to certain sporting events of national interest was established originally by the Television Act 1954, giving the Government the power to draw up a list of non-exclusive or protected events, more generally known as ?listed? events.

Broadcasting Act 1996

The Act contains provisions to protect the availability of live coverage of listed events on free-to-air television. A subscription or pay-per-view service is not permitted to broadcast live coverage of a listed event unless rights are also made available to terrestrial free-to-air services with national coverage (the BBC, ITV or Channel 4). Equally, and on the basis of reciprocity, a terrestrial service is not permitted to broadcast live coverage of a listed event unless rights are similarly made available to subscription or pay-per-view services (and Channel 5). The ITC?s consent must be obtained for an event to be shown on a single channel.

Category A events: The Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament, the FA Cup Final, the Scottish FA Cup Final (in Scotland), the Grand National, the Derby, the Wimbledon Tennis Finals, the European Football Championship Finals Tournament, the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final and the Rugby World Cup Final.

Category B events: Cricket Test Matches played in England, non-finals play in the Wimbledon Tournament, all other matches in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament, Six Nations Rugby Tournament matches involving home countries, the Commonwealth Games, the World Athletics Championship, the Cricket World Cup (final, semi-final and matches involving home nations? teams), the Ryder Cup, the Open Gold Championship

full article here

ITC ARTICLE