Scottish clubs are poised to strike TV deal with BBC Alba

Published on Wednesday 1 October 2008 23:58

SCOTLAND'S leading clubs were last night on the verge of agreeing a deal to return club rugby to television, with BBC Alba offering to broadcast 12 games this season.

The plan is for BBC Alba, the new satellite channel launched recently, to cover five Division One matches held on Saturdays and another seven moved to Sunday afternoons to attract a larger audience.

Though it is understood that the broadcaster has offered no rights payment at present, the SRU are enthusiastic to the extent that they have put forward a compensation deal for clubs to help smoothe the acceptance of the deal. The Premier One Forum, which represents the 12 clubs in Division One, met last night at Murrayfield and were expected to agree that the clubs whose home games are switched to Sundays will share in a 15,000 pot.

The SRU remained tight-lipped on the new deal, stating only: "We want to get as much rugby on television as possible and, of course, that means club rugby as well as the international game. We cannot comment further other than to confirm that we are communicating with a variety of media outlets."

The BBC, a public service broadcaster with a commitment to screening a variety of Scottish sport, have come in for mounting criticism over their failure to screen rugby outside the international fixtures and the traditional deal with the Melrose Sevens, and the SRU has struggled to attract any kind of regular television coverage for both the club and professional team game, involving Glasgow and Edinburgh, since Rugby Special went off air more than five years ago.

Border Television used to broadcast highlights of games across the Borders, but their 'Union and the League' programme has been gone for a decade and while STV did step up to the plate with a 'Rugby Round-up' programme and, last season, 'Scotsport Rugby Sunday', they have not lasted. Also, to get last season's programme, presented by Richie Gray, on air the SRU not only had to waive any rights fees, but actually paid for it and had control over content.

This was despite STV reporting healthy audience shares for their rugby shows and notably during the 2007 Rugby World Cup, where figures topped 100,000 and, at times, were even comparative with Champions League audiences.

Two independent producers have set up website coverage of games through Scottish Rugby Television and, this season, Borders Rugby Television, the former contributing to The Scotsman website's footage of club games.

Both BBC Alba and the Premier rugby clubs believe there is a healthy audience waiting to be tapped into, particularly away from Saturday afternoons, and the SRU are confident that television coverage would inject much-needed support to their goals of driving up crowds at club, professional and international games, and attract more youngsters to the sport.

The Scotsman understands that BBC Alba's coverage would also be far more professional than what STV managed on what was a relative shoestring budget. Alba are set to commit several cameras to each game, ensuring the kind of multi-angled coverage football attracts, as opposed to STV's one-camera production.

Of course, the one unique aspect of BBC Alba, as well as being available only on satellite, is it is a Gaelic-speaking channel. However, it is believed subtitles will be provided to go along with the commentary and many Scottish rugby supporters have become well used to watching Magners League matches on S4C, the Welsh-language channel, without subtitles simply to savour Scottish rugby teams in action.

Scottish clubs contacted last night refused to discuss the venture, insisting that any potential deal was subject to strict confidentiality at this stage. At the time of going to press the meeting was still ongoing, the Premier One Forum debating a number of other issues affecting the club game. A statement is expected to be made today.