Scottish Off

Raider999 wrote: Robb wrote: Couldn't BBC Alba pick it up like S4C do/did for the Welsh regions? I thought BBC Alba was a Scottish channel? If so why would it be interested in covering the Championship?

BBC Scotland do broadcast live games from the Championship but unfortunately it’s the Scottish football variety 

French Connection wrote: The game in England just isn't very popular at all among the general public. The vast majority have no experience at all of rugby and don't even know the basics of the laws or strategies. It's possibly at it's lowest point ever in my opinion. The reasons for this are many, but among them is the decline of traditional sports in state schools. I was a PE teacher for 34 years and in all the schools I worked in  rugby was part of the curriculum and all boys took at least one 7 or 8 week block every year. We knew very well that not many would actually go and play, but (and we used to tell them) they were equipped with a basic knowledge and appreciation of the game and could get some pleasure out of being spectators. We did the same for hockey, basketball,etc. Very old fashioned and traditional but in my view better than the individual leisure type activities pursued in many schools now. Making top level rugby inaccessible on the TV for the majority (apart from the 6 Nations but even that for how much longer) was also a disaster and was always going to lead to more money for the top end and reduced interest for everyone else. Any thoughts of the Championship - excellent though it is - being televised are simply a non starter. Level 5 or 6 soccer would be more popular to a TV audience. Sad but inescapable I feel.

Totally agree with this. The drop in sport being played at schools in general is scandalous. I do not want to get political, but this stems back to a time (not that long ago) when the Gov decided that having meaningful competition was not required and the 'taking part' was all that mattered. Very nice, pink and fluffy, but it did mean that those who had any sporting ability went to their local club to play 'meaningful' football, rugby netball etc. Those who had not yet developed their abilities went and played PlayStation (other gaming consoles were also played).
Effectively, we lost the edge to playing sport for about 10 or 15 years. The real reason behind this is that the Gov. did not want to pay the overtime for teachers to run after school activities (well that's my theory anyway).
And here we are. Kids are moving away from playing sport and only get involved to watch elite sport on telly. The standard of grass roots sport is dropping and the RFU are doing as little as possible to reverse this trend.
Personally, I find this very sad.

kempstonblue wrote: I was not a Sky Sports subscriber. Prime has made it more accessible, and our Facebook community at work was very engaged, more so than when it was on Sky

I have cancelled sky sports now as there is very little I would watch on it now. Had prime for ages but this is the first time I have used it for sports and thought the coverage has been great and easy to catch up. I am actually thinking about removing Sky totally and just keeping Netflix, Prime and Disney as this is all that is ever on the TV with the kids

Rothman2 wrote: I think that the decision to take England games off both Sky and particularly terrestrial TV is shocking. All about milking as much as possible at the top end and to hell with the rest. Charge extortionate prices to go and watch them. Even Premiership club Rugby is no longer on terrestrial. There’s enough alternative things to do out there even if it was accessible so being on terrestrial is critical to keep it in the public eye.  Take a leaf out of England football team and make it accessible to the masses.  About time the people who run the Championship clubs made some decision. Frankly there should be at least 14 clubs at that level to make a viable season.

Seems the club isn't doing too bad commercially, as this weekend's hospitality was sold out by lunch.

Personally, I'm sad that Scottish has received two losing bonus points. Not because I have anything against them, but because if they'd have ended up without any points, you'd be able to say that they'd achieved a Scotch egg!